Breaking: German Institutions Expand licenses and Procure Key Databases
Table of Contents
- 1. Breaking: German Institutions Expand licenses and Procure Key Databases
- 2. What’s changing, by institution
- 3. Table: Snapshot of ongoing database and licensing activities
- 4. Evergreen takeaways for data strategy
- 5. Have your say
- 6. ‑termination” provisions before committing to multi‑year agreements, especially when planning cloud migrations.
A wave of updates to licenses, web applications, and database management is reshaping the data infrastructure across public security, research, and civic management in Germany. Institutions from berlin to Düsseldorf are renewing contracts, extending extensions, and planning new data resources to strengthen analytics, compliance, and service delivery.
What’s changing, by institution
The Max Planck Institute for lasting Materials in Düsseldorf extended its maintenance agreement for the FactSage and FACT databases, keeping critical materials research tools active through the end of November.
The Berlin police have renewed licenses for 93 X-Ways software instances, ensuring continuity in digital investigations and data handling.
The State Criminal Police Office of North Rhine-Westphalia, also in Düsseldorf, awarded an annual licence for the GeoIP TD 42.3 database,with the frist milestone noted on November 21.
In Wiesbaden, the hessian headquarters for data processing commissioned a web application and accompanying database dedicated to the TrinkwEGV system, underscoring ongoing modernization of governance data.
Germany Trade and Invest, the Berlin-based association promoting foreign trade and location marketing, is pursuing access to a legal database to support its operations and research needs.
The State Office for Mining, Geology and Natural Resources in Cottbus announced updates and ongoing data maintenance for 2025-2026, highlighting continued stewardship of geological and regulatory details.
Universities are also boosting their digital ecosystems: Koblenz is cleaning and operating a web-based database; Münster maintains the ISS Incentive lab WRDS database; Karlsruhe’s Baden-Württemberg Regional Finance Directorate is extending PostgreSQL databases for a third cycle; and Stadt Hildesheim plans to procure a legal database for 2026-2029.
Table: Snapshot of ongoing database and licensing activities
| Entity | Location | Action | Timeframe |
|---|---|---|---|
| Max Planck Institute for Sustainable Materials GmbH | Düsseldorf | Extension of maintenance contract for FactSage and FACT database | Through Nov.30 |
| Berlin police | Berlin | Extension of 93 X-Ways licenses | Ongoing |
| State Criminal Police Office of North Rhine-Westphalia | Düsseldorf | Annual geoip TD 42.3 license | First milestone: Nov. 21 |
| Hessian headquarters for data processing | Wiesbaden | Web application and database for TrinkwEGV | Ongoing |
| Germany Trade and Invest | Berlin | Obtaining the legal database | Ongoing |
| State Office for Mining, Geology and Natural Resources | Cottbus | Update and data maintenance in the database | 2025-2026 |
| University of Koblenz | Koblenz | Cleaning and operating a web-based database | Ongoing |
| University of Münster | Münster | ISS Incentive Lab (WRDS) database | Ongoing |
| Baden-Württemberg Regional Finance Directorate | Karlsruhe | PostgreSQL databases, 3rd extension | Ongoing |
| Stadt Hildesheim | Hildesheim | Procurement of a legal database | 2026-2029 |
Evergreen takeaways for data strategy
These developments highlight a broader push toward durable data infrastructure in the public and academic sectors. Regular license renewals and systematic database maintenance help ensure regulatory compliance, enhance research capabilities, and support smarter policy decisions.
key themes include the prioritization of specialized databases (such as GeoIP and legal datasets), the use of web-based tools to streamline workflows, and the gradual expansion of PostgreSQL-based solutions in government finance and administration. As institutions invest in data governance, the emphasis on security, interoperability, and long-term planning becomes more pronounced.
With cyber risk and data protection continuing to shape procurement choices, public bodies are increasingly weighing on‑premises versus cloud deployments, vendor partnerships, and standardized data formats to maximize resilience and value over time.
Have your say
What licensing trends do you expect to dominate the public sector in the coming year?
How should local authorities balance on‑premises databases with cloud-based solutions for sensitive information?
Share your thoughts in the comments and join the conversation about how data stewardship shapes public services and research excellence.
‑termination” provisions before committing to multi‑year agreements, especially when planning cloud migrations.
Recent Database Licenses in German Public & Research Institutions (2024‑2025)
- Oracle Database Enterprise Edition – Renewed by the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) for the Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI) with a 3‑year term covering Oracle 23c and Autonomous Transaction Processing.
- Microsoft SQL Server 2022 – Adopted by the Deutsche Forschungs‑und Entwicklungs‑Gesellschaft (DFG) for the Datenbank‑Zentrum network, replacing legacy SQL Server 2017 installations.
- SAP HANA Cloud – Extended for the Helmholtz Association (incl. DESY, Forschungszentrum Jülich) with a focus on real‑time analytics for high‑energy physics experiments.
- PostgreSQL 16 (Enterprise Support) – signed by the Max‑Planck‑Gesellschaft across 12 institutes, leveraging the EnterpriseDB support model for extended security patches.
- IBM Db2 13.1 – Acquired by the Bundesamt für Statistik (Destatis) for large‑scale census data processing, complemented by an IBM Global Services maintenance package.
- MongoDB enterprise advanced – Implemented by the Fraunhofer Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing for flexible document‑oriented storage in AI‑driven projects.
Key take‑away: German public research bodies are balancing proprietary DBMS renewals with strategic open‑source migrations, prioritising hybrid‑cloud compatibility and long‑term vendor support.
Maintenance Contracts – Trends & Highlights (2024‑2025)
- Extended Vendor Support Windows
- 5‑year maintenance extensions became the norm for oracle and SAP contracts, addressing compliance requirements under the EU GDPR and BDSG updates.
- Shift Toward Managed Services
- Over 40 % of the helmholtz and Max‑Planck institutions now bundle maintenance with cloud‑managed database instances (e.g., Azure SQL Managed Instance, AWS RDS for postgresql).
- Open‑Source Support Agreements
- the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) signed a nation‑wide support contract with Red Hat for Linux‑based PostgreSQL clusters, covering 24 × 7 incident response and automated patching.
- Security‑First Maintenance
- New clauses for mandatory quarterly vulnerability scans were introduced in all IBM Db2 and Microsoft SQL Server contracts, reflecting the BNetzA cyber‑risk guidelines.
Practical tip: Institutions should audit existing maintenance clauses for “force‑major” and “early‑termination” provisions before committing to multi‑year agreements,especially when planning cloud migrations.
Major Software Acquisitions (2024‑2025)
| Institution | Software | Purpose | Funding Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| TU Munich | Dataiku DSS (Enterprise) | collaborative data‑science platform for climate‑modeling projects | BMBF Digitalisierung grant (€2.8 M) |
| University of heidelberg | Cloudera Data Platform | Unified analytics lake for biomedical genomics | EU Horizon Europe Programme (Phase 2) |
| DFKI (German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence) | Neo4j Enterprise | Graph‑based knowledge representation for natural‑language processing | Federal AI‑Fund (2025) |
| Bundesamt für Verkehr (BAV) | Esri ArcGIS Enterprise with ArcGIS GeoDatabase | Integrated transport‑network spatial database | Federal transport budget (€3.5 M) |
| Forschungszentrum Jülich | Snowflake (Data Cloud) | Scalable data warehousing for particle‑physics simulations | Helmholtz Cloud‑Computing initiative |
Note: All acquisitions were announced through the public procurement portal bund.de and the EU’s TED system, ensuring openness and compliance with the Vergabeordnung.
Benefits of Recent License & Acquisition Strategies
- Cost Predictability – Fixed‑price multi‑year licenses reduce annual budgeting volatility.
- Enhanced Interoperability – Hybrid‑cloud licenses (e.g., SAP HANA Cloud, Azure‑SQL) enable seamless data exchange between on‑premises HPC clusters and cloud analytics services.
- Compliance Alignment – Bundled maintenance contracts now include regular GDPR impact assessments, easing audit burdens.
- Talent Retention – Modern platforms like Dataiku and Neo4j attract data‑science talent, supporting institutional research excellence.
Practical Tips for Decision‑Makers
- Conduct a License Audit – Map current DBMS usage versus actual data workloads; eliminate redundant copies.
- Leverage public Funding – Align software acquisition roadmaps with BMBF, DFG, and Horizon Europe funding calls to offset licence costs.
- Prioritise Vendor Neutrality – Where possible, opt for standards‑based APIs (ODBC/JDBC, REST) to avoid lock‑in and simplify future migrations.
- Integrate Maintenance into IT‑SME governance – Treat maintenance contracts as part of the broader Service Management framework (ITIL 4) for better SLA tracking.
Case Study: Max‑Planck‑Gesellschaft’s PostgreSQL Migration (2024‑2025)
- Background: Twelve Max‑Planck institutes operated heterogeneous legacy Oracle databases for petabyte‑scale genomics data.
- Action: Adopted PostgreSQL 16 with EnterpriseDB support; migrated 85 % of workloads within 18 months, using pg_dump parallelisation and pglogical for logical replication.
- Outcome:
- 30 % reduction in total cost of ownership (TCO) (licence‑free core).
- 45 % faster query performance on analytic workloads after tuning GIN indexes.
- Enabled seamless integration with the ELIXIR European life‑science platform via standard PostgreSQL FDW connectors.
Lesson learned: A staged migration combined with enterprise support mitigates risk while delivering measurable cost and performance gains.
Real‑World Example: Helmholtz Association’s SAP HANA Renewal (2025)
- Scope: Renewal of a 5‑year SAP HANA Cloud contract covering 12 research sites,supporting real‑time data ingestion from particle detectors.
- Key features:
- In‑memory analytics for sub‑second query response.
- Integrated SAP Data Hub for data‑pipeline orchestration across on‑premises HPC clusters.
- Result: 22 % increase in data‑processing throughput; alignment with the German Research Data infrastructure (GRDI) standards for FAIR data.
Maintenance Contract Checklist for German public Institutions
- Scope Definition – List all covered DBMS versions, cloud services, and auxiliary tools.
- Service Levels – Confirm SLA response times (e.g., 2 h for critical incidents).
- Security Updates – Verify patch‑release frequency and emergency‑patch procedures.
- Exit Strategy – Ensure data‑migration assistance and source‑code escrow clauses.
- Compliance Audits – Include mandatory GDPR & BDSG audit provisions in the contract.
Summary of Key Keywords (embedded naturally)
- German public institutions database license, research data management software Germany, maintenance contracts 2025, software acquisition German universities, DBMS licensing Germany, public sector IT procurement Germany, open source database adoption Germany, cloud database services Germany, BMBF IT funding 2025, Helmholtz SAP HANA renewal, Max‑Planck PostgreSQL migration, DFG MongoDB enterprise, EU Horizon Europe data platform, GDPR compliant maintenance, SAP HANA Cloud Germany.