DA Morgan wrote:
> Data Cruncher wrote:
>> http://www.physorg.com/news97246418.html
>>
>> Officials at IBM are throwing verbal haymakers at Oracle as Big Blue
>> touts its successes in the database market.
>>
>>
>>
>> The two database heavyweights alternated between offensive and
>> defensive postures recently after IBM questioned Oracle's claims of
>> database dominance.
>>
>> "The rapid adoption of DB2 9 would seem to call their claims into
>> question and analysts are starting to question their numbers as well,"
>> said Bernie Spang, director of IBM data servers.
>>
>> He cited commentary by Philip Howard of UK-based Bloor Research, who
>> noted that when reporting Oracle's results for the third quarter of
>> fiscal year 2007, CEO Larry Ellison said new license revenues for the
>> database and middleware division grew 17 percent.
>>
>> However, Ellison also noted the middleware portion had grown roughly
>> 80 percent, which Howard argued indicates a slow down in the growth of
>> Oracle's database portfolio.
>>
>> In an interview with eWEEK, Howard said increased competition not just
>> from IBM but from a number of vendors, has affected sales of 10g.
>>
>> "11g may make a difference compared to DB2 but probably not versus SQL
>> Server, Netezza and EnterpriseDB - as these all compete as much on
>> lower TCO and reduced administration as on features and performance,"
>> Howard said.
>>
>> But for Oracle's part, company officials are not breaking much of a
>> sweat, and are convinced the company's hold on the database market is
>> not slipping.
>>
>> "There's no doubt about that," said Willie Hardie, Oracle vice
>> president of database product marketing.
>>
>> Hardie pointed to a study by IDC that included estimated 2006 revenue
>> totals from the five biggest relational database management system
>> providers and had Oracle in the top spot with a 44.4 percent of the
>> market. IBM was second with 21.2 percent.
>>
>> According to IDC, those figures represent a growth of 14.7 and 11.9
>> percent between 2005 and 2006 for Oracle and IBM, respectively.
>>
>> "There's always going to be competitors in the market," Hardie said.
>> "An organization like Oracle continues to do business with its
>> extensive install-base."
>>
>> The IDC study did not include features sold by vendors as separation
>> options and did not break out subscription and maintenance revenue,
>> which can obscure the true growth rate of a vendor's database license
>> sales.
>>
>> IBM's Spang said the $4.3 billion in revenue earned by the company's
>> software segment in the first quarter of fiscal 2007 was driven
>> largely by sales of the DB2 9 Viper data server.
>>
>> "The volume of new DB2 customers since we launched DB2 9 last July has
>> exceeded all expectations," he said. "We have seen literally thousands
>> of new customers in that timeframe - and a large percentage of those
>> are migrations from Oracle."
>>
>> However, Forrester Research analyst Noel Yuhanna disputed IBM's claims
>> of how aggressively the market is adopting DB2.
>>
>> "I think we have seen less aggressive movement with IBM DB2," he said,
>> adding that he thinks IBM has not aggressively marketed DB2. "Oracle
>> still rules the world."
>>
>> Spang strongly disagreed.
>>
>> "I would also say that the large numbers of new customers - backed up
>> by our earnings - support the claims that our marketing strategy has
>> been right on target," he said.
>
> In other words ... we don't know anything more than we did before we
> read this.
>
> But for those who have to pay their mortgage and feed their families
> the only metrics that matter are those that can be found at: www.dice.com.
>
> As of 6 May, 2007:
> =========================
> DB2 3,419 8.9%
> Informix 452 1.2%
> Oracle 17,861 46.7%
> SQL Server 14,171 37.0%
> Sybase 2,355 6.2%
> =========================
>
> If these aren't the numbers you're looking at you aren't paying
> attention to putting the kids through college and your retirement.
> Small comfort to remember your product loyalty to a particular brand
> when living off your Social Security check.
Following that logic we should be working for WalMart to get your kids
safely through college .... lotsa greeters needed - always.
Cheers
Serge
--
Serge Rielau
DB2 Solutions Development
IBM Toronto Lab
Received on Mon May 07 2007 - 05:32:08 CDT
