Oracle/IBM battle beyond the database

Oracle expands middleware portfolio

By Jennifer Mears, IDG News Service, 08/22/05

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August 22, 2005—No longer satisfied with its role as the corporate database leader, Oracle has been building out its middleware portfolio through R&D and acquisitions and is increasingly going head-to-head with IBM.

"For years, the database has been an extremely vigorous competition between DB2 and Oracle database," says Joshua Greenbaum, principal analyst at Enterprise Applications Consulting. "The heat has gotten more intense because middleware has been added to the mix."

Others, including SAP and Microsoft, also see opportunity as corporate data centers move to environments where data and systems are shared and reused in so-called service-oriented architectures. Middleware—such as application servers, business integration software, and data management systems based on open standards and Web services—provides the foundation for this new IT environment.

"Who controls the future of computing is really what this is all about," says Judith Hurwitz, president of Hurwitz & Associates. "All these vendors understand that this is a transitional time for the industry where platforms are evolving, and everybody wants to be the market leader and control things."

Acquisition frenzy

That is resulting in a flurry of acquisitions, particularly by Oracle and IBM, as the two industry heavyweights move to expand their capabilities. IBM acquired Ascential Software, a data integration software vendor, earlier this year. Earlier this month, IBM said it was acquiring DWL, maker of customer data-integration software, to build out its data management capabilities. Since 2001, Big Blue has made nine acquisitions in information management, says Janet Perna, a 31-year IBM veteran who was general manager of IBM's information management unit until her retirement August 15.

"Information and the integration of information is becoming much more important, because it is the way companies are going to be able to gain insight into their own operations, their customers and their competitors," she says.

Oracle sees the same thing. Its recent acquisitions include database firm Times10, as well as ProfitLogic and Retek, retail-focused information management software vendors. In July, it bought the assets of content integration software maker Context Media. Its Oblix buy earlier this year brought identity management into its information management systems, and last year, the acquisition of Collaxa added a business rules engine to Oracle's portfolio.

The integration factor

The key is to enable a company to take its data, systems, and resources and create a platform that allows them all to integrate, analysts say. As a result, customers can expect to see more acquisitions and internal product enhancements.

IBM, for example, will provide native XML support in the next release of DB2, code-named Viper, which is expected to go into beta release shortly. Earlier this month, IBM upgraded its WebSphere product line, releasing XD 6.0, adding enhanced manageability for grid deployments in which workloads are shifted in response to application demands. Oracle has long focused on grid as the key underpinning to its database and middleware environments.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.