Art,
The following is, I believe, a copy of the referenced article.
What's In Store For Oracle? Firm Plans New Databases, Interactive Software
Date: 5/4/99
Author: Michele Hostetler
Everything from interactive television software to a database that looks like a small
refrigerator is what Oracle Corp. has in the works for 1999 and beyond.
The database king recently unveiled some of its new technology at a conference for
customers in San Diego. Some of these products will begin hitting the market this year.
One product the company plans to ship is the Oracle 8.i database ''appliance,'' which
should hit the market in four weeks, says Mark Jarvis, Oracle vice president of
worldwide marketing. It's a bright red computer the size of a bar refrigerator and
contains database software.
A company plugs it in, flips a switch, and the database is up and running. It's the result
of two years' work to make a database simpler and more manageable, Jarvis says.
''We will remove all requirements for a database administrator,'' he said. ''In other
words, you just plug it in. It's like plugging in a telephone.''
Oracle can handle database administration from its headquarters, just like a telephone
company runs its business, Jarvis says.
Dell Computer Corp. and Hewlett- Packard Co. will sell the appliance. And like a
toaster, customers can buy a small, medium or large version, Jarvis says. The small
ones should start at $5,000, he says.
There's more. Oracle plans to offer appliances designed for electronic mail, file servers
and Web sites by year's end. The approach is similar to Apple Computer Inc.'s iMac
computer. People plug it in and they're on the Internet. And like the iMac, Oracle will
sell its boxes in bright colors, Jarvis says.
Another new Oracle technology involves making stock trading more vocal. Oracle has
worked with Menlo Park, Calif.-based Nuance Communications Inc., a voice
recognition firm, for the past year. People can talk to a database instead of typing on a
keyboard or punching in numbers on their telephone.
''This is probably going to be a very big area in electronic commerce in the next two
years,'' Jarvis said.
Charles Schwab Corp. is using this to allow traders access to their accounts over the
phone. They can sell and buy stock by simply telling the computer what to do.
Software recognizes voice patterns to make the system secure.
Stock-trading fees should be a thing of the past in the next three months, Jarvis says.
Since more money is in research, financial houses will begin offering free trades this
year if clients pay $20 to $30 a month for reports on companies.
On another front, television in the United Kingdom has gone interactive. Oracle
worked with Rupert Murdoch venture British Interactive Broadcasting for two years to
develop a TV system that interacts with a database.
Couch potatoes can interact with what a broadcaster puts on a screen - click on a car
in an ad and give it a virtual test drive, for example - as well as conduct traditional
online business such as banking. Satellite links and telephone lines are used to connect
the TV to the database.
The system became available in the United Kingdom late last year and is expected to
have 1 million subscribers by October, Jarvis says.
Oracle first approached U.S. companies but didn't have any takers.
''All of the American cable companies did not believe they could do anything like this
because they thought they couldn't use their existing infrastructure,'' Jarvis said. |
