Don, I hate to say this, but this reads more like a piece of BEA marketing literature than a real analysis. It isn't just your fabled enthusiasm, but the lack of putting any of the assertions to the test. BEA's offering and positioning could be every bit as lovely as this sounds, but it would tell us nothing about their competitive position.
E.g., I have a long historical connection with Progress Software -- initially very positive, not so in recent years. PRGS started out to be a tools vendor, but in the early 80's they decided that there really weren't any databases good enough to partner with so they created their own. Compared to other database vendors, PRGS has has always been massively ahead of all of the others in having established a strong VAR channel, getting 60-75% of their revenue that way. Moreover, they have strong lock-in since it is moderately difficult to adapt existing applications to use other databases, even using their adapters, and attempting to leave PRGS entirely is nothing less than a total re-write. Sounds great, doesn't it ... there is just one problem ... it is all for naught because the company is still very much just an also ran minor player with sales a tiny fraction of the likes of Oracle.
So, show us not just that BEA and its partners are going to be a mutually happy family, but also that this will bring it to a dominant position, not just in the short term, but over the long haul. How, for example, will they deal with the fact that a huge amount of software is not bought packaged, but is developed in house? |
