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MSFT may not be the best with their initial offerings, but one thing they have proven consistently is that they eventually (and often quickly) catch up. SQL 7 is not Object Relational or extensible, but it is row-level locked, which is what the enterprise apps need. In fact, I think they break some ground with their optimistic locking strategy. They first lock at the table, then de-escalate progressively as they detect more contention to the page, then if they need to, down to row level - very nice, since if you don't need the overhead of a row level lock, why use it? SQL 7 does not have all the bells and whistles, but it can run the big apps for mid-market companies (50-500MM) - which IMO is the fastest growing segment of the ERP market - and do so cost effectively. This will give MSFt plenty of penetration and cost the big 3 plenty of sales in this growing market segment. As time goes on, Microsoft, with its big cash reserve and os cash cow, can continue to pour big bucks into r&d and attractive pricing to further shrink the big 3's lead. This is how they go after and usually succeed in taking over markets. I wouldn't bet against them. |
