Where is Oracle in the engine area?? Are you kidding? Oracle is king of the mountain for database servers. Sybase is trying to figure out exactly what they should be selling. Informix, with its (arguably not) superior technology is still trying to find the credibility it lost when it borrowed a page from Oracle's early '90s Accounting 101 textbook. Microsoft is once again trying to sell technology that they don't have, and is pushing a version of SQL Server that finally has SOME of the functionality that the rest of the Enterprise DB vendors have been selling for years. They (MS) are even sponsoring an event for the New York Oracle User's Group in June. I'm not sure how much mindshare that will get them, although there are MS-Oracle integration issues that are important to us Oracle folks, and we're happy to have the kind of support from MS's marketing folks that Oracle can never seem to provide. Don't worry about Oracle's server business. There is real competition from IBM (as Larry says), but mostly on traditional DB/2 platforms.
Oracle has stumbled in the apps marketplace (with dopey character-mode apps for far too long), but the new java-enabled release should be more successful. They are well aware of the opportunities in the apps arena.
Network Computing is where the huge growth opportunities lie. What everyone misses when they label NCs (a piece of hardware that Oracle does not and will not manufacture) a distraction is how well everything fits together with NCA. The Network Computing Architecture cuts across all of Oracle's product lines, Database Server, (Web) Application Server, java-enabled apps and vertical market applications, CASE tools (that generate java and web-enabled applications) and development tools. Promoting Network Computing, the paradigm, promotes Oracle's entire product line. It is not JUST a shot at BillG and Microsoft. Larry is no idiot. He saw the future in IBM's SQL and System R before IBM even realized what they had. Don't dismiss his views on Network Computing as a pissing contest between two CEOs with tremendous egos.
Some of my clients are getting ready to buy some more licenses in the end-of-year make-me-an-offer frenzy. They are not the only ones. Look for good 4Q numbers in June.
-Michael |
