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To: firefly who wrote (2421)	5/6/1998 3:00:00 PM
From: John T. Hardee	Respond to of 2428

Picked off of YAHOO Cover Is Off A New Type Of Database Date: 5/6/98 Author: Michele Hostetler Embedded databases are invisible to users, but the market is coming out of hiding. These tiny databases are included as features woven into larger software products. The new market for embedded databases has been dominated by small companies. They include Pervasive Software Inc., Progress Software Corp., Centura Software Corp. and Cloudscape Inc. But now sales are such that the leading makers of conventional databases are being lured to the market. These players include Oracle Corp., Microsoft Corp. and Sybase Inc. ''This year we'll start to see the market heat up,'' said Carl Olofson, an analyst with International Data Corp. Sales of embedded database are expected to rise more than a third to $454 million in '01 from $332 million last year, says Dataquest Inc. The reason is that database makers are increasingly able to craft very focused databases that software makers have had to develop themselves. The embedded market's growth rate surpasses that of many other database areas. ''At a time when the database market as a whole isn't doing well, this sector is doing fine,'' said Merv Adrian, an analyst with Cambridge, Mass.-based Giga Information Group. The big guys can expect tough competition from the entrenched smaller players. Embedded database firms have close relationships with the software makers and resellers that are their customers, Olofson says. Big companies like Microsoft may have trouble wooing clients, he says. But smaller companies are taking defensive measures, even if that means aligning with a rival. In March, Pervasive hooked up with Oracle. Pervasive products will be included in some of Oracle's software. The pairing will help Pervasive fend off Microsoft, says Ron Harris, Pervasive's chief executive. ''I think Microsoft's challenge is that they're trying to go everywhere with the same product, and that just doesn't work in this business,'' Harris said. ''I think (Microsoft's database) . . . is going to be too weak for the enterprise and too big for our market. ''They're going to get stuck in the middle of Pervasive and Oracle, and we're going to squeeze gently.'' Customers are more often turning to packaged embedded databases that they can quickly and easily put into their products. ''Embedded databases have been around for 20 years,'' IDC's Olofson said. ''But we haven't really paid that much attention to them until recently. What's changed is that companies have moved to packaged solutions.'' For example, Computer Associates International Inc. sells accounting software that includes an embedded database made by Pervasive. Simplicity is key, Harris says. ''Our goal is to make sure grandmothers can install our software,'' Harris said. ''We put a sharp focus on making the cost of ownership go down.'' By contrast, the big database makers assume their corporate customers have plenty of experts on hand, Harris says. The growth of the Internet - where simple technology is key and where more companies plan to do business -could spur the market for embedded databases. The Internet could be the ultimate application, says Tracy Corbo, an analyst with the Business Research Group in Boston. The growth in mobile computers is another force driving embedded database sales, Giga's Adrian says. These smaller databases are easier for mobile computers to store, or to access on a server. ''Today nobody's really cracked mobile computing and mobile applications at the level that they need to,'' Harris said.