Is Yogi really Larry Ellison in drag?
Yogi preaches resource allocation, which appears to be a Larry Ellison argument. Coincidence, or is there a more sinister interpretation?
Who among us will stand up for MSFT? For the rugged individualism of the (soon to be outmoded?) desktop?
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The world according to
Larry
By Tim Clark
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
November 13, 1998, 8:00 a.m. PT
news analysis SAN FRANCISCO--In speeches to Oracle
users, press conferences, and presentations to Wall Street
analysts this week, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison touted the
latest twist on his strategy to drive Microsoft from the
center of the software industry's universe, and plant a
stake in the outsourcing market.
On Monday, Ellison takes Oracle's show on the road to Las
Vegas for Comdex, where he delivers a keynote address--just
24 hours after his nemesis, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates,
does the same at the biggest computer show in America.
Oracle executives promise Ellison will announce a new twist in
Oracle's multipronged attack on Microsoft.
The strategy pushes three tenets: Use Big Servers like
Oracle's, not little ones like Microsoft's; put documents created
with Microsoft software into Oracle databases; and broaden
Oracle's base of software developers, preferably by drawing
programmers now committed to Windows.
Ellison cloaks his strategies in the language of the Internet and
Java, but the implications of Oracle's message might make
even Java champion Sun Microsystems, a mite uncomfortable.
"Microsoft tells us that it's a good idea to put a Windows NT
server in every store, every bank branch, every doctor's office,"
Ellison said this week. "Little databases and little servers are a
really bad idea. When companies do that, they pay an
enormous price in labor costs."
The intent of Ellison's Big Servers'
argument is hardly subtle--Oracle
this week unveiled, for the third
time, its flagship Oracle8i
database, which Ellison is
pushing along with Oracle
applications to be installed in
central locations to ease
"managing the complexity." Not
so accidentally, on Monday
Microsoft will officially launch
version 7.0 of its SQL Server
database.
"As we move to Internet
computing, we are centralizing
complexity and doing a better job of simplifying it," Ellison said.
"That will lower the cost of labor required to run desktops and
servers, probably by a factor of five as we move from
client-server to corporate Internets."
He added: "As we consolidate information into a smaller
number of databases, we'll have more timely and better
information. Consolidation is not simply a way to lower costs
but also to improve the quality of the data we have."
Ellison trots out the total cost of ownership (TCO)
argument--the cost of running applications makes even pricey
Oracle software, which can run at a single location with fewer
techies, a bargain over hard-to-manage software installed on
desktop client machines, Microsoft's forte.
Here another Oracle initiative due to roll out early next
year comes into play--Business Online, Oracle's foray
into the rent-an-application market. For a fixed monthly
fee, companies can pay Oracle to host its own
applications and soon applications that work with
Oracle's.
For Microsoft, Oracle8i's most threatening feature is its
Internet File System (IFS), which allows users to store
existing documents created in another application,
including email or widely used Microsoft applications like
Word or Excel, in an Oracle database.
"Microsoft's most important business is the file system,
so we need to build a database file system that
preserves the interfaces of Microsoft's file system and
ease of use but yields all the benefits of a database, like
searching and sharing documents," Ellison argues.
Finally, Oracle is intent on broadening Oracle's base of
software developers--preferably by stealing programmers
now using Microsoft development tools. That goal is at
least partially behind Oracle's recent embrace of the
Linux, a freeware Unix operating system.
"We made the huge shift to Linux because of its giant
developer community," Ellison said. Added Mark Jarvis,
an Oracle senior vice president: "We sign up 23,000
Linux developers in the first 10 days."
But Ellison is also touting Oracle's development tools as
the best way for software developers to create Java
applications, which could prove uncomfortable for
Ellison's bosum buddy over at Sun, anti-Gates CEO
Scott McNealy. Sun markets its own Java tools.
"We have the most powerful, richest development
environment for Java," Ellison declared.
Even more threatening to Sun could be Ellison's
somewhat cloaked language about operating systems in
general, not just Windows.
"If you write all your new applications in Java, you can
ignore the operating system," Ellison said, adding
quickly, "We are not an operating systems company."
But he does boast that Oracle has the first pure Java
server, and he also endorses the possibility that some
developers may bypass Sun's Solaris operating system
by developing for Oracle's platform--its database.
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