The war of the databases heated up last Thursday when Oracle
officially unveiled Oracle9i, promising 400 improvements and a new
application server. But is it a winner?
Oracle9i's main new feature is its Real Application Clustering
(RAC) capability designed to provide more efficient use of user
hardware. Oracle claims the technology results in a 50% cost saving
for users.
"If what they [Oracle] are saying about RAC is true, that's going
to be a big benefit," said Peter Urben, senior research analyst
with AMR Research. "But the customers will ultimately
decide."
"The new clustering capability will provide, in theory, some
performance improvements," said Meta Group analyst Ashim Pal, "but
this is experimental. It's not the baby, it's the glint in the
father's eye." Pal said he would wait at least nine months for the
technology to settle down before trying to deploy RAC.
Oracle has recently come under increasing pressure from its main
competitors. Microsoft's database business is growing fast, and IBM
has just managed to boost its market share with the acquisition of
Informix. While Oracle claims it is not bothered by this additional
competition, Urben thinks otherwise.
"Informix gave IBM an additional 5% market share and gave them a
big foot hold in the Unix space. I think Oracle is definitely
feeling the heat," he added.
One thing the company has done is introduce a reduced pricing
model, which can only mean good news for 9i users. "I think Oracle
has addressed the customer complaints on pricing issues," Urben
said. "They have done away with the power unit pricing, although
it's still more expensive than IBM."
Commenting on the new software Carolyn Patterson, Oracle9i
marketing manager, said, "From our perspective, what we are looking
at is innovation. If you look at all definitions [of databases] we
are providing innovation that we put in the database six or seven
years ago, which IBM is just starting to put in."
Patterson claimed there are over 400 improvements in the new
database. Price cuts, clustering and BI capabilities will all prove
appealing. She said the Business Intelligence features in the new
database allows "customers to have an alternative to the
mainframe."
Application Servers
But 9i is is not just targeting the
database market. Talking to CW360.com at the Oracle Open World
European user conference in Berlin, the firm has stated that its
new Oracle9i Application Server will be able to steal the march on
IBM and BEA who currently dominate this area. "The middleware
market is changing," said Gary Pugh, 9i marketing manager. "What we
are doing with 9i Application Server is raising the bar. The
gauntlet is down."
"With the technology that sits inside 9i, and the definition of the
application server, there is nothing to stop Oracle taking the lead
in this space," claimed Pugh.
Meta group analyst Ashim Pal believes this is very unlikely. "I
just don't think that's viable," he said. Pal commented that Oracle
could provide some sort of integration capability for applications
like CRM, but not a full-blown application server. "I wouldn't
recommend any [Meta] client look at Oracle Application Server or 9i
as being the integration end all."
The company has had a bad track record with development tools,
according to Ovum senior analyst Gary Barnett. This makes it most
unlikely that the company will succeed in obtaining the top spot in
the middleware market. "Oracle's tools strategy is very weak," he
noted. Barnett added that market leaders like IBM and Bea offered a
strong tools strategy, unlike Oracle.
Emma Nash