There are only three major database suppliers these days, with two
relatively minor ones standing out from the generic "other"
category.
As database technology becomes commoditised, users' choice of
supplier will increasingly depend on the technology available from
the database companies.
Many people might think that with Oracle's giant market share, the
choice of database supplier is a no-brainer. In truth, Oracle's
market share has dropped recently, while IBM's has increased,
according to the companies' own figures. The three leading vendors,
Oracle, IBM, and Microsoft, have diverse strategies depending on
which area of database technology you look at.
XML and objects
XML is vitally important to the
database community both as a querying technology and, in some
cases, as a storage mechanism. Thomas Gregers Honoré, data
solutions marketing manager at IBM, says that the DB2 development
team has been busy building not only XML querying technology into
the database, but also the ability to store data in XML format
using the DB2 data extender. "XML is used to describe a piece of
rich content - to be able to search indexed documents, for
example," he explains. "You'd store XML in a relational table and
the rich objects in another part of the database."
Microsoft's XML story does not appear to be so well developed.
Cassandra Nuttall, server solutions manager for the company, says
that while XML can be written to the database or produced as a
result of a database query, it could only be stored as a text
string inside the engine rather than in true hierarchical XML
format. The alternative (which IBM also provides) is to store XML
in a relational format. Microsoft suggests doing it this way and
using "virtual documents" to translate XML on the fly.
Chris Ward, product-marketing manager at Oracle, says that his
company's approach to storing objects has been to put a Java
Virtual Machine into its database engine. The Java object can
include SQL data, and can also encapsulate stored procedures as
methods, or use methods that are an instance of an object
class.
OLAP in the box
One area where Microsoft is excelling,
says Nuttall, is that it provides online analytical processing
(OLAP) tools inside the same box, free of charge, as part of the
database price. Oracle's strategy involves OLAP as an option, but
the OLAP kit falls under a single 9i database product suite to
complement its 9i application server and 9i development tools.
These three suites represent a consolidated set of products
compared to the more complex product set that it had a year ago.
The 64-bit story
64-bit databases are important for
large companies such as utilities and financial services firms
because they enable vast quantities of data to be addressed in
memory, speeding up processing considerably. While IBM and Oracle
are already shipping 64-bit databases Microsoft appears to be
lagging behind. It is worth noting that while IBM and Oracle are
cross-platform databases - running on a variety of Unix operating
system and Windows servers, Microsoft SQL Server only runs on
Windows. As a consequence, the development of a 64-bit version is
tied to the evolution of 64-bit Windows - this operating system is
still in beta.
The others
IBM's says that the company is still
maintaining its development of the Informix product it acquired
last year and has no plans to discontinue Informix.
However, it seems unlikely that IBM would want to support the
Informix user base and keep pouring money into developing another
database when it already has a successful one. Honoré says the
company has focused on improving integration between Informix and
DB2. Commenting on the prospects for Informix users he adds: "We
will make it easier and easier for them to jump to DB2 if and when
they require."
With Informix safely in the IBM camp, that only leaves Sybase and
Computer Associates (CA) as distinct players trailing the top
three, outside of the "other" category. Sybase, while less of a
shining light than it was in the mid-90s, is nevertheless keeping
up with the times. It has Web service-enabled its software to be
compliant with standards like Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP),
just as the three major players have. And it has a Java-enabled
application server.
CA, facing a US Securities and Exchange Commission review of its
accounting procedures, is still doggedly plugging the Ingres
database that it bought in the mid-90s, having released Advantage
Ingres 2.6 in February this year. The company's profile in the
market is nevertheless low compared to its rivals.
The market has consolidated of late, thanks to a combination of
mismanagement in companies such as Informix, and the marketing
prowess of the larger players. With three major players and two
relatively minor ones to choose from, the choice of database that
you make will depend on factors such as your existing platform, the
price of the product, and its feature set in particular areas that
are of importance to you.