Re: Cancilla's Blog comments...

[Steve Richter <stephenrichter@xxxxxxxxx>]

I think both Oracle and IBM see the application and computer services
space as the place they want to be. They both want to lock the
customer into their products. Having your customer running your mega
end user software application can guarantee annual revenue for
eternity. My guess is profits from selling licenses and support of a
medical billing system dwarf those from selling a database engine, run
time framework, OS or server rack.   MSFT provides its languages and
.NET framework for no charge. So there is no money for Oracle to make
from Java. Now MSFT is starting to give away Windows Server, SQL
Server and Visual Studio for the running of low end production
applications: http://www.microsoft.com/web/websitespark/   How will
the DB2 and Oracle databases  be able to turn a profit when MSFT is
willing to compete so aggresively?

On Sat, Sep 26, 2009 at 8:53 AM, Bob Cancilla <bob.cancilla@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Don,
>
> IF Oracle is successful in their acquisition of Sun and IF they can afford
> to wait for the final approvals, Power Systems including IBM i will be in
> for some major challenges.  Oracle has been one of those nefarious companies
> engaged in what Software Group's Steve Mills refers to as COOPETITION
> (cooperating with competitors).  Oracle has been driving a huge portion of
> System p or Power AIX sales.  Remember Oracle owns JD Edwards, PeopleSoft,
> and several other major vertical software packages.  They will be looking to
> sell complete turnkey packages with Hardware, Software, and Middleware.
>
> Larry Ellison does not play nice in the business community, he plays rough
> and he plays to win.  After the acquisition he will own Java, MySql, as well
> as Suns rather formidable suite of Java devleopment tools.
>
> Is IBM up for street fighting?  Can they compete in a down and dirty all out
> no holds barred war?  IBM is today an incredibly ethical and moral company
> that often takes the high road when it should probably fight.  I commend
> their ethics and morality, but am not sure how they can handle folks like
> Ellison who pushes the edges of business ethics. I don't think he crosses
> the line, but he goes as close as possible.