Ellison: IBM DB2 is behind the times

"IBM DB2 is only popular on mainframes...which is only used by your father!"

That was Oracle Chairman and CEO Larry Ellison's response to a report that Big Blue's database-management software is gaining market share over Oracle.

A recent Gartner Dataquest study ranked IBM ahead of Oracle in the highly competitive DBMS market. The report, which Oracle has since disputed, found that the Redwood Shores, Calif.-based company had slipped to second place in the overall database market in 2001, with a market share of about 32 percent, versus IBM's 34.6 percent.

"There are 20 market share reports, of which 19 shows Oracle was first, and only one shows IBM was first," Ellison told reporters on Wednesday during the OracleWorld conference in Beijing.

"Gartner wouldn't say how they got their numbers while all the other surveys disclose how they got theirs. Gartner will tell you it's a secret...secret arithmetic," Ellison added.

Gartner Dataquest could not be contacted at press time, but one IBM executive had plenty to say.

"For years, Gartner Dataquest has ranked Oracle No. 1, and there have been no complaints from Oracle on the methodology. But now that the findings show IBM has dethroned them, they cry foul," said Jim Koerner, IBM Asia-Pacific vice president for data management.

"We continue to see customers choosing our mainframe technology for their mission-critical applications. Clients such as the U.S. Federal Reserve and Fedex rely on our mainframe database technology," Koerner said.

"Comments like this show (that) Oracle is reacting to our momentum," he said, adding that IBM's mainframe database technology grew faster than Oracle's database business in 2001.

Citing a recent Goldman Sachs survey of 400 users, Ellison said 60 percent of the respondents plan to build new applications using Oracle software, while only 3 percent chose IBM DB2.

"If IBM is eating (into our market share), then it's on a starvation diet. IBM has to do the arithmetic to explain why 3 percent is bigger than 60 percent," Ellison said.

IBM did not comment on the Goldman Sachs study but said that, in the most recent quarter, DB2 grew by 12 percent, marking a total of 20 consecutive quarters of growth.

"This is in sharp contrast to Oracle, which reported a 26 percent decline in its database business," IBM's Koerner said.

On the performance of DB2, Ellison said: "IBM chose the Oracle database to demonstrate how fast their fastest computers are. If IBM picks Oracle over DB2, who will pick DB2? IBM hardware is good, but their software is not so good."

IBM's reply? Industry-wide benchmark results doesn't correspond with Ellison's remarks. Furthermore, 60 million users and some 450,000 companies worldwide rely on IBM data management solutions, Koerner said.

Koerner also believes Oracle's "go it alone" approach has caused leading application developers such as SAP, Siebel, PeopleSoft, Retek and Vignette to abandon Oracle and form strategic alliances with IBM.

"These companies, who were once responsible for Oracle's thriving database business, have replaced Oracle with IBM DB2 as their standard software development platform for both internal and external applications," he added.