Oracle on the offensive with Oracle 9I web tool

Oracle has opened a two-pronged attack with the launch of Oracle 9i Dynamic Services - bringing more of the web to its latest 9i database software and promising a fully integrated suite of applications.

Oracle will offer its development tools online as an ASP to boost sales, according to company executives. It is also offering IT directors an integrated solution, aiming to rid them of the expense and difficulties of integration. Tony Lock, analyst at Bloor Research, said: "The product set now consists of the database and the application server. What Larry Ellison, as his usual forthright self, is offering for the future is a complete suite of integrated applications. "That means several challenges, to say the least. Can the company maintain its core focus and at the same time develop, maintain and enhance a huge suite of applications? It would be great if it worked, but if it were really successful it would attract the attention of regulators." The two tools Oracle is making available free online are Oracle Portal Online Studio and Oracle Mobile Studio, used to build portal and wireless applications. After yesterday's product launch, Larry Ellison, Oracle CEO, fielded questions from analysts and made his promises about the new seamless Oracle applications. "Something is wrong with the IT industry. Customers are expected to pay more for the guys with glue guns to stick everything together than they do for the software itself." It is, Lock pointed out, a challenge to all of the rest of the industry; software companies, integrators, consultants, the IBMs, the Arthur Andersens, the SAPs etc.