David Grober

Databases are more critical than ever and the scrum for market share continues unabated. Oracle is the database leader and just acquired MySQL via the Sun Microsystems purchase. IBM and Microsoft remain key players.

Schwartz, the $1 warrior. But to what avail?

In his blog, Sun President and COO Jonathan Schwartz often writes incisively about Sun's product strategy. But it's been over two months since David and Dan blogged about what Sun President and COO Jonathan Schwartz is blogging.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has remade the company via acquisitions. Oracle has acquired a bevy of companies such as Siebel Systems, PeopleSoft, BEA Systems and others to become a significant applications player. Meanwhile, Oracle remains the database leader and displays strength in middleware. Oracle's next frontier: Hardware. The acquisition of Sun Microsystems could position Oracle as "T.J. Watson's IBM" or be a big headache.