Expect a vendor slugfest on the lower end of the data warehousing and BI market in the next few years. It will be fascinating to see how these vendors will both enter the entry-level markets, while also seeking to maintain the high-end pricing for the largest users. There could be a value sweet spot in the middle.
While ERP emerged with and was designed for client/server architectures, Fusion has emerged with a full Java EE and SOA architecture; it is built around Oracle Fusion middleware 11g and uses Oracle BPEL Process Manager to run processes as orchestrations of processes exposed from the Fusion Apps or other legacy applications. That makes the architecture of Fusion Apps clean and flexible.
With the spoils of the BEA acquisition now fully baked into the mix -- and with anticipation for what the pending Sun Microsystems buy brings -- Oracle is well on its way to obviating the middleware moniker. Perhaps we should call it "anyware."
The whole SQL databases and associated tools and modeling ecosystem is ripe for tumult. My best guess is that Oracle's pending Sun Microsystems purchase will provide offense via MySQL, and the associated community, to target the Microsoft SQL Server franchise.
“It helps Microsoft,” Ranadive said. “If you’re a customer and you’re wondering about Java, you might just say the heck with it, I’ll go with Microsoft.”
Oracle and HP are providing products and services that holistically support the many required variables to successfully implement IT transformation. HP hardware and storage systems have been tuned to support Oracle databases, applications and software infrastructure for many years, and the partnership continues to expand in the age of SOA, legacy modernization, and cloud computing.
I agree with Tony that open source databases are ripe for rapid growth and expand use-case scenarios. As more applications are served up as services, those service providers will be doing a lot of custom distributed infrastructure development, leveraging open source, and rolling their own functionally targeted stacks. Think of Google, Amazon, eBay and Yahoo as examples. Are they running Oracle or DB2 or Microsoft SQL Server, or are they taking a more commoditized view on databases?
In the mashup and SOA worlds, frankly, Sun's defined value (high performance at low cost) grows, but it's addressable market actually shrinks. Because there will be a handful or mega-service providers, who will necessarily mostly customize their infrastructure to tune it to specific apps and transactional functions. And that is not a Java Enterprise Suite, and it won't be off-the-shelf software at all -- but it will be off-the-shelf hardware.
While Oracle says they have no qualms about the Glassfish experience, it seems to me that this is an indication of a defection. If Java and Glassfish are not allowing developers to access what they need of open source technology with ease, and if Oracle is now a top-tier member of Eclipse (as it has now become), then the role and influence of Java -- as a technology set and community -- must be fast waning.
Oracle and Hyperion both needed to move toward such a full-suite benefit, hence the strong fit together. There are sales and channel overlaps, but not significant product overlaps, which should lead to consolidation benefits for the companies. And the merger will bring the Oracle and Hyperion product lines added reach through their non-overlapping accounts and channels. One also has to wonder how well Hyperion's features and functions will mesh with (mash up?) Oracle's burgeoning variety of business applications.