Database Software: Vendors Target E-Business Solutions

The major players in the SQL database market have set about releasing new versions of their products during the past few months. Vendors are overhauling their offerings to ensure products work successfully in the rapidly evolving e-business environment. As a result, it is becoming clear that in 2000, at least, the influence of the Internet is driving the database market, making integration the key to continued success.

Already lagging, companies like Sybase and Informix lost more ground in the past 12 months, and the remaining top competitors,such as IBM and Microsoft,no longer even consider them viable rivals.

This perception was borne out in this year's Annual Report Card, in which IBM took the top spot and Microsoft finished second in the database software category. Informix tied for third with Computer Associates, and Oracle and Sybase brought up the rear. Sybase, in fact, has been mired in last place two years in a row now.

The major contenders are focusing on greater efficiency and more robust features for e-commerce functions. However, they are employing different strategies in their quest to gain market share.

Last month, Microsoft replaced SQL Server 7 with SQL Server 2000. With it, the Redmond, Wash.-based company has Web-enabled every aspect of the database, according to Steve Murchie, SQL group product manager. SQL Server 2000 produces native XML, and users can access the database via HTTP. It also allows more efficient analysis of Web traffic than the previous version and accelerates personalization of Web sites in conjunction with Commerce Server 2000. Microsoft has also added data-mining functionality, and Murchie believes Microsoft will garner more enterprise opportunities with the new version.

With SQL Server 2000, users can "scale out to a server farm to partition the workload of the database," Murchie says. "It's not right for every application, but it's a very economically attractive solution."

Alternative Pricing

In response to market changes, Microsoft has implemented per-processor licensing, striving to decrease pricing complexity for customers and partners and more appropriately measure value in a Web-based world. Processor licenses can be used in any Internet, extranet or intranet scenario.

For its part, Microsoft's chief database rival, Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM, is offering alternative pricing as well, reflecting the needs of a new customer focus for its DB2 product. IBM is targeting ASPs, which often start small but grow quickly. ASPs can now pay for the product on the basis of their size, or on any other basis that can be tracked quarterly,revenue, number of transactions or number of subscribers, says Jeff Jones, senior program manager of IBM Data Management.

IBM is also offering ASP Prime, which consists of basic consulting services that help ASPs to reorient the applications they provide so they can track usage and implement charge-backs.

The latest version of DB2, Version 7.1, started shipping in June. It integrates business intelligence with data warehousing and has an XML extender that stores data types and allows tag searches. It also contains integrated memory text search capabilities via an optional product called Net Search Extender. That feature provides complete caching on the magnitude of 91 million hits a day, according to Jones.

"IBM's data management's philosophy is that customers want integration of data, not centralization of data," Jones says. "Customers tell us that they have stuff in a lot of different places, and they don't have the ability to centralize it in one big database. They want it left where it is and managed where it is."

Jones contrasts this with Oracle's approach, which puts everything in an Oracle table and lets Oracle be the application and database server.

DB2 SQL Procedure Language, based on an open SQL standard, makes the process of migrating from competing products that utilize proprietary SQL procedure languages much easier, according to Jones.

"All by itself, that has attracted tool partners to convert to DB2 along with growth in migration business," he says. "We're seeing movement from Informix and Sybase platforms."

Oracle, based in Redwood Shores, Calif., also believes it's gaining momentum and market share by attracting application providers that are shifting away from Oracle on the Unix platform.

Mark Shainman, industry analyst at the Stamford, Conn.-based research firm Meta Group, says the reason for the shift is that Oracle is stepping up its application competition, and, as a result, application providers that rely on the Oracle 8i database are feeling pressured. In fact, Shainman expects this to continue. "Competition from Oracle's application division will drive many ISVs to adopt the DB2 or SQL Server 2000 platform," he says.

Oracle Is Unrepentant

For its part, Oracle remains unrepentant, saying it offers a simple and complete solution. "ISVs can count on Oracle providing customers all they need to deploy an application they develop," says Ken Jacobs, Oracle vice president of product strategy, Server Technology Division. "IBM has alliances with hundreds of companies to try to present a complete platform. Who knows what versions of which products will work together?"

Oracle released a new version of 8i last month. Release 3 offers a complete platform for application development included with the database, according to Jacobs. "Only Oracle provides the concept of an Internet application server that shares code with the database," Jacobs says. "We have common technology for the midtier and the database tier via drag-and-drop bundling of other products with the database. On the platform for e-business, we've anticipated what the marketplace has wanted."

Release 3 provides enhanced XML support with Oracle's XML SQL utility, enabling the reading and writing of XML documents in their native format to and from the database, Jacobs adds.

"Oracle's leadership in security is light-years ahead of the competition," Jacobs says. New security features in Release 3 include support for SSL over HTTP connections to the database, and strong encryption for thin JDBC connections to the database, ensuring data privacy over the network. Integration with Entrust PKI enables Oracle environments to securely manage X.509 standard digital certificates.

Sybase Goes Mobile

While these players slug it out in the larger market, Sybase has elected to take a niche approach. Its Adaptive Server Enterprise 12 is now geared to driving Internet portals. Enterprise Portal, released in May, allows users to integrate all their applications, including Adaptive Server and competing relational databases, into a unified e-business platform. Robert Breton, senior director of product strategy, Enterprise Solutions Division, is betting that database technologies will be embedded in other applications in the future.

Mobile database applications are part of another Sybase initiative. SQL Anywhere Studio 7.0, which includes Adaptive Server Anywhere, delivers database functionality for occasionally connected environments. It enables the design and delivery of corporate information to workgroup, mobile and embedded database systems.

The product is targeted at financial, insurance and health care verticals, says Chris Kleifath, director of engineering for Sybase's iAnywhere. Customers for the out-of-the-box product are Fortune 500 companies with remote sites and OEM partners. More than 500 OEMs bundle SQL Anywhere Studio with other products. Another product, iAnywhere Wireless Server, works on thin clients and micro browsers, with nothing stored on the device.

Each vendor is hoping features in its latest release will pull in more customers. While SQL Server 2000 may solidify Microsoft's position on the Windows platform, IBM and Oracle are battling over the other platforms, armed with their antithetical strategies.