CRN Interview: IBM's Ambuj Goyal

CRN: Is there a sustainable model for these third parties? In forms processing for example, IBM just bought PureEdge. Is the only successful model for an ISV now getting by a bigger company?

Goyal: Not really. The forms company we bought is about paper-like forms and paper-like processes. There are many companies doing domain-specific forms around content. Just Systems in Japan, one of the largest providers of desktop software, word processing, and they want desktop forms. Rather than choosing to create their own file system and management environment, they build on native XML.

CRN: For systems integrator and VARS, what are the opportunities in this free database and then maybe for full Viper?

Goyal: The opportunity has only extended. The class of applications originally was large to mid enterprises, where they had to go through the procurement process with IBM. With Express-C they can go much lower in the market range. Even to smaller companies[ it's a 390 Mbyte database that can be downloaded and embedded in any application.

CRN: Do you see this as a competitor to MySQL?

Goyal: I want to be clear, our customers are asking for access to the technology. No other vendor has the capabilities like the Starburst compiler…and the ability to handle non- hierarchical database…the technologies we've invested in for 16 years, in query optimization and management, scalabily, security. That technology is not easily accessible to developers and small enterprises.

Everyone has to go through a procurement process. Our job is to make that much easier.

There is a support option for larger implementations and move to other versions as the next step.

CRN: What are you seeing generally in the competitive field, now that Microsoft Yukon has shipped and we've had a few years of Oracle 10g.

Goyal: First of all, database is a fairly mature market, growing at about five to six per cent a year and that number keeps getting shifted downwards. In that space we compete with Microsoft and Oracle typically. Information management is way beyond the means of just relational databases. If you take a look at content management market, which is also in the info management space, that is growing 8 or 9 percent, much faster than database repositories. In that space we compete against Documentum and FileNet, but not Oracle and Microsoft.

The next thing happening in information management is that information today is tied up into repositories, into applications and systems, but ask a line-of-business exec or CEO, they will say custom information from across the enterprise is not available to optimized business processes, customer care and employment productivity needs. It needs to be freed up. It needs to be seen in context.

The success of repositories in applications yields a new problem in the enterprise. Seventy percent of line-of-business execs and CEOs--survey after survey says the same thing. Now we have invested in freeing up that info, this is about meta data management, about integration, semantic reconciliation, master data management. At the end of the day, this is the next need of customers.

In meta data management and integration we do not typically see Microsoft, Oracle, Documentum and Filenet. There we compete with Informatica. In information warehousing, we compete against Teradata and others. In master data management, the next competitor has maybe 20 to 30 customers.

What's happening now is we are delivering complete information management needs to the enterprise. In databases, we're either number one or two In new licenses, we are number one. In maintenance revenue stream we are number two. New licenses is where the new traction is.

In content management, we're number one with over 13,000 customers. In databases we have 450,000 customers. In information integration, freeing up information, over 5,000 customers, we are number one. In master data management, where where we reconcile information in context, we are number one, with over 1,000 customers. In each case we are number one or number 2. No other vendor delivers that.

We do not have to escape into ERP to grow our revenue.