IBM and Oracle: Another Corporate Scuffle

March 22, 2011

I just caught up with some in box info and read “IBM Fires Back at Oracle in Middleware Fray.” I had pigeon holed Oracle as an outfit preoccupied with legal spats with SAP and Google. Wrong. Oracle has time to needle IBM and other enterprise vendors about middleware performance. Now I think “middleware performance” like search is pretty much a fuzzy wuzzy notion. Proving speed or anything else when middleware or search is involved is little more than an exercise in sophistry.

IBM, now that its PR run with Jeopardy is history has time to take umbrage at Oracle’s hints that IBM software is like an ageing sprinter or a chubby marathoner. According to the write up:

Big Blue released new SPECjEnterprise 2010 benchmarking statistics on Friday that it said “demonstrate how businesses using IBM WebSphere middleware on Power 7 hardware can get the lowest cost for performance in the industry.” IBM also claimed that it “has proven 76 percent higher performance than Oracle overall.” In addition, IBM has launched a new website that lays into Oracle on a number of fronts. “Are you overpaying for Oracle Database? Hint. You’re overpaying for Oracle Database,” one barb reads.

Why the response? I am not sure any of the Fortune 1000 get too excited about claims from either company. Once a decision is made to go Oracle or IBM, the likelihood of a sudden shift drops off. If an option is required, I think younger information technology professionals will angle to fiddle with open source, maybe cloud solutions. Others will want to tire kick different options from start ups, but at the end of the day, dislodging either Oracle or IBM is easier said than done.

My view is that Oracle and IBM are at a point where the next customer has to come from the other company’s customer list. Will the strategy work? In my view, there will be some shifting, the financial and business pressures are such that the thrashings of these giants will be good theater, not great generators of new business.

Entertaining for me. Perhaps I am wrong, but I see in this dust up more posturing than meaningful marketing. Just my opinion.

Stephen E Arnold, March 22, 2011

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Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Enterprise, Marketing, News

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.