Oracle/IBM Battle Beyond The Database

(Via Javaworld)Oracle is building its middleware portfolio through R&D and acquisitions and is increasingly getting positioned as head-to-head competitor with IBM. Already locked in the database slugfest, the middleware fight seems to add a distinct flavour to it. SAP and Microsoft, also see opportunity as corporate data centers move to environments where data and systems are shared and reused in so-called service-oriented architectures. Middleware - such as application servers, business integration software, and data management systems based on open standards and Web services - provides the foundation for this new IT environment. Information and the integration of information is becoming much more important, as it helps enterprise gain insight into their own operations, their customers and their competitors. The fight is essentially controlling every possible space as the industry itself is transiting, mutating before consolidation.
We recently covered IBM’s aggressive middleware acquisition strategy and IBM’s domination of the EAI market. Oracle is in a similar acquisition spree – outside of its application business, notoable acquisitions include acquisition of the assets of content integration software maker Context Media, identity management software – Oblix & Collaxa for business rules engine. IBM is working towards providing native XML support for DB2 & Websphere product line shall be geared for grid deployments, an area where oracle already has a lead. Oracle appserver is gaining more respect and IDC analysis shows that Oracle's application-deployment software business growing at twice the rate of the market average. With changing markets, customers are looking for databases, application servers, message-oriented middleware, and even applications and tools that integrate well, and prefer buying form one vendor. Oracle is positioning itself as a software vendor that can provide the integrated infrastructure that a corporate buyer needs, from its database to its PeopleSoft enterprise applications—all supported on its flexible, grid-based infrastructure.Interesting development- but all point to one thing - consolidation is happening fast at least at the base of the technology stack and big players shall dominate - but they have to do a lot( more efforts and spend more resoorces) to become more pronounced.