Oracle is RP’s top middleware vendor

Its high-profile buyout of smaller software companies seems to be paying off well for database king Oracle Corp. as it recently cited a newly released report showing it is now the top middleware vendor in the Philippines.

The report by research firm Gartner said the portal, process, and middleware (PPMW) offering of Oracle posted 170-percent revenue growth in the country in 2006 as it grew seven times faster than the market as a whole and more than doubled its market share while the top two vendors lost share.

In Asia Pacific, Oracle grew 70 percent, the fastest growing PPMW vendor among the top three in 2006, according to Gartner. The statement issued by Oracle did not mention the other two middleware vendors.

Gartner’s definition of the PPMW market segment includes general-purpose portal products, Business Process Management-enabling technologies, application integration and platform middleware.

The family of Oracle Fusion Middleware products is composed of Oracle Applications including Oracle E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft Enterprise, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, Siebel CRM, Oracle Transportation Management, Oracle Retail, Demantra, and i-flex.

The company said its Oracle Fusion Middleware has more than 50,000 customers, spanning the financial services, retail, telecommunications, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, health care, transportation and public sector industries.

"In the Philippines, Oracle is gaining strong traction with customers. Oracle Fusion Middleware enables customers to solve their most critical business challenges while providing a clear path to service-oriented architecture," said Leo Liang, vice president of SOA sales for Oracle Asia Pacific.

Oracle said other research firms have also validated the leading position of its middleware offering with Forrester Research "recognizing Oracle as a leader across the board in its evaluation of application server platforms."

The Redwood Shore, California-based software giant said its middleware product is supported by 9,000 partners, including independent software vendors (ISVs), value added resellers, and system integrators.

The definition and scope of middleware has changed significantly during the last three years in line with the need for greater flexibility, better information, productivity, and tighter controls.

Author: Melvin G. Calimag @ www.mb.com.ph

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It's All Gravy For Oracle's Ellison

Oracle CEO and multi-billionaire Larry Ellison wrapped up what was, perhaps, the most important week of his company's year by selling off another 1 million shares of Oracle stock.

According to a Form 4 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Ellison sold the shares as part of a prearranged trading plan on Friday, one day after Oracle's OpenWorld conference concluded in San Francisco.

The shares were sold for $20.68 a share, netting Forbes's No. 11 wealthiest person in the world another $20 million and change. His net worth was estimated at roughly $21.5 billion.

Oracle last week unveiled a series of new products to more than 43,000 OpenWorld attendees, including Oracle VM, the company's first virtualization software offering.

On Wednesday, IT consulting and research firm Saugatuck Technology issued a report suggesting Oracle and other virtualization software vendors still have plenty of time to gain ground on industry leader and Wall Street darling VMware.

"Easier management of virtual infrastructures is critical to broader and accelerated adoption of virtualization," analyst Charlie Burns wrote in the report. "Oracle offers single-source support which addresses some of the challenges of problem management when running Oracle on Linux in a virtual server."

Oracle VM will support Linux and Windows servers and is based on the Xen open source hypervisor. Oracle, which isn't charging for the software but plans to sell service contracts for updates, bug fixes and other support for either $499 or $999 a year, has tacked on a Web-based management console for server administrators to easily migrate and manage applications and operating systems running on both virtual and physical servers.

Oracle shares dipped 32 cents, or 2 percent, to $20.37 a share in Wednesday trading. The stock has fluctuated between $15.97 a share and $23 a share in the past 12 months.

Author: Larry Barrett @ internetnews.com

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SAP axed TomorrowNow execs to avoid black eye over Oracle suit

Analysts on Tuesday said that SAP AG's move to part with key executives at its TomorrowNow subsidiary is likely an attempt to repair a public image that has been tarnished by allegations that TomorrowNow employees illegally downloaded confidential data from Oracle Corp.'s Web site.

The alleged activities of workers at Bryan, Texas-based TomorrowNow are at the epicenter of a lawsuit filed by Oracle in March over alleged illegal software downloads of customer support materials by workers at the subsidiary.

SAP officials declined Tuesday to comment on the resignation of TomorrowNow executives beyond Monday's statement that it is weighing "several options" for the subsidiary, including its possible sale. TomorrowNow, which provides services-based support and maintenance for Oracle-owned PeopleSoft Inc., Siebel Systems Inc. and J.D. Edwards & Co. technology, was acquired by SAP in January 2005.

Noting that SAP is the type of company that "doesn't like to look bad in public," Marc Songini, an analyst at Wellesley, Mass.-based Nucleus Research Inc., said this week's actions show that the ERP software vendor is making a concerted effort to wash its hands of TomorrowNow's suspect actions.

"Whether or not there's any real culpability from the parent company [SAP] as far as illegal downloading, they don't want the black eye," Songini said. "So you had to figure somebody's head was going to roll. Obviously, it doesn't look good for SAP that it's doing this."

Ray Wang, an analyst at Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research Inc., said the departure of TomorrowNow top executives allows SAP to create a "fresh start" and reassures customers that such activities won't occur again.

"SAP's decision to remove the [TomorrowNow] management team is really just another part of the process of building credibility and accountability in that organization," said Wang. "Going forward, I think this really helps with the customers."

Wang did call departing TomorrowNow CEO Andrew Nelson and some other officials "pioneers" in third-party software maintenance. In particular, Wang said Nelson -- and his former TomorrowNow colleague Seth Ravin, who left the firm in 2005 to found another third-party support firm, Rimini Street Inc. -- should be recognized for helping to expose unfair costs and practices historically attributed to third-party software maintenance.

"[Nelson] really had a place and a role to play in terms [of] helping customers see 'what am I really getting for my maintenance dollars.' Too bad it had to end this way for [him]," remarked Wang.

Wang said that Rimini Street could be a viable alternative for existing TomorrowNow customers if SAP sells its subsidiary. He also speculated that Rimini Street could be a potential buyer for the firm.

Author: Brian Fonseca @ www.computerworld.com

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