Microsoft more open than Oracle? Who'd have thought it?

Oracle may be signalling its intention to strong-arm customers over to its new virtualisation platform, but Microsoft is doing just the opposite.

As part of news announced recently regarding its virtualisation-enabled Windows Server 2008 and its new standalone Hyper-V Server software, Microsoft also unveiled its Server Virtualisation Validation Program.

The programme, which will become available next June, is intended to help companies using Windows Server in conjunction with third-party server virtualisation platforms get support if technical problems arise, according to a posting late last week on Microsoft's official Windows Server division blog.

The program allows companies such as VMware, or Xen provider Citrix Systems "to self-test and validate a specific virtualisation stack (hardware + hypervisor) to provide customers out-of-the-box support for Windows guest OSes," Alessandro Perilli, an Italy-based consultant, wrote on his Virtualisation.info blog.

Previously, Microsoft would only try to support Windows Server users using non-Microsoft virtualisation if they paid for pricey Premier Support, according to Frank Artale, vice president of business development at Citrix, who confirmed the vendor's plans to join the program.

"Now, Microsoft and Citrix can work together to jointly support customers, exchange bug info and solve problems," he said.

Until now, Microsoft only had a joint support relationship for non-Microsoft hardware virtualisation software with Novell

Virtual Iron Software also plans to join the programme, which will enable joint support for Windows Server 2000, 2003 and 2008. Other vendors expressing support are listed online.

Market leader VMware, which has been tangling with Microsoft all year on virtualisation, "intends to review and participate" in Microsoft's programme when more details emerge, wrote Dan Chu, vice president for emerging products and markets at VMware, in an e-mail.

"VMware and Microsoft have extensively discussed joint support for our mutual customers in the last year," Chu wrote. "We're currently working to ensure that customers receive the support they need, and that VMware environments are optimised for Microsoft operating systems and applications.

"Microsoft and VMware already handle customer support issues together through TSAnet and the direct relationship between our companies," he wrote. "The development of this programme further extends Microsoft's support policies and enhances customers' ability to choose the right virtualisation platform for their environment without worrying about the artificial constraints of support policy."

The programme does not apply to Microsoft applications such as SQL Server, although the Windows Server blog hinted that could change.

Oracle executives, in contrast to Microsoft, said last week during the OpenWorld conference that customers running Oracle applications in non-Oracle virtualisation platforms break their enterprise support contract.

VMware asserted that Oracle has been supporting their joint customers since 2006. Despite Oracle's "marketing spin," VMware is confident that Oracle will continue to its support, pointing to statements by CEO Larry Ellison and language in Oracle's own support contracts.

Citrix's Artale noted that this is "an interesting case where Microsoft appears to be much more open than other vendors" such as Oracle. He said he had not yet spoken with Oracle about Oracle's support plans, though he said any pulling of support would affect Citrix less than VMware. Most of Citrix's customers for XenServer virtualise Windows Server rather than Linux, upon which Oracle applications tend to run, he said.

In any case, some Oracle users are unfazed.

This "is nothing more than a 'good cop, bad cop' ploy'" from Oracle, said Karl Ehr, IT operations manager at Golden Gate University in San Francisco. The school plans to move some of its Oracle applications to VMware within half a year. Oracle pulling support for big users such as Golden Gate, he says, "is not going to happen."

Author: Eric Lai @ Computerworld.com

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Oracle scores with partner portal

Oracle has reaffirmed its commitment to the channel by unveiling a range of new tools to help its partners drive business forward.

At its Oracle Partner Network Day event last week at the Arsenal Emirates Stadium, the database software vendor unveiled its Oracle Marketing Services for Partners portal that will offer tools and services to help VARs carry out effective and targeted marketing activities.

The vendor also launched a new Oracle Business Accelerator Authoring Tool based on its JD Edwards software, which will give partners the ability to design and build new interactive questionnaires.

Stein Surlien, vice president of EMEA alliances and channels at Oracle, said: “Partners are very important to Oracle. About 44 per cent of our total licence revenue last year came through the channel and it has been showing double digit growth for the past five years.

We are spending $40m in partner development every year. Partnering excellence is one of our five key drivers and profitability is key.”

David Forrest, director at Oracle certified partner Percipient, said: “Over the past five years there have been changes in our relationship with Oracle. It has been a great relationship in terms of marketing, lead generation, advertising and exhibitions.”

Author: Sara Yirrell @ www.channelweb.co.uk

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How Oracle can lose by winning

If you want to have a good laugh, take a look at Oracle Corp.'s complaint against SAP AG, SAP America and the recent SAP acquisition, TomnorrowNow. It almost humorously describes the efforts of SAP to create a third-party support program aimed at current Oracle users, especially the ones sick of paying for Oracle's support and never-ending upgrades. View the complaint. Nobody can be certain how such lawsuits turn out, but I can't see how Oracle does not have SAP over a barrel.

The chief executive of Bryan, Texas-based TomorrowNow didn't help matters by resigning. See related story.
The crux of the case stems from Oracle's ability to track down what seems to have been a spidering operation, where TomorrowNow allegedly sent a crawler into the Oracle support site and downloaded every document it could find. That appears to be a clear violation of the terms of service of the support site. Curiously, it looks like Honeywell International Inc. was one company with alleged access to the site.

Oracle charges that TomorrowNow, using Honeywell's and other customers' accounts and passwords, went on the support site and downloaded what it could. Oracle also says that this was to be used for providing the exact same support services sold by SAP.

Normally, these sorts of tech lawsuits are dry and boring, but the writer of this particular complaint makes the story exciting -- employing the radical concept of plain English to explain the situation in detail. Apparently SAP, via TomorrowNow, thought it would be able to reproduce the entire Oracle support database for its own use. The legal filing also claims the company wanted to do a "cut-rate" service; it also includes unlawyerly-like terms such as "50 cents on the dollar" and "bankrolling." I found the whole thing to be a hoot. More importantly, by using common language it's an excellent PR vehicle. When you read it, you are convinced that Oracle is 100% in the right and SAP is bad.

I'm certain that this legal document was written to be read by the public, which is an interesting concept. A good proportion of the document is blatant self-promotion as would be presented by a PR person. But there is a subtext within the document that presents a problem for Oracle. It sounds as if the various licenses and terms of service lock users down so much that a prospective customer will have to think twice about using the Oracle products. I mean, the message is clear: Nobody is going to be able to provide "cut-rate," third-party support for companies too cheap to pay the full fare. What's more, once on the Oracle treadmill, you'll never be able to get off it.

This translates into pricey support and endless upgrades. To Oracle, support and upgrades add up to $2.1 billion in revenue, according to the corporate-software giant's third-quarter earnings report. If customers feel cornered by Oracle and these expenses, will they shy away from Oracle in the first place? Winning this suit sends a bad message. The company is going to have to license third-party support for its products somehow. That is the only way that a long-term safety net can be created to assuage users. Because Oracle has created a gravy train for itself with no escape routes for the clients, it will not be able to give up any of the free money. Who would? Generally speaking, I'm not jazzed about software plans where, like it or not, you are wedded for life. It cannot be a good decision to choose such a route. This complaint, ironically, spells that out.

Author: John C. Dvorak @ Marketwatch

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