Steve Ballmer Says He Doesn't Grok Oracle/Sun, and IBM Reveals its Database Response

by Sam Dean - Apr. 22, 2009Comments (0)

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says he doesn't get the point of Oracle's acquisition of Sun Microsystems. After expressing surprise and saying he doesn't understand the deal on Monday, he's now more specific: "I have no idea why a software company would buy a hardware company," Reuters reports him saying while speaking to the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt. "We don't want to buy any hardware companies."

Isn't it a bit reductionist to call Sun "a hardware company?" Sun has a huge portfolio of compelling software, not the least of which is MySQL. On that front, IBM is also revealing how it will counter Oracle and MySQL in the database wars.

Today, EnterpriseDB, the company behind the open source Postgres Plus Advanced Server and PostgreSQL, and IBM announced a partnership to embed EnterpriseDB's Advanced Server software in IBM's DB2 9.7 database. The move is a direct open source-driven shot at Oracle. "These capabilities enable customers to run applications written for Oracle Database -- reducing the cost, time, and risk of migrating applications to Postgres Plus," says EnterpriseDB's announcement. In other words, the idea on IBM's end is to migrate Oracle users to DB2.

IBM and EnterpriseDB already have an existing relationship. Previously, the companies announced that they would work together and announced IBM's investment in EnterpriseDB's $10 million Series C venture capital financing. It's interesting to see huge players such as Oracle and IBM aligning themselves with open source software solutions as they compete. As for Steve Ballmer, I'm not sure I totally believe that he sees Oracle picking up just "a hardware company" in Sun. Microsoft isn't exactly new to the database arena. His comment sounds like it's intended to boost any market confusion surrounding the Oracle/Sun deal.

One thing's for sure: The database wars are going to get going with gusto, and it looks like open source databases are going to be critical as that happens.


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