8i reasons to go Oracle

1999-07-16

When is a database not a database? When it is also an application server, a development environment, a search tool and a Java Virtual Machine. It would appear that Oracle customers find the bolt-on features a side issue to the database’s core competence – that of scalable, performant information management. It is difficult to gauge whether the movers and shakers within the company are too worried – indeed, as Oracle’s market share continues to rise, the success of the new features (or otherwise) would seem to be of only minor importance. For now.

Oracle’s “additional features” are far more than that. A three-layer architecture comprises the user interface, the application layer and the database and Oracle 8i has something to offer in each layer. Considering Oracle’s moves to strip down the operating system (with Raw Iron, now known as its Information Appliance), it is possible to imagine an IT development and operational system consisting of no more than hardware and Oracle software. 8i is not a database with add-ons, it is an application environment with an information store.

Hey, they’re all doing it. Just two days ago we showed how Sun’s J-based strategy was putting the squeeze on both the OS and the application architecture. SUN haven’t produced JQL yet, but the bets are on that they are thinking about it.

So what are we seeing here? The Internet has resulted in new concepts, paradigms and other architectural clichés upon which applications may be built. Things are stabilising fast – the thin-client, three layer architecture, centralised on the server, is becoming the de facto approach. Vendors from all disciplines are keen to move into this newly formed space and make it their own. The standardised, stable world of applications servers is no bad thing for systems implementors but will inevitably spell a horrible death for many vendors who are currently converging into the same space. As with the hardware market, the increasingly stable architectural boundaries become the battle lines and it is a battle from which there will emerge few winners.

(First published 16 July 1999)