NEWS ANALYSIS
The SQL Server-enabled offerings were
developed as part of a $250 million HP-Microsoft
product integration effort announced last year.
The Microsoft-oriented conference took place
less than a year after Oracle hired former HP CEO
Mark Hurd, which prompted HP to file a lawsuit
against the database vendor. Hurd joined Oracle
shortly after he was ousted from HP — a forced
resignation that Oracle CEO Larry Ellison blamed
on “cowardly corporate political correctness.”
And in March, Oracle announced that it would
stop supporting its products on Intel Itanium-based
systems. HP, which sells the majority of Itanium-
based servers, this month hinted that it may file
a lawsuit unless Oracle reverses the decision.
Citing HP’s clear moves to encourage users of
its hardware to migrate from Oracle to Microsoft software, some IT executives at companies
running Oracle software on HP systems remain
skeptical of official assurances that they have
nothing to worry about.
“They are speaking out of both sides of their
mouths,” said Allen Allison, chief security officer
at NaviSite, a colocation and managed hosting
provider with 12 data centers worldwide.
NaviSite runs Oracle software on HP x86
Itanium-based systems. “I think they realize
that at the end of the day, as much as [HP] loves
being partnered with Microsoft, they do have a
significant installed base with Oracle,” Allison
said at the conference.
John Belliveau, a senior systems engineer at a
financial services firm he asked not be identified,
said he hopes to look at the HP-Microsoft data
warehouse offering, particularly because of its
attractive licensing plan.
But he added that it would be tough for his firm
to stop using Oracle software on its HP hardware.
“It’s one thing to announce at a conference that
you are taking [Oracle] on, but it’s another thing to prove that you
really belong in the same ring,” Belliveau said.
Charles King, an analyst at Pund-IT, said he hopes that HP’s
Oracle customers needn’t worry about abandonment.
“The real question to consider is how far and how deeply
this schism between [Oracle and HP] goes,” King said. “As an
undying optimist, I hope Oracle and HP work things out, but if
that proves impossible, users have numerous other options,” such
as replacing their hardware and/or shifting to new software.
“Migrating to an entirely new hardware and software stack
is far less onerous today than it ever was in the past,” King said.
“HP and Oracle would be wise to keep that in mind.” u
Chris Kanaracus and Nancy Gohring of the IDG News Service
contributed to this story.
HP, Microsoft Team
Up Against Oracle
As its feud with Oracle continues, HP pushes
Microsoft SQL Server-enabled offerings at its
user conference. By Patrick Thibodeau
HEWLET T-PACKARD SAYS that more Oracle databases and applications run on its computers than on any other vendor’s machines. Nonetheless, I T executives attending HP’s Discover 2011 user conference in Las Vegas earlier
this month didn’t find Oracle exhibiting on the show floor. And
although the company’s name appeared on the show program, it
was for a session titled “Oracle Database Migrations to Microsoft
SQL Server With HP Services.”
Microsoft, meanwhile, was a major presence as HP showed
off products optimized for Microsoft’s SQL Server database,
including the HP Business Data Warehouse Appliance and the
HP Database Consolidation Solution for Microsoft SQL, which
consolidates transactional databases.
As an undying optimist, I hope Oracle and HP work things out, but if that proves impossible,
users have numerous other options. — CHARLES KING, ANALYST, PUND-IT
