“MOST computer systems nowadays have at their core a database
management system (DBMS). Over the last 15 years or so, the DBMS
market has become the most keenly contested in the computer
industry, because of the software’s key position at the heart of
the organisation’s IT infrastructure.”
“The biggest advance in DBMS software in the past decade has
been the almost universal adoption of the relational DBMS
model”
“There are a half dozen or so major players in the DBMS market.
Largest by far is Oracle, which is increasing its lead each year.
There is a general trend in the IT industry that the big players
get even bigger, and the smaller players fall behind.”
“Hardly anybody bought DB2 for Unix. Just last week IBM
announced a major new release of DB2 for Unix, which is now called
Universal DB2 because it also runs on Windows NT. It has fluffed
yet another opportunity to rename this ill-fated product. UDB might
have worked, but it’s probably too late now. Oracle has won, and
SQL/Server is the big threat.”