By the time it finally got around to introducing itself last week, IBM Corp had bailed out from the X/Open Co Ltd-backed New Information Industry Co-operative Endeavour, NIICE, which aims to get the database community to open up its interfaces. NIICE starts life with Microsoft Corp, Sybase Inc, Computer Associates International Inc, Novell Inc and Lotus Development Corp as founder members. The fact that Informix Software Inc and Oracle Corp are absent suggested to observers on the one hand that NIICE is a Sybase front, driven by its PowerSoft Corp acquisition, and that neither Informix or Oracle is in the business of handing their specs over to it. The alternative view was that NIICE implies databases are fast becoming commodity items – a prospect Oracle and Informix would not relish – though last time we looked, Oracle was not shaking in its boots. Common application programming interfaces for messaging middleware, repository tools, system management and application tools and Open Database Connectivity technologies are what NIICE will investigate. With no dedicated staff to call its own, X/Open will do the administration and collect membership fees, not yet set, for NIICE. The first meeting is at DB/Expo in May.
