By Siobhan Kennedy
Oracle Corp will use the first day of the Internet World show in New York today (Wednesday) to attempt to lure developers off Microsoft Corp’s NT server and onto its 8i database platform. According to sources close to the software giant, Oracle will announce new technology and additions to existing tools to make it easier for developers to write applications to 8i.
Speaking yesterday in New York during a press conference about its Business OnLine ASP service, the company’s chairman and CEO Larry Ellison made a play for developers to move to Oracle. He said that Microsoft’s most important asset is its developers. But something’s changed. Windows is no longer the most economical way to deliver software…the internet is. He said that Oracle’s key competitors weren’t the traditional database vendors anymore, such as Sybase, PeopleSoft, or even Microsoft’s own SQL or IBM’s DB2. It’s NT, Ellison said, because we’re telling developers don’t develop on NT and deliver your applications on a Dell box, develop on 8i and deliver them over the web. That’s the message.
To that end, the source said that Oracle will today introduce a new set of components called Oracle Business Components for Java, that will speed the development of open, reusable components for application development. It also plans to announce enhancements to its existing tool set, including its Oracle J developer, as well as push the use of its application server environment as the best way to develop software applications going forward. In addition, the company will produce statistics that show an increase in Oracle developers – from 40,000 eight months ago, to nearly 400,000 today, of which the majority, Oracle will claim, have defected from Microsoft’s NT camp.
