SQL & BI : Competitive Info

Microsoft Positioned in the Leader Quadrant in Gartner’s latest Magic Quadrant for Data Warehouse DBMS, 2007

EmmaB — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 00:30:28 GMT

Here are the main points from this....

Microsoft is positioned in the Leader quadrant in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Data Warehouse DBMS.

The analysts say that SQL Server 2005 is expected to grow in the data warehouse space.

Microsoft’s vision for SQL Server 2008 makes clear the company’s intent to become a major presence in the data warehouse market.

SQL Server has been leading in Data Warehousing benchmarks by delivering the #1 price/performance for the 3TB TPC-H non-clustered benchmark and the #1 performance result for the 1TB TPC-H

You can find the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Warehouse Database Management Systems, 2007 at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/oct07/10-12DWMQPR.mspx

SAP to buy Business Objects

EmmaB — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 11:27:17 GMT

There has been speculation around this for some time but it has now been announced that SAP are to buy Business Objects. At a cost of $6.8B. More consolidation of the market.

Find out more here

Oracle charges for extra functionality

EmmaB — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 13:38:22 GMT

Oracle has released details on the pricing of its Oracle Database 11g software, disclosing that some of the most talked-about features in the new release will be sold as extra-cost add-ons.

When the vendor announced the 11g version of its database in New York, company executives spoke at length about new functionality but didn't address pricing.

Worth bearing in mind for any Partners that are comparing the costs of SQL- based solutions.

Full article here

Oracle - Consolidation continues

EmmaB — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 19:55:21 GMT

Just back from my holidays and yet more consolidation of the BI marketplace has taken place! There has been speculation on potential acquisitions recently and Gartner has been suggesting that this market will move towards a smaller number of "mega-vendors".

Larry Ellison is spending $3.3 billion on Hyperion.

Here is the Oracle announcement.

Microsoft has a strong capability message in this space - SQL Server 2005, the 2007 Office System, and the new PerformancePoint Server.

MIcrosoft also has a great interoperabiltiy story with both Hyperion and SAP products.

For customers using Hyperion today, Microsoft and Hyperion announced a partnership in April 2006 to deliver tighter integration between our respective technologies. As part of this agreement, Microsoft has delivered integration as part of SQL Server 2005 SP2 to enable SQL Server Reporting Services to query Hyperion Essbase cubes (see this whitepaper).

For customers using SAP today, Microsoft has a strong partnership with SAP and integration with their products. Customers can use SQL Server Reporting Services to build high quality reports on SAP NetWeaver BI sources (see whitepaper). See more details on the Microsoft SAP interoperability page for BI.

In addition, Microsoft have a migration offer (50% discount on SQL Server license) on qualifying competitive database migrations.

Still #1 on OLAP report

EmmaB — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 21:05:23 GMT

Good news from www.olapreport.com – Microsoft continues to be number 1 and grow OLAP market share!

We have almost one third of the market share (31.6%) (last year 27.9%).

We were also one of the few vendors that actually grew market share last year and with the exception of Applix, Microsoft was the fastest growing OLAP vendor.

"Microsoft finally managed to release its long-delayed SQL Server 2005 a few weeks before the end of 2005, so the much enhanced new release was available for all of 2006. The growth rate of SQL Server (and therefore Analysis Services) duly jumped, and ran at over 30 percent throughout the year. This increased growth rate is unlikely to continue in 2007, as no major releases are due.

During 2006, Microsoft also acquired ProClarity. With Microsoft behind it, ProClarity’s sales also jumped. Note that the mere acquisition of ProClarity did not increase Microsoft's OLAP market share, as we were already including ProClarity in the Microsoft ecosystem, but the acceleration of ProClarity sales does increase it slightly, assuming that some of the ProClarity sales were made instead of Excel rather than, say, Panorama.

Microsoft announced PerformancePoint in late 2006, which will ship in about September 2007. It entered the CTP phase at the end of 2006, and was quickly downloaded thousands of times. Although PerformancePoint itself is unlikely to generate significant revenues during 2007, it may help SQL Server sales. In any case, PerformancePoint will replace ProClarity and Microsoft’s existing Business Scorecard Manager, so some of its sales will simply replace the older products."

Take a look at the full report to read more.

More consolidation - more acquisitions

EmmaB — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 01:08:21 GMT

Another acquisition in the BI market!

Hyperion have announced the acquisition of Decisioneering - a decision analysis software and solutions company with the Crystal Ball software - a predictive analytics, simulation and modeling tool.

This follows on the heels of Cognos' acquisition last week of Celequest.

Both these moves appear to be to enhance their 2.0 capabilities. It was that long ago that the major vendors were acquiring BPM basics such as budgeting or dashboards - now they have moved on to next-generation acquisitions and seem to be following the outline for 2.0

Announcement here

55 patches for Oracle

EmmaB — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 00:46:29 GMT

Its taken them over 3 years to follow suit but Oracle are taking a page straight out of Microsoft's playbook by implementing an advance notice mechanism for its quarterly release of security patches.

But what will this tell us?

According to Oracle's website, the quarterly CPU (Critical Patch Update) started on Jan. 16. and included 55 patches!!! That includes 24 for bugs that can be exploited remotely by attackers!

Hmmm....

We started offering advance notice on monthly security bulletins in late 2003.

"Generally, such flaws -- characterized by Oracle as "remotely exploitable without authentication" -- are considered critical threats by security researchers and vendors. "

(InformationWeek - January 12, 2007)

Oracle's security response and patch release process has been criticised before

FInd out more here

Microsoft crashes IBM Lotus Party with migration tools

EmmaB — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 02:58:37 GMT

eWeek - January 22, 2007

At the kickoff of IBM's annual Lotusphere conference in Orlando, Fla., Microsoft announced a series of tools to help Lotus Notes/Domino customers take advantage of the unified communication and collaboration innovations that are being delivered as part of the recently released Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, the 2007 Microsoft Office system and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 technologies,

More and more companies are making the move to our unified communication and collaboration platform because of its integrated set of capabilities as well as new innovations including support for wikis, RSS feeds, blogs, social networking tools, unified messaging and VOIP (voice over IP) integration. And according to analyst estimates, Microsoft represented 52 percent of the integrated collaborative environments market revenue in 2005 and experienced double-digit growth year over year the two years before.

Customers will be able to download the new tools and templates within the next 30 days at no charge here.

10 Most Influential: Business Intelligence

EmmaB — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 16:02:37 GMT

Who are the 10 most influential players in BI according to Computer Business Review? Take a look.

Heres what they say about Microsoft....

"There is no mistaking that Microsoft is putting its heart and soul into developing a set of top-drawer reporting, OLAP analysis and data integration BI capabilities around Microsoft SQL Server 2005.

Microsoft's recent acquisition of ProClarity also sets the stage for a bigger BI push than ever before by giving its BI servers a front-end capability that has been lacking for some time. And with its Dynamics SL applications suite, Microsoft is stepping up its activities in the area of performance management as well.

For companies looking to standardise on enterprise BI, Microsoft's 'all-in-one' approach is becoming more compelling. Of course, the company's dominance of the corporate desktop with its Office suite makes it a strong proposition for delivering BI to the masses.

Microsoft is clearly back in the BI race and its impact on the established BI vendors will be profound."

19th July 2006 - CBR

For the whole list of 10 Read here

Web Developers take a look at what Microsoft now has!

EmmaB — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 15:53:21 GMT

Yesterday Microsoft announced Expression Studio - a new suite of tools for web developers. I will be working on this new offering to develop a channel for Microsoft. So expect to see more info as it emerges.

The Microsoft Expression Studio consists of Expression Web (formerly known by the code name Quartz); Expression Blend, the new name for Microsoft Interactive Designer (formerly known by the code name Sparkle); Expression Design, the new name for Expression Graphic Designer (formerly known by the code name Acrylic); and a new tool, Expression Media.

This new technology will offer a tool for developers that currently use products such as Adobe Macromedia & Dreamweaver.

Expression Web, the Web design tool that had been in beta up to now, is available immediately. Expression Studio and all of the individual products will ship in the second quarter of 2007.

Microsoft Unveils Expression Studio, Preview of WPF/E

eWeek - December 04, 2006

Microsoft on Monday introduced Expression Studio, an integrated suite of tools for designers, and released a new preview of technology that it's developing to challenge Adobe Systems' Flash.

SQL Server 2005 overtakes Oracle dwh - 270TB!

EmmaB — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 14:44:00 GMT

November 20, 2006 Computerworld

"At the annual conference of the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) user group, Microsoft said it is designing a 270TB multinode data warehouse for a foreign government. Microsoft is also working on a 162TB single-node installation for its own marketing department.

Both systems would easily top a 100TB Oracle data warehouse at Yahoo Inc. that in September 2005 was ranked as the world’s largest known installation by Winter Corp., a Waltham, Mass.-based consulting firm. Winter has yet to update its rankings, and Mark Souza, Microsoft’s group program manager for SQL Server, acknowledged last week that larger data warehouses may exist at user sites that prefer not to be ranked for competitive or national security reasons.

Nonetheless, some users and analysts at the PASS conference said that with SQL Server 2005, Microsoft is putting to rest lingering doubts about its ability to handle large enterprise workloads."

Read the whole article here

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=274454

Gartner Magic Quadrant - Microsoft moves!

EmmaB — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 15:16:00 GMT

Gartner have just released the 2006 Gartner Data Warehouse Database Management Systems Magic Quadrant.

And Microsoft has moved position!

"significant progress Microsoft has made in the Data Warehouse (DW) Database Management Systems (DBMS) market, moving from deep placement in the challenger’s quadrant to riding the line between leader and challenger."

Watch out Oracle & IBM - we are on your heels! :-)

http://mediaproducts.gartner.com/reprints/microsoft/article10/article10.html

Microsoft Server - Database Business Blooms

EmmaB — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 11:38:00 GMT

"Microsoft Server, Database Programs, Once Derided, Boost Sales" - by Dina Bass

Bloomberg News - October 26, 2006

I liked this article. It includes lots of speculative numbers but the overall message is - the perception of Microsoft SQL Server has changed and grown in the marketplace.

``I sleep well at night knowing one of my key projects is tied in with Microsoft,'' said Gary Greenwald, who runs Citigroup's business that produces information tools for clients. ``Years ago, perhaps people would have had trouble saying that.''

When the author, Dina Bass, called Oracle spokesman Bob Wynne seeking comment, the calls weren't returned. IBM spokesman Chris Andrews said there is ``growing interest'' in Microsoft's products.

Take a look at the full article - http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=aEdIRfVOguWA&refer=technology

Business Intelligence Goes Mainstream (VARBusiness)

EmmaB — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 19:05:00 GMT

VARBusiness recently covered the emergence of BI based on a survey conducted by the publication. Microsoft was ranked highest against the pure play vendors. This is a big win and a great example of Microsoft’s BI momentum.

Of note:

"Half of solution providers plan to sell BI solutions in the next 18 months, for example; and 16 percent of those folks are diving into the space for the first time or expanding existing BI practices. Helping drive momentum, technology vendors such as Microsoft, Business Objects, Oracle and Sage Software have flooded the channel with friendlier wares aimed at penetrating the vast midmarket."

"Nearly one-third of respondents dubbed the company (Microsoft) the most innovative in BI, followed by Business Objects and Oracle. Microsoft also ranked tops in CRM and accounting software."

"Microsoft has worked wonders with its SQL Reporting Services software, which partners are using to quickly build customized reporting and analytics solutions."

http://www.varbusiness.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=190303067&pgno=1&queryText=sql+server

"Microsoft may have multicore price edge"

EmmaB — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 17:04:00 GMT

An interesting article on InfoWorld.

Analysts believe that Microsoft may have multicore price edge as we continue to charge per processor for software, not per core.

"Microsoft Corp. could have an early advantage over competitors IBM Corp. and Oracle Corp. as some software companies begin shifting pricing to accommodate servers with multicore processors", analysts said.

"Moore's Law shouldn't mean more expensive software," said Andy Lees, corporate vice president of server and tools marketing at Microsoft, referring to the observation by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore that microprocessor power will double every 18 months without raising the cost of manufacturing. "Multicore is just a way of making processors more powerful. We embrace it because it's good for the customer."

Take a look at the full article

http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/08/08/HNmicrosoftmulticoreprice_1.html