Since my first introduction to Oracle in 1993, I have remained a loyal “non-Oracle” devotee.

What I find most amusing is that the choice is usually made by whomever is in charge when something new needs to be installed. Once they are gone, you see the next *great* tool get installed and so on…

Since they all seem to support each other; at this point, does it really matter which you chose?

I have been caught in the middle of the MS V. Oracle “Jihad” often and if it truly comes down to a Jihad – then everyone looses because the business is paralyzed and can’t move forward.

Seriously, I can’t imagine what MS would look like without Oracle spurring them on! And I can’t imagine what Oracle would look like without MS nipping at their heels! This level of competition only brings good things to us who are patient, those of us who avoid the collateral damage of the Jihad and thrive on practicality and common sense.

I recently rolled off of an engagement where they were running not only Oracle and Microsoft, but also IBM DB2 UDB, Informix (almost 3000 installations), Sybase, RedBrick (not sure if I spelled this one correctly and guess what, even Google no longer has information on these folks), and MySql. They are very aware of the lifecycle of each product and when and how they should be used – because they did it right – they have a _real_ governance with _real_ architects making _real_ decisions in _real_ time (sorry had to go for four _real_s).

Bottom line is what products do you have, where? What are they doing? What skills do have and how will your organization look 2,3-5 years from now? What is the TOC for each product and what’s your best swag at an ROI? Then, develop a strategy – but commit to revisiting it twice a year at least to ensure it’s still running the business!

~ Scott Felten