Re: How to determine database market share?

mikharakiri_nospaum_at_yahoo.com wrote:
> Paul wrote:
> > I have been having a debate recently on another forum about database
> > market penetration and how to measure it.
> ...
> > So, guys, I'm basically asking - what is the best metric to use for
> > establishing (even a rough) an idea of db penetration in a given
> > market. Personally I can't see a better one than job-ads, but am more
> > than willing to listen to other ideas/concepts that people might have.

You get very little data about databases marketed indirectly through VARs/ISVs by consulting job-ads. For example, take a look at

http://www-306.ibm.com/software/data/u2/solutions/find.html

When a customer of one of the companies listed as U2 Business Partners is looking for an IT professional, they are likely to indicate that they want experience with their packaged application software and might not even mention the database. With database products that don't typically separate dba and developer functions, they can lump all database work within the job descriptions for application developers and classify it by requesting experience with the application.

Also, for databases that don't have much market visibility apart from the visibility of the applications that use them, they might not be seen as "cool databases" so companies might not be inclined to advertise for the skillsets required of these environments directly. Take a look at the open developer positions at some of these U2 Business Partner companies (I didn't do that to check right now) and I'm guessing they will not all mention looking for PICK or U2 skills. It would narrow the list of prospective employees unnecessarily as it is easy enough to train on the job.

It is difficult to know if the figure I have heard quoted of a $5 billion dollar annual industry for the collective market of databases (not related applications) based on PICK (including U2) is anywhere close to accurate. But if you didn't have any knowledge of this industry at all and just looked at job-ads, I'm guessing you would really miss the mark. There might be a similar situation for products like Cache', Berkeley-DB, and others.

--dawn Received on Sun Oct 23 2005 - 13:43:42 CDT