Re: Company thought DB2 will be better than Oracle.

You are aware that ISVs like Siebel and Peoplesoft develop on DB2 as their reference platform?

Larry

Obnoxio The Clown wrote:

> DBA wrote:
>
> > You can't compare choosing IBM vs. choosing Informix. IBM is not likely to
> > go out of business or be taken over by another company. The market share
> > #'s are much closer than you indicate.
>
> Not in the UK they're not.
>
> However, I would like to point out that a lot of people *did* choose
> Informix over DB2, and they typically did this for several reasons:
>
> 1. They preferred the technology.
> 2. They preferred dealing with a company where they were considered
> important, rather than a company where customers and their wants get in the
> way of a process.
> 3. They bought into a vision that the database was a differentiating product
> and not a commodity.
> 4. Etc.
>
> They did all this despite the fact that Informix's market share had eroded
> over the years.
>
> The car analogy doesn't really work in this case, because there are other
> factors that influence a car purchase. I, for example, drive a very large
> BMW because I have a very small willy. Market share played no part in my
> decision, only the desire for a large, throbbing, thrusting ... car. Ahem.
> No database vendor markets to that sector of the market, AFAIK. (Although I
> haven't been playing close attention to Oracle's marketing lately, to be
> fair, they have probably got this base covered too.)
>
> However, market share *is* important for ISVs and third party developers --
> they are reluctant to develop on and support a platform that doesn't give
> them broad exposure to the market. Conversely, this affects your decision
> because it means that you have access to more applications and resources
> with a product that owns a bigger market share. (This argument falls down
> if you have a niche requirement that can only be satisfied by one product
> of course! :o)
>
> Informix was hugely popular in the ISV space despite a less than massive
> market share, because they made it easy to do business with them, something
> I've found can only be said about IBM with your fingers crossed behind your
> back.
>
> --
> "C'est pas parce qu'on n'a rien à dire qu'il faut fermer sa gueule"
> - Coluche
Received on Sun Sep 14 2003 - 16:28:09 CEST