October 16, 2009

THE EXCITING world of storage and databases has just gotten more interesting as Oracle supremo Larry Ellison has escalated a handbags at dawn fight with IBM.

Ellison apparently miffed Oracle's long time database competitor Biggish Blue by outbidding it to steal big tin server and software maker Sun Microsystems for $7.4 billion.

The move made Ellison a one-stop technology shop keeper like IBM and led to Big Blue and HP engaging in a sales war for the hearts and minds of Sun's perhaps soon to be former customers.

Now Ellison has offered $10 million for anyone who finds that Oracle's database software doesn't run at least twice as fast on Sun servers as it does on IBM's fastest computers.

Speaking at Oracle's Openworld conference Wednesday in San Francisco, Ellison said that IBM was more than welcome to enter and "If you'd like to take us on, make our day."

An IBM spokesman sniffily pointed out that Ellison's Dirty Harry trash talk might have been spurred by the "large amounts of share" Sun has been losing to IBM. Source:- http://www.theinquirer.net