EnterpriseDB comforts HP-UX shops with PostgreSQL EnterpriseDB – the entity that sells an extended version of the open source PostgreSQL database as well as commercial-grade support for that software – is sitting pretty. At just the moment that Hewlett-Packard is embroiled in a lawsuit concerning Oracle's cessation of development of its database, middleware, and applications …
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..to check very carefully, if EDB used any methods which could violate one or more patents held by Oracle. And sue HP for gazillions of lost revenue. As they currently do with Google and SAP, just to name a few. And I'd be interested to know, how an IT manager explains his C*Os, that "we'd been guaranteed 99.99995% compatibility to Oracle, it was just that tiny little thing which seems to have some issues with our frontend, middleware and the linklayer to some dozens of other systems.."
They will only cause most of their talent to quit and startup RH Mk 2.
HP only screws up every thing they buy ROYALLY. They cut,cut,cut all the best talent quits and there is nothing left but a thin shell of the previous company,
HP should have bought SUSE from Novell.
Anon because:-
1) I'm an HP Pensioner
2) I worked for one of their 'investments' sorry companies they took over for more than 20yrs.
3) HP Laid me off the day the deal closed.
4) I was back as a contractor 6 weeks later because everyone else had quit.
HP === Mega fail.
HP & RH? Tux will be very annoyed indeed.
Red Hat gains value by being hardware-vendor-independent. Sure, the majority of Red Hat licences sold with servers are sold with hp Proliants, but then so are the majority of M$ Windows ones. Buying Red Hat would not only annoy M$, it would also be prohibitively expensive as the market valuation of RH is way too high, and it would spiral higher on even the hint of a buyout.
It's a joke between old admins that hp is the whore of the industry and will get into bed with anyone, but that's a reflection of a very effective strategy of supporting as wide as possible a selection of OSs and applications. EnterpriseDB and PostgreSQL are just one of many DBs available for hp-ux (such as Sybase or DB2), but buying one would immediately put a strain on the relationships with the other software vendors that hp works with. Far better if hp just stays the biggest whore and gives us customers what we want - choice - rather than more lock-in.
TPM regularly throws this suggestion around and I suspected he's just trolling. It's nonsense; completely undervalues what Red Hat is all about and would be a terrible move for Red Hat customers (like my employer). One of the reasons we dumped our proprietary unix systems and moved everything onto Red Hat was platform neutrality.
Wow, someone from HP declares that they are "well equipped" to tackle any type of eventuality when porting Oracle to EDB - well, big news, they would say that.
Is this story an advert for them - it makes it sound like they'd put in all this effort for free, if you're buying EDB from them. Well, afraid not; that'll be chargeable, and amounts which'd make even Uncle Larry blush when he's saving up for his next yacht. So, add that onto the barely cheaper than Oracle socket prices, and you may be thinking, is it really worth the risk?
Better the devil you know.
I tend to agree with the comments on this piece. It would seem to make no sense for HP to buy either EDB or RHEL. HP being the server 'whore' is a good place to be, surely? While Orasun and IBM try and force the world into single vendor lock-in, HP offering choice on Windows, and Linux/Unix is *a good thing*. I have bought HP servers for all sorts of OS/DBMS/app combinations. People like choice.
Oracle compatibility is a very big challenge indeed. I've worked for a vendor that offers this to a good degree of coverage and I know first hand how hard it is. Someone always wants that next little piece of capability that just isn't available yet. HP offering to deal with the missing functionality on a case-by-case basis is not even near to Oracle compatibility. No sir.
When it comes to Oracle, like the man said, in most instances folks will go with "better the devil you know". Oracle know that. As do HP.
....... ethics and morals came back to business. All it needs is for CIO's, IT Directors/Managers and IT architects to say..... Ok we are not going to use Oracle (for the blatantly obvious reasons). Alternatives are there and they work just fine (and they are cheaper).
I don't use Oracle out of principle - I refuse to support any money grubbing, big mouth, litigious, megalomaniac in any shape or form (larry p, steve j and rupert m to name just three).
Most people tell me life is too short - I simply tell them that if everyone supported the good and ignored the bad, the world would be a much better, fairer place.......
Thanks for the article Timothy. I thought it'd be helpful, after reading the posts, to bring a little clarity from EnterpriseDB's perspective. I appreciate you indulging me for a minute.
First and foremost, EnterpriseDB is the enterprise PostgreSQL company. Our business today is far broader than Oracle compatibility. Many of our customers are long-time PostgreSQL users who are expanding their PostgreSQL footprint with our help and support. While that often comes at the expense of Oracle, the focus is on expansion of use more than Oracle replacements or migrations.
With that said, we continue to grow our business very successfully with Oracle migrations. Our Oracle compatibility technology, which just entered its 7th generation with the launch of Postgres Plus Advanced Server 9.0 this month, is but one of many important features in the database that make us a viable alternative to expensive proprietary RDBMSs. And, because Postgres Plus Advanced Server is built on PostgreSQL, we can provide this enterprise-class database for about one-fifth the cost of other proprietary databases.
Of course we don't have compatibility for every Oracle feature--that's unrealistic. But remember, we're not a 'rip-and-replace' for Oracle. Use us where Oracle isn't *needed* and spend all of that saved money on something that helps your business succeed. We are a solution that gives the customer a considered, predictable and safe migration path from Oracle to Postgres Plus Advanced Server, and these are the steps we take:
- Identify the best migration candidates. Our Oracle Migration Assessment is a tool that we use to identify the best candidate applications for migration. The best candidates are typically 'home-grown' applications, applications using Java or C (Pro*C or OCI) or ODBC. Once we analyze the application, we score it (1-10, with 10 being the easiest to migrate), and create a comprehensive report for the customer that explains what our next steps will be.
- Create a plan and begin migration. Our Oracle Migration Factory is where we can do the application migration remotely for our customers. We scope each engagement based on the number of databases we migrate and what their scores were in the Oracle Migration Assessment.
- Repeat. Just like we saw with Unix to Linux migration over the last decade, it's a process that customers will get comfortable with, and as their comfort grows they will migrate more.
And finally, it's not just about having Oracle compatibility. It's giving the customer a real path to go from point A to point B. We provide them that path, and now we are proud to be partnering with HP to provide that path to HP's customers. Finally, there are alternatives, and we are enthusiastic about our future--whatever it holds.
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