Database Consolidation: It's About Time

Database consolidation has been a passion of mine for...too damned long. But my problems with diverse databases are miniscule compared to the database struggles hobbling major corporations.

What happens when major retailers, banks, airlines, or brokerage firms have one database run on Oracle's proprietary platform, and another on Sybase, and yet another on IBM?

Uh oh.

All are proprietary systems that likely don't integrate with each other very well--at least not without very costly and ongoing custom database programming. But that is the intent of proprietary systems.

Oracle has no desire to be compatible with Sybase or IBM or Microsoft database systems. And none of them are inclined to integrate easily with one another either. At least not when you are seeking dominance in the world of databases. But none of that serves big business very well--and certainly not when cost containment and efficiency and productivity are guiding directives.

The database compatibilty solution?

It appears that ANTs Software has disruptive software that easily and inexpensively facilitates database compatibility and database virtualization. This means Database A is now compatible with Database B and data can flow freely between the two. And Database C can talk to Database A--and vice versa.

ANTs has disruptive database technology--and it appears some major companies are not only starting to take notice--but are embracing ANTs technology as well.

Just consider the future possibilities:

• Larry Ellison might do more than cock an eyebrow if he discovered his Oracle Databases freely sharing information with IBM or Sybase or Microsoft (thanks to ANTs).
• Utilizing the ANTs Software solution, corporations could do away with costly custom programming they currently use to create database compatibility (of a sort).
• Will there be a quiet plot by Oracle or IBM or Sybase or Microsoft to buy out ANTS' proprietary technology and use it as a database tool of their own? Or perhaps even a bidding war?

This is sheer speculation, but we might stay tuned for next season's War of the Databases....

--Roberta Murphy