Leader: Database wars

Microsoft is upping its enterprise credentials with the launch today of its latest database, SQL Server 2005.

The database is so critical to every enterprise and sprucing up this piece of the product range makes heads of IT eyeing the 'all Microsoft' option that much more confident it'll work for them.

Today we heard CIOs using the new SQL Server praise its reliability and scalability.

Above all, though, they say that beyond the database it's just too easy to use what is - like it or not - the dominant platform. There's the ease of support, the ease of finding qualified IT staff, the ease of managing a suite of co-ordinated Microsoft products - and the ease of integrating with partner organisations because they're most likely to be using Microsoft too.

Linda Chandler, head of information systems and knowledge management at London Development Agency, said her business is an all-Microsoft shop because in central government there's such "a strong pull to have a centralised technology".

Microsoft still has a fight ahead to steal business from the reigning database leaders, Oracle and IBM. And there's always the threat from the open source world. The big name here is MySQL, though today another player was thrown into the ring with the news - expected for some time by this publication - that CA has spun off its database business, Ingres, which will live as a standalone open-source company.

It remains to be seen if open source will cut it for databases, though. While MySQL is thought of for the website space, Microsoft customers say they can't be bothered.

Robin Noble, ICT manager for the Royal Borough of Kingston and a user of Microsoft's new BizTalk Server 2005, said of open source: "You can download it for free but to manage it and keep it 'fed and watered' costs a lot more."

Of his choice to go Microsoft, he added: "Our IT is led by the business - if it were led by technology, [our choice] might be different."

Of course these are Microsoft fans. We'd expect the odd Reader Comment or two from those that would question the soup to nuts Microsoft option - or Microsoft to any degree.

In databases Microsoft continues to raise its game, trying to reach the rarefied air that IBM and Oracle breath. And that's understandable.

But we would urge all parties to at least remain open-minded to the open source option in this area too, albeit not for more demanding applications, for now.

Oracle boss Larry Ellison seems to be positive about open source across all areas of software - apart from databases, funnily enough. And you don't believe everything he says. Do you?