CNET reports:
There are a whopping 44,000 SAP customers
running on Oracle databases, and IBM wants them. To get them, for
the first time ever, it's optimized its enterprise database for a
specific vendor's applications. The new version of DB, 8.2.2, will
include a slew of SAP-optimized features, including self-tuning,
self-configuration, silent install, dynamic storage allocation and
more.
Wouldn't SAP be better served by simply
making their application database independent via ODBC? This process really
could havecommenced years ago and prevented today's dilema:
Your Partner hasbecome Your most aggressive
Competitor!
SAP tuned for specifically for DB2 or
SAP tuned likewise for Microsoft SQLsimply reeks of: "Same
Sh*t different Pile". Microsoft and IBM will emulate Oracle
in due course regarding their assault on SAP's market if DBMS
specificity remains the SAP data access API strategy (this is a
simple fact).
SAP should be using its quest for DBMS
independence to stimulate or contribute ODBC
enhancements(should ODBC be lacking in areas critical to its
application needs; it is available in Open Source formand across all
major platforms).Should the ODBC API not be the problem, then
it canpush ODBC Driver vendors (DBMS vendors such as IBM
included) to get their Drivers in shape (should they be lacking, I
know our ODBC Drivers
are absolutely fine for this kind of task).
Database specificity gets application
vendors nowhere.You can only control your business
development destiny by being database independent. When
applications are database independentthe intellectual
capitalthat drives your applications is preserved. This is
akin to building physical and logical firewalls around the
ecosystem created by your products. This is much better that being
a pseudo DBMS engine reseller for a future competitor.