Dec 11,2000
Oracle Takes Shot at Microsoft
By Unveiling Internet Services on Monday
By Rebecca Buckman
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Call it Oracle.NET.
In a move that mirrors Microsoft Corp.'s ballyhooed Microsoft.NET Web initiative, computer database-maker Oracle Corp. Monday will unveil its own set of Internet services for businesses.
The plan, dubbed the Dynamic Services Framework, will allow companies to link up with other online marketplaces and access a range of services, from currency conversion to online travel, said Oracle Senior Vice President Jeremy Burton.
Oracle, of Redwood Shores, Calif., also is expected to unveil a new portal Web site that it hopes businesses will use as their corporate home page on the Internet, as well as an online service to help software developers build applications.
Oracle's vision is part of a broader industry trend to use common Internet standards to link services and computer applications across the Web, allowing companies to work faster and save money. Such technologies are helping companies set up automated links with suppliers to buy goods and sell products or excess inventory.
Oracle's announcement is an example of the continuing bad blood between it and archrival Microsoft. Microsoft, of Redmond, Wash., pounced on early reports in trade publications of Oracle's announcement to decry it as a me-too move; Oracle, in turn, criticized Microsoft's plan as all talk and no action.
"The interesting thing about Dynamic Services is that it's available on Monday," Mr. Burton said in an interview Friday. "Developers have a choice: They can wait for Microsoft.NET, or they can get Oracle.now."
Microsoft isn't expected to roll out some aspects of dot-net strategy for several years. The program is Microsoft's ambitious attempt to adapt its existing software products, such as Windows and Office, for the Web and to develop Internet services available over a range of computing devices. Today, "we have dozens of customers that are already building Web services and deploying them on the Microsoft platform," said Barry Goffe, a Microsoft group manager.
As for the Oracle announcement, "this is the first time where they've really made any kind of noise around support for Web services across their platform," he said.
Rob Enderle, an analyst with Giga Information Group, a technology research group, said Oracle may be able to roll out its Web services more quickly because it doesn't sell as many types of software as Microsoft, which peddles products to consumers as well as big businesses. But neither company has been a trailblazer in embracing open Internet standards and Web services, according to Mr. Enderle. "Oracle was slow to respond to a market change that Microsoft was also slow to respond to," he said.
Write to Rebecca Buckman at rebecca.buckman@wsj.com |
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