Linux and Oracle formidable team

By ADAM GIFFORD

Any doubts whether Linux is ready for prime time were dispelled at Oracle World in San Francisco, where the upstart operating system overshadowed Oracle's new Collaboration Suite software.

Oracle's database has run on Linux for four years, but adoption by large companies was relatively slow until last year, when Oracle joined with Linux distributor Red Hat to make Oracle 9i Real Application Clusters run on Red Hat Linux Enterprise Edition. Oracle calls the combination "Unbreakable Linux".

Clustering technology allows databases and applications to be spread over multiple servers. Instead of spending huge sums making sure the system does not fail, clustering works by automatically switching the computational load to another server if one fails.

This means organisations can move from large, expensive mainframes or Risc (reduced instruction set computing) boxes to cheaper servers which use Intel chips.

Because corporate America is cutting technology spending, it is an attractive option.

Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison, speaking to the conference by video link from Auckland, said some people were still worried about the reliability of Linux.

"The answer is, it doesn't need to be," shrugged Ellison. "If you cluster these Linux servers together, using Oracle database and Application Server, who cares if a server fails. We have a fault-tolerant cluster technology."

Because of the robust security and reliability of its database, Oracle did not feel threatened by Open Source databases such as MySQL and Postgres.

"They are a bigger threat to [Microsoft] SQL Server than Oracle."

Mark Jarvis, Oracle head of marketing, said more than 750 customers were using Oracle 9i Real Application Clusters, and an increasing number of those were choosing Linux.

Where once someone wanting a 32-processor system might put together two IBM Z900 mainframe class servers for a list price of US$14.8 million, ($29.6 million) now that person could string together eight four-way Dell systems for US$325,000.

Jarvis said that in large organisations Linux had been a "secret squirrel" project, sitting on servers used by developers and gradually taking over tasks previously done on Windows or Unix servers.

"About a year and a half ago, we noticed Linux was being taken out from under the desk and being put into data centres. That is when we knew this thing was about to boom.

"It has totally caught Sun off guard, it even caught HP off guard. The good news is it has made Dell incredibly cool right now. Luckily we had the vision to see it coming."

The changes in the pecking order are reflected in the speakers Oracle invited to what is one of the industry's key events (more than 20,000 people attended).

Red Hat chairman Michael Szulik got the opening keynote slot on Sunday. Dell's Michael Dell and Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina got the chance to set out their visions for the future, but Sun's Scott McNealy dropped out.

Dell said that by combining technology from his company and Oracle, companies could build enterprise solutions at industry-standard prices.

He said Unix-based systems were most at risk from the Linux challenge.

Although Unix has lost a lot of unit share in server shipments since 1996, it still accounts for a large percentage of revenue from enterprise systems. Last year, Unix servers were 17 per cent of units sold but accounted for 55 per cent of revenue.

"Unix customers are paying too much," Dell said.

However, although in 1996 Dell produced 68 per cent as many servers as Sun, last year it produced 275 per cent of Sun's volume, at 40 per cent less cost.

Companies see the benefits of a modular IT architecture, where servers can be used when needed rather than paying for unused capacity.

While Linux might have helped Dell to grab the top spot for server sales from Hewlett-Packard, Fiorina said Linux underscored the changes IT companies must make in their businesses to meet customer needs.

She said the industry was going through a period of consolidation, and a survey had found 51 per cent of US IT managers would underspend their budgets this year.

"This is not cyclical, this is being driven by changes in customer requirements. This is long term and structural."

She said customers were looking to rationalise and build on investments they had already made, rather than throw everything out and start again.

She said HP needed to have world-class cost structures to keep its products affordable because "in some categories, 'good enough' is what you are going to buy".

While Linux looked to be a threat to proprietary Unixes such as HP-UX and Solaris, Jarvis said the good news for Oracle was it was also causing pain in Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

"I think they are rattled by the impact it is now having on the server. IDC has said that in the next three years Linux shipments will overhaul Windows shipments on the server environment, which is horrifying for Microsoft.

"And we know it is rattling them on the desktop - the Linux desktop looks better then the Windows desktop."

Jarvis said the aim of Collaboration Suite, which promises to combine management of file and print servers, email, voice mail and calendar in one place, is to replace Microsoft Exchange as the standard corporate email server.

"It's purely intended to rattle Microsoft's cage. Every dollar we make on Collaboration Suite is a dollar lost to Microsoft."

* Adam Gifford attended Oracle World as a guest of Oracle.