August 28, 2008 6:37 AM PDT
Oracle wants to be your best friend
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, Oracle makes a picture-perfect suggestion as to why consolidation is creepy. I'm not sure whether would-be buyers are supposed to be encouraged or dismayed by this advertisement that I found in the Wall Street Journal:
Oracle wants to be everything to you
Seriously, why would you want one vendor to service all needs? It's the absolute best way to ensure that you get stuck with an ever-increasing maintenance bill. The best way to keep costs down is through choice. It's what a free market is all about.
Matt Asay is general manager of the Americas and vice president of business development at Alfresco, and has nearly a decade of operational experience with commercial open source and regularly speaks and publishes on open-source business strategy. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
The REAL target of this ad is of course SAP. Ellison is fixated right now on crushing SAP. I hope he is not overlooking the real threat from Redmond against his core database market share.
: get attention
- get fixes faster since its all their stuff working together
- get bigger discounts based on install base of all products
Choice is a myth the day after the product is installed.
G