Oracle leads the database space

NEW DELHI: According to the latest reports from market research firm IDC, Oracle continues to be the overall leader in the worldwide relational and object-relational database management systems software market and dominates the information and data management software market for Asia Pacific (excluding Japan).

IDC's report, "Worldwide RDBMS 2004 Vendor Shares: Preliminary Results for the Top 5 Vendors Show a Solid Boost (March 2005, IDC #32969)," estimates that Oracle Database grew 14.5 percent year over year and increased its market share lead to 41.3 percent. In 2003, Oracle Database posted 8.6 percent growth year over year and was the market share leader with 39.8 percent. Overall, the worldwide market for relational database management systems grew by 11.6 percent to US$15 billion in 2004. Asia Pacific represented 16 percent of the worldwide figures.

In another recent IDC report dated January 4, 2005, Oracle continued to lead the Information and Data Management Software (IDMS) market in revenues for Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) in 2003.^<1> Oracle grew its market share in the region to 41 percent in 2003. IDC cited growing amounts of data, deployments of data-related applications such as business intelligence, customer relationship management (CRM), and SMB adoptions as key drivers that grew the IDMS market for APEJ in 2003. According to IDC, the IDMS market grew 7.6% in 2003, reaching US$1,105.5 million for APEJ.

Major Oracle Database Milestones in 2004:

2004 marked a significant year for Oracle Database. Oracle Database 10g became generally available in January 2004. New, lower pricing was introduced for Oracle Database 10g Standard Edition One in February 2004.

Simultaneously, Oracle Real Application Clusters was made available as part of Oracle Database 10g Standard Edition, enabling customers to benefit from the availability and scalability benefits of Oracle Real Application Clusters in a low cost product. To round out the year, Release 2 of Oracle Database 10g was announced in December, with general availability scheduled for mid-year 2005.

Oracle Database 10g also received numerous awards from industry publications in 2004 recognizing the product's advanced "grid management" capabilities as well as its automated administrative features that simplify configuration and management of complex computing environments and reduce database administrator workload for handling large infrastructures. Additional information about accolades bestowed on Oracle Database 10g is available at: http://www.oracle.com/database/dbawards_0105.html.

"This is a tremendous validation from our customers that Oracle offers the best database management solution with the best value," said Arunava Dutta, director, Technology Sales, Oracle India. "The numbers clearly indicate that Oracle made impressive gains in 2004 and widened the gap between itself and the nearest competitor."