Databases: A little bit of BI

To stand out in a crowded marketplace, software vendors are adding features such as business intelligence to their databases, says Sushma Naik

According to Gartner, the database management software (DBMS) market was estimated at $67 million in 2003. The segment grew by 12 percent in 2004 to touch $75 million. There is a trend of databases being deployed on low-cost Intel servers. Oracle has gone one step further by hardselling the Oracle-Linux combination.

Feature-rich databases

Software vendors are adding features such as business intelligence and content management to their core database product. For instance, Microsoft has bundled OLAP and data mining with SQL Server.

Says Tarun Malik, Application Server & Enterprise Marketing Manager, Microsoft India, “Databases are being used for decision making rather than just storing data. Business Intelligence and balanced scorecard are some new features in databases.” Similarly, Computer Associates has focussed on features such as database performance management and administration in its database, Ingres.

Sybase is targeting enterprise users by adding features such as disaster recovery, replication and business intelligence to its database. Says Balaji Jagannathan, Country Director, India at Sybase, “Sybase IQ is a relational database aimed at large data warehousing environments.” Sybase IQ follows a column-based approach for querying instead of the row-based approach. This apparently results in better performance vis-à-vis traditional databases. Sybase is its Adaptive Server Enterprise as a traditional database. The company offers Sybase IQ for customers requiring data warehousing and business intelligence. The company’s clientele in India includes the likes of the Bombay Stock Exchange and the Indian Railways.

Sybase is attempting to tap an emerging space called mobile databases. With many Indian companies looking at mobile applications such as sales force automation, Sybase is trying to push its mobile database in tandem with Indian ISVs. Adaptive Server Anywhere (ASA), a mobile database designed for providing database functionality in embedded and mobile environments, is its tool for this market sub-segment. Powered by a data synchronisation engine, users can access enterprise applications such as SAP and Siebel. Sales personnel file daily sales reports that contain details of their sales calls, visits and expenses. To do this, they must return to their offices. By using a mobile database embedded in the sales rep’s mobile device, this data can be automatically synchronised and posted into back office systems. The potential is considerable, as every mobile device is a possible candidate for running a mobile database. Comments Jagannathan of Sybase, “Many of our customers embed the ASA database into their products. Mettler-Toledo has put ASA into their weighing scales. You can see this at work in Mumbai airport, where Mettler-Toledo’s weighing scales are used for weighing luggage. The scale puts the information about the weights into the ASA database, which is automatically inserted into the airline’s system.”

The trend is to layer features onto the core database. Oracle has 10g, a grid computing architecture that consists of a database, application server and developer software. 10g includes self management and tuning capabilities that empower a DBA to identify performance problems and perform backup and recovery automatically. Oracle claims that its grid architecture allows users to manage files and distribute storage loads. It also includes automatic storage management to help DBAs automatically balance data load across several disks in a group.

Another interesting feature is the automatic database diagnostic monitor (ADDM). This feature provides a DBA with reports that show existing problems, and even suggests detailed analysis into the root cause of a problem and its potential treatment.

Similarly, IBM DB2 includes autonomic features such as the IBM learning Optimiser that allows the database learn from past experience and speed up searches by guessing the fastest route for finding specific information. Another feature called DB2 Design Advisor automatically designs and optimises the database for faster data access. Automated maintenance automatically takes care of routine functions such as backing up databases. Information Integrator for content lets enterprises access content from multiple sources.

Says V Subramanyam, Country Manager, middleware sales, software group, IBM India, “DB2’s autonomic features help our customers get more value from their information.”

Many of our customers embed the ASA database into their products. Mettler-Toledo has put ASA into their weighing scales. You can see it in action at Mumbai airport Balaji Jagannathan Country Director Sybase	For us, this has been the year of the SMB. We launched several offerings keeping their needs in mind. Over 40 percent of our growth came from this segment Arunava Dutta Director, Technology Oracle India	Databases are being used for decision-making rather than just storing data. Business Intelligence and Balanced Scorecard are value-adds to the core database product Tarun Malik Enterprise Marketing Manager Microsoft India	By open sourcing Cloudscape, we hope to accelerate the development of Java-based applications and drive more innovation around Linux and Java V Subramanyam Country Manager Middleware Sales, Software IBM India	Unix is set to decline, while Linux is picking up speed on the database front. We expect many Indian organisations to start piloting their databases on Linux Jitendra Jethnandani Analyst, Software Gartner

Customised products for SMBs

As in other sectors, the SMB segment is being wooed with customised products here as well. IBM, for instance, has launched DB2 Express that offers easy installation and administration to SMBs. IBM is also teaming up with Indian ISVs to bundle this product with ISV applications.

Similarly, Oracle has Oracle Database Standard Edition One for SMBs. Says Arunava Dutta, Director - Technology, Oracle India, “For Oracle, this has been the year of the SMBs. We launched several offerings keeping their needs in mind. Over 40 percent of our growth came from the SMB sector.”

Indian ISVs as allies

Database giants such as Oracle and Microsoft are working with Indian ISVs. Microsoft is bundling the SQL Server database with the products of local ISVs. Its partners include Natural Technologies, D2K Technologies and Newgen. Natural offers products in the core banking and branch automation space, while D2K Technologies offers products that help banks generate MIS reports that are submitted to regulatory authorities. Newgen is a player in the document management and cheque truncation solutions space. Microsoft has established partnerships with 102 Indian ISVs in the BFSI space. Using the reach of its partners, the company is selling its flagship database product to BFSI and it has succeeded, at least in the rural co-operative banking space, through this strategy. Oracle has also managed to win some significant deals in tandem with Zenith Infotech in the co-operative banking space.

Databases on Linux

The market, while small today, exhibits a great deal of long-term potential. Database major, Oracle, was one of the first to identify and nurture this market and it has benefited in a big way by playing the Linux card. Linux databases allow vendors to market their products under the umbrella of lower TCO as cheap x86 hardware can be used to host databases in place of traditional RISC boxes that are more expensive. In the Linux segment, support is crucial. Oracle is promoting a unique support policy that has helped it gain marketshare. In 1998-99, Oracle’s support policy clearly stated that the company could be contacted for problems with the Oracle database. In case of problems related to the Linux OS, users had to approach vendors such as Red Hat. Oracle realised that if the company had to make a dent in the Linux space, it had to offer support for the underlying Linux OS also. Today, Oracle’s support policy includes responsibility for fixing issues related to the Linux kernel. What’s significant is that the company does not do this for any other OS. This move has helped Oracle push the Oracle-Linux combination. Oracle’s partner, Zenith Infotech, has around 35 clients in the banking vertical, which have deployed Zenith’s branch automation product while hosting the Oracle database on Linux. Although this market is small, it shows the potential to scale up. The combination of Zenith’s product with Oracle as a backend database has already been implemented in 544 branches. Support for Linux clusters in the database is another feature, which is set to gain traction among enterprise buyers. Linux clusters help distribute load over relatively inexpensive clusters.

Says Ninad Karpe, Managing Director, India, Computer Associates, “As scalable Linux database clusters enable customers to use commodity hardware, a large task can be accomplished economically with greater speed.” In case the load increases, the cluster can be extended to manage additional load by adding low-cost Intel servers.

Almost all database vendors—with the notable exception of Microsoft—are going the Linux way. Analysts are also green lighting Tux. Says Jitendra Jethnandani, Analyst-Software, Gartner, “Unix is set to decline, while Linux is picking up speed on the database front. As the platform is now becoming enterprise ready, we expect many Indian organisations to start evaluating Linux as the platform for their databases.”

Open source databases

The adoption of open source applications has potential even in the database market. Last year Computer Associates (CA) open sourced its Ingres database product. While CA will lose potential revenues from licences, the company is hoping that increased adoption of Ingres will help it sell other products in its portfolio. CA may also gain if companies that have deployed open source Ingres come back to it for support services. An additional benefit is that CA can hope to add more features through the efforts of volunteer programmers.

According to Ninad Karpe of Computer Associates, “Ingres can seamlessly integrate with other applications and data in a heterogeneous environment. This will be significant as Linux becomes more prevalent in enterprise IT environments.” Karpe says that the interoperability and ease of integration become important in case of a business merger or acquisition.

IBM also took the same path when it announced plans to open source IBM Cloudscape, an open source Java-based relational database. Cloudscape is platform independent and has a small footprint (2 MB), making it ideal for supporting Java applications.

Says Subramanyam of IBM, “By open sourcing Cloudscape, we hope to accelerate the development of Java-based applications and drive more innovation around Linux and Java. We think it will create new business opportunities in areas such as embedded database applications and small business solutions.”

With the adoption of Linux, there has been a trend towards the adoption of open source databases. In India, emboldened by the performance of Linux, many organisations are thinking of deploying or have deployed open source databases. For example, United Phosphorous runs applications such as petty cash and leave management systems on Linux using the open source MySQL database. Ugam Solutions, a BPO company playing in the high-end data analytic space, is another user of MySQL. It stores consumer information in a MySQL database that can support around 4 to 5 million customer records.

This year in databases

Microsoft will launch SQL Server 2005 with four editions: Express, Workgroup, Standard and Enterprise. These editions will offer a range of features such as business intelligence tools; BI could end up as a standard feature of every database.

According to Tarun Malik of Microsoft, “We are looking at promoting one brand across the enterprise. The idea is to enter the SMB segment with one brand and grow with the company as its database needs scale up.”

Grid computing is also expected to gain traction in 2005.

Self-managing databases

As databases become easier to manage, analysts predict that routine database administration skills will be commoditised. Improvements in backup and restore functions will permit DBAs to keep additional backups on the same disk without affecting performance.

Comments Dutta of Oracle, “Automation of day-to-day management tasks will enable a single administrator to handle hundreds of clustered servers simultaneously.”

Support for 64-bit computing

Vendors such as Microsoft are looking to make inroads in the Unix territory with support for 64-bit computing. Oracle’s 10g already runs on 64-bit Linux (RHEL 3). The makers of the popular open source database, MySQL, by the same name have released MaxDB 7.5 that supports 64-bit Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9. MaxDB is an open source database certified for SAP applications.

Sybase predicts that more features will be added to the core database. Future databases could have in-built frameworks that allow customers to comply with different regulations such as Basel II and Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Comments Karpe of CA, “The database market is expected to grow with the IT infrastructure in organisations. It has moved from just being a data store to a relational database where the concept of applications on databases came in picture. The importance of database management system has come to front, especially after the adoption of ERP and CRM solutions.” Oracle feels there will be independent solutions such as business intelligence that are largely going to drive the use and adoption of databases. Several advanced performance-oriented features have been introduced to enable enterprises leverage their IT assets to maximise productivity and streamline operations.

Mobile databases

The rapid adoption of wireless laptops and handheld devices will result in this technology catching on. Apart from Sybase, Oracle is also looking at make a mark in the mobile database space where it offers Oracle Database Lite 10g.

Some interesting features include allowing an administrator to delete sensitive data and applications remotely, if a mobile device is stolen. An administrator can even lock down a mobile device.

Today, a database is more than a data repository. Vendors will keep on adding new features to differentiate themselves.

sushma@expresscomputeronline.com