Database Management System Market Dynamics (Continued)

Advances in XML standards have also resulted in major changes in the DBMS market. ANSI SQL 2003 includes new SQL/XML features, for example, supplanting the proprietary extensions several DBMS vendors added before ANSI SQL 2003 was finalized. (Note that ANSI SQL/XML is not to be confused with Microsoft's proprietary SQL/XML extensions in SQL Server 2000.) The W3C is also close to finalizing its recommendation for XQuery, a very significant XML query language that will support the full expressiveness of the XML data model.

The object-oriented and XML-related DBMS extensions will soon make mainstream DBMSs much more powerful for objects and documents as well as databases (see Figure 1). Databases used to be for homogeneously structured data, with other tools and servers used for semi- or unstructured data; now DBMSs are far more flexible and XML, especially XML Schema, is helping to infuse more metadata and structure into previously unstructured data.

The growing popularity of Web services is another factor in the resurgent role for DBMSs. Web services can now be natively consumed and produced by leading DBMSs, and they represent a natural extension of the traditional DBMS stored procedure model.

With increasing commoditization and standardization, and a large market that has been underserved by traditional DBMS vendors, it's not surprising that open source DBMS initiatives and vendors have become quite popular. MySQL AB is the most successful open source DBMS vendor today, claiming more than 5 million active installations. In many cases, MySQL has displaced Microsoft Access or other less-than-full-DBMS alternatives. Most open source DBMSs are far from functional parity with the leading closed-source enterprise DBMS offerings, but the gap is closing with initiatives such as PostgreSQL, an open source project that has been extending and refining the Postgres code base since 1986. MySQL AB's strategic relationship with SAP is another important development; the enterprise-class DBMS that was formerly known as SAP DB is now an open source DBMS marketed as MySQL MaxDB.

Open source DBMS developments have radically altered DBMS software economics, with initiatives such as PostgreSQL freely available and commercial open source DBMSs such as MySQL generally available for approximately one-tenth the price of traditional enterprise-focused DBMS products. Hardware economics have also dramatically changed the DBMS landscape over the past decade, with low-cost commodity servers routinely configured with gigabytes of memory and continuing advances in disk storage price/performance and capacity.

Blurring DBMS/Platform Boundaries
The historical boundaries between DBMSs and platforms are blurring in several ways. First, many platforms now come with bundled DBMSs. The leading enterprise Linux server distributions, for example, include both MySQL and PostgreSQL.

A second dimension of growing DBMS/platform integration is the use of virtual machines for DBMS programmability. Several DBMSs support the use of Java for triggers, stored procedures, and user-defined data types, and IBM DB2 8.2 also supports the use of Microsoft's .NET Framework for DBMS programmability. This type of integration has major benefits for application developers, as it means a consistent programming model and toolset can be used for end-to-end system development.

A third dimension of DBMS/platform integration is the expanding use of DBMSs for platform services and in other layers of the server software stack. IBM will soon support DB2 as a storage option for IBM Lotus Notes/Domino, for example, displacing the traditional Notes Storage Facility (NSF) architecture. The WinFS storage subsystem planned for Microsoft Longhorn is another important development, as it will represent the use of portions of SQL Server for a next-generation file system.

DBMS product families are also more platform-oriented, as suggested in Figure 3. While vendors such as MySQL AB are still primarily focused on the traditional DBMS model, the leading enterprise DBMS vendors have expanded their product lines to include broad support for business intelligence, content/records management, and information integration (such as multi-DBMS queries). IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle have also been early leaders in adding native XML data model support to their DBMSs.

Leading DBMS products are also simplified through the use of more systemic and automated services. While the vendors use different terminology such as "autonomic," "self-healing," and "on demand" to describe their new capabilities in this context, the business benefits include far less (expensive, time-consuming, and error-prone) DBMS fine-tuning and administration.

Prepare for the Renaissance of Data Management
The last decade has been a tumultuous time in the DBMS market, but this is a great time to be a DBMS customer. It's not such a great time to be a DBMS vendor if you don't happen to be IBM, Microsoft, MySQL AB, or Oracle, but the relentless evolution and competition in the DBMS market has produced great opportunities for DBMS developers and administrators.

DBMS capabilities have been greatly expanded through broader industry standards, native support for XML, improved programming models that support relational, document-based, and object-oriented models, and much more. DBMS pricing has also improved dramatically, both through DBMS competition (including the advent of open source DBMSs) and through breakthrough advances in hardware economics.

As DBMS costs and complexity continue to decline, and as DBMS capabilities continue to expand to be platform-integrated, DBMSs will have resurgent and expanding roles in the broader application platform. The trends will make it possible for many organizations to do more with less by moving away from previously distinct DBMS-complementary product categories such as content/document management and business intelligence.

By most estimates, IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle currently dominate more than 80 percent of new DBMS sales. The competitive dynamics are strategically significant for Microsoft and its customers, and range from free, open source DBMS initiatives to IBM and Oracle using DBMS-centered platforms to compete with the full Windows Server System. The next Trends & Analysis column will assess Microsoft's competitive position for the next wave of DBMS market developments, along with implications for Microsoft customers.

About the Author
Peter O'Kelly (e-mail: ; blog: http://pbokelly.blogspot.com) is a senior analyst with Burton Group's Application Platform Strategies service.