You have to give Oracle some credit...

Ok, If you follow the articles in El Reg, Oracle is getting some positive press because of their announcement of a database 'appliance'. IBM? I think to be fair, they did make a little marketing splash when it came to their BCE offering, however not a lot of press and it was only for DB2. Oh and there were some issues when customers wanted the P box but not the disks and then wanted to sub out the disks. But that's another story... But I digress. Love or hate Oracle, they at least got their marketing down to a science. IBM? Not so much. IBM could have easily created an IDS appliance for OLTP and another appliance using DB2 for well DW. But they didn't. Sure one could point to the AS/400 where they included DB2 for 'free' on the box and they were very successful selling I series in solutions like Bank in a Box. (You literally could drop ship an AS/400 fully configured in to a branch office where all they had to do is plug it in and start it up...) The point is that while IBM did this type of thing in the past, Oracle is doing it now and they will be successful. Why isn't IBM doing this? Why hasn't IBM's WW sales leader or marketing leader thought about these types of things? Or even running take out specials to go after 'white space' and SMB customers? Again the point is that IBM's 'thought leaders' are not being aggressive? It doesn't cost a lot of money to run a program like that. (IBM does have to pay incentives to their sales staff, and then there's the marketing/PR ...) Could it be that the individual tasked with this job is incompetent, or just not being pushed to think outside of the box? Ok I'm being kind. This type of thinking isn't outside of the box. It just means that the individual isn't creative enough or smart enough to ask the right questions and listen to what others say. Just food for thought. Oh and I've cc'd Jerry K. Just to make sure he gets a copy since if the person doesn't report directly to Jerry, he could be an influencer ... Sorry Jerry, but when one can point to Oracle and show what IBM should be doing, what's the excuse this time? Too busy fighting fires and focusing on increasing that quarter's sales? Note: Your WW Sales lead has to be able to not only direct and lead the fire fighting, but also be able to think strategically for the long haul. Or just maybe, you don't care because when Sam P retires, you'll be retiring too? ;-P But hey! What do I know? I have to ask a SA wanker in London about a single malt, and take abuse from TBP about one of their products being rated 'monkey piss'. :-P Just not the stuff I bought... (Ok, sorry for this... I've been playing in Java's RMI hell for the past couple of days... Still learning how to break Java's security model....) -G _________________________________________________________________ Bing brings you health info from trusted sources. http://www.bing.com/search?q=pet+allergy&form=MHEINA&publ=WLHMTAG&crea=TXT_MHEINA_Health_Health_PetAllergy_1x1