The Ovum View: Using Oracle to run your email

Oracle will normally say databases - and its database products in particular - are the answer to many IT problems. But email? Ovum research director Eric Woods was won over after recently hearing the vendor's arguments...

Why bother? That was the question Ovum asked when first briefed on Oracle's collaboration suite. Lotus and Microsoft have long had enterprise email sewn up. Their own fierce battle - particularly at the high end of the market - has made it an increasingly tight business in terms of margins and revenue growth. But the more we understand Oracle's strategy the more we think it is making the right move at the right time.

Oracle has identified a specific opportunity in the market that may allow it to squeeze out a space for itself. It may not be able to overtake the big two but it will give them something to think about. It is also putting additional impetus behind key trends in the collaboration market which neither IBM (owner of Lotus) nor Microsoft is comfortable with.

For some time Oracle has been claiming it can provide a more cost-effective and reliable email server for Exchange users. That claim was reinforced with the release of Collaboration Suite in September 2002. The company argues that by moving email into the enterprise database, it can improve the security and scalability of email services and, because it can reduce the number of servers needed, reduce the cost of providing enterprise email. The pitch is therefore focused more on cost and reliability issues than functionality.

For existing Oracle customers facing an expensive upgrade to a large number of Exchange servers, it is certainly worth looking at Oracle's offer. The fact that users can continue to use the Outlook client will also make the transition more appealing.

But the implications of Oracle's entry into this market are wider than just the possibility of it nibbling away at some lucrative Microsoft accounts and increasing price pressure.

The most significant part of Oracle's message is that enterprise email belongs in the enterprise database. We may be used to Oracle arguing that the database is the solution to every problem but in this case it is the right message at the right time.

Both Lotus and Microsoft have been tentatively raising the possibility of closer integration between their proprietary email stores (Domino and Exchange) and their relational databases (DB2 and SQLServer) but for political and technical reasons both have been wary of giving too strong a message on this. But from a CIO's perspective there is much to be said for bringing what is now recognised as a mission-critical application under the control of the DBA.

Oracle only needs to get minimum traction with its Collaboration Suite to increase the pressure on both IBM and Microsoft to speed up the consolidation of their email and the database technologies - despite the inherent risks and challenges.

For the moment Oracle is focusing on core email services because of the specific opportunity to drive a wedge in the IBM/Microsoft duopoly. But it also has a wider view of the opportunities in the collaboration market. At OracleWorld in November it announced a list of features that will be in version 2.0 of Collaboration Suite, to be released in the first half of 2003. Oracle is planning to add advanced collaboration features such as real-time communication, online meetings and instant messaging. Such capabilities are essential if it is to be a serious player in the collaboration market. In the meantime, it is doing its best to make an important market even more interesting.

For more information email info@ovum.com or visit www.ovum.com/research.