Cut open a fish; find a smaller one inside. The software industry is like that. Seldom has there been a more perfect example of this Darwinian phenomenon than Oracles bidding for PeopleSoft late last week, in the wake of that companys bid for J.D. Edwards earlier in the week.
The ERP market is consolidating, but its not headed for legacy irrelevance. Its reaching a plateau in advance of the next generation of ERP, which will be based on Web services. While SAP is the No. 1 vendor for now, Oracle et al. are jockeying for the lead in the next race, which will feature Microsoft and its Great Plains applications as a far-more-significant player than at present.
After Sept. 11, 2001, everyone wanted to talk about backup. But while the fad of two years ago has worn off, the need remains. Labs Analyst Henry Baltazar finds that the vendors have not been idle in the interim. In fact, theyve cooked up some useful products.
Take StorageTeks EchoView E400 appliance. It eliminates the risk of losing data between backups, offering entry-level and midrange servers the kind of reliability to which high-end users have become accustomed.
Henry also checks out Connecteds Connected DataProtector 7.0, which backs up client systems. Its a significant step forward with hierarchical storage management for hundreds or even thousands of laptops and desktops.
And because we still cant live without tape, Henry also tested three midrange tape drives; the drive from StorageTek shined the brightest but carried a significant price premium.
In the May 19 issue of eWEEK, Aaron Goldberg said Microsoft will be feeling in a few years the effects of Linux and will be foundering like IBM was a decade ago. This week, Bob Whitehead, a recently retired CIO, replies in our Free Spectrum space (for which we welcome submissions) that Aarons analysis doesnt add up.
Till next eWeek, send your comments to stan_gibson@ziffdavis.com.