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The Database Dozen--The Users' Version
By Diane Cheshire
Our readers vote on their top database vendors
As you know, every year Database Programming & Design takes on the arduous task of producing "The Database Industry in Focus" issue. Our editorial director David Stodder leads the rest of us in dividing up every bit of pertinent press material from the entire year into categories. To get an idea of how much stuff this is, you'd have to come and see our offices--his in particular. There is not a single space available in the office for walking, sitting, or otherwise milling around. My own cubicle is full of opened (some of it anyway) press releases.
Everyone wants to be a part of the Dozen, and they tell us so. I get numerous phone calls from vendor representatives: "How do we apply to be in the Dozen?" "What are the criteria for the awards?" The answers are often frustrating to hear because they are always the same: Send in any information you have about the company, what is going on, and what new products are being released. That's all anyone can do because there is no formal application process. There are criteria, but they're not that easy to pin down. The Database Dozen awards are editors' choice awards. Dozen Lord Stodder hides away in various hotel rooms, so no one can reach him lest they disturb his concentration. He looks to see who stood out in database news during the year. What did they do? What new products did they release? And how will these vendors' strategies and products affect the face of technology to come (if they do at all)?
Knowing, however, that not everyone would agree with our own picks, we gave our readers the chance to pick their own dozen. With a couple of months until the Industry in Focus issue came out, people voted from all over the world. Some voted twice (I bet you thought I wouldn't catch that), some voted even more than that. As the recipient of all the ballots sent out over the Web, I saw a little of everything. I'm not sure of the criteria that some of you used, but we got some interesting votes.
For example, one company got wind of the Readers' Revenge idea and, I suspect, sent out a companywide email telling everyone to go to our site and vote for their company 12 times. While that is an interesting tactic, it was all too obvious to those of us at the other end of the pipeline. This particular company, if a computer had been tallying, would have won by a landslide with nearly 200 entries. Impressive, but slightly skewed. Perhaps they thought that their votes would put them in the running for our Dozen. (Incidentally, they did make it into the Dozen, but not because of their efforts--David's Dozen was selected and written long before the Revenge page was posted.)
Some readers used whatever vendor products they have in their office or that they've used for a product. Some votes were from vendors, but none as extreme as that mentioned above. Some votes were trying to butter us up, like the one that responded to the question who are the top database vendors with 12 resounding "Your company is! Who else?" Still others, confused to what a database vendor is, voted for such entities as The Weather Channel and Toys 'R' Us.
Overall, however, we got some great votes, and we've come up with the Database Dozen--The Readers' Version. The top seven were also members of our own Dozen, though in a slightly different order. Our number three, Microsoft, ruled in your Dozen. Bill Gates must be pleased to know that his empire rests secure on the database front. Powerful enough for its products to be considered industry standards, it's no wonder it managed to get the most votes. But we found its import to lay more in the future than in the past year, and we placed IBM in that number one slot (somehow, we just flip-flopped). Will they flip back in our next Dozen? We'll just have to see what the remainder of 1998 brings.
Oracle fell second in both our own and the readers' Dozens. An ever-present entity, it still hasn't made it back to that number one slot it held in 1995. But we're using their products, and Oracle continues to make an impact on the database industry, even with overhyped releases that fall short of expectations.
Informix made it a bit higher in your mix than in ours. We were looking more at the fall it took in 1997, but I suppose even that fall makes is a sign of its influence as a vendor. And what might make Informix even more influential is the ways in which it builds itself back up. Other notables in the Readers' Dozen include Platinum and Borland, which were absent from our own Dozen but received enough votes to make it in your top picks. And some of you looked back at last year's Dozen in adding such picks as Hewlett-Packard and Red Brick.
With all your votes in, it's time to share with you The Database Dozen--The Users' Version.
Top 12 Database Vendors--As Determined By You
1. Microsoft
2. Oracle
3. IBM
4. Sybase
5. Informix
6. NCR
7. Computer Associates tied with Sun Microsystems
8. Logic Works
9. Platinum
10. Red Brick
11. Borland
12. Hewlett-Packard
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