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• st salvo on Monday when it released Oracle 10g release 2, an upgrade to its "grid" database that adds better security and management.
• What's new: Oracle, IBM and Microsoft are releasing major upgrades of their databases with advanced features, as a handful of open-source companies try to enter the low end of the market.
• Bottom line: The entrenched database vendors are focusing on automation, simplicity and management features to stave off competition from upstart open-source companies.
• More stories on databases IBM's response is code-named Viper, the next major edition of its DB2 database, due in the second half of next year.
• The company intends to begin an "open beta" program in August or September for Viper, which is now being tested with a small number of customers, according to an IBM representative.
• Combined, Oracle, IBM and Microsoft last year garnered more than three-quarters of the dollars spent on corporate databases, according to market researcher IDC.
• But despite the big three's commanding presence, several upstart database companies are making a go at the relational database industry, counting on open-source products and business models to lure away customers.
• Open-source database company MySQL reports that its revenue doubled last year, to about $25 million.
• Meanwhile, since the beginning of this year three companies--Pervasive Software, EnterpriseDB and GreenPlum--have launched commercial database businesses around the PostgreSQL open-source database.
• Oracle, in fact, highlighted database and database add-on sales in its strong fourth-quarter earnings report last month.
• But the effects of open-source pricing and products are already being felt, according to Noel Yuhanna, an analyst at Forrester Research.
• "The pressure is on and is starting to build up," Yuhanna said.
• Established database vendors "will be lowering prices in large deals, probably offering more discounts just from the pressure of open source."