Oracle has just sued SAP. And boy, is the 44-page complaint worth a read, or what! Before I get into the nitty-gritty, one must know that by their own admissions these two are the biggest and finest enterprise application and database software companies. Well to be fair, Oracle strength is database and is graduating at an incredible strength to the enterprise applications space through an awesome number of acquisitions, while the German company SAP is the clear frontrunner in ERP (enterprise resource planning) arena. The latter admits to invest in organic growth, and refuses to go acquire at the mind-numbing pace of the former.
Ok, so what is the hullabaloo all about? Well, Oracle claims that SAP has used fake/expired log-ins and log-ins of customers who were in the process of migrating from Oracle to SAP to access the Oracle support website and “steal” unauthorised information, programmes and downloads to build up SAP’s own tech support database. For example Oracle states, “In January 2007, a user on an SAP TN computer signed in as Oracle customer Honeywell International…to access Oracle’s support system and copy literally thousands of Oracle’s Software and Support Materials in virtually every product library in every line of business.”
The interesting point to note is that Honeywell is now a SAP TN customer and was cited by Oracle downloading “1800 solutions per day” after making the shift to the German conglomerate compared to an average of 20 downloads when it was with Oracle. These illegal downloads included tech solutions for JD Edwards products when the user – Honeywell – was on Peoplesoft! “Oracle subsequently connected many of the illegal downloads to an SAP TN IP address and to SAP TN’s employee, Wade Walden – a former PeopleSoft employee now employed by SAP,” states the company. (read Oracle and SAP - Identity Theft or lax in Identity Continuance for more)
Other companies like pharmaceutical major Merck was seen signing on to Oracle networks even after its support license expired in Jan 2007; Merck supposedly continued to download JD Edwards copyrighted documents well into March, 2007! (Really, it took the world’s ‘best’ database company – Oracle –3 months to update their own databases! I don’t know who to blame for this carelessness)
Now, for the uninitiated, SAP earns money from maintaining and supporting Peoplesoft, JD Edwards and Siebel solutions – marquees that have been acquired by Oracle. Well, SAP acquired TomorrowNow (what is SAP TN now) to maintain these products and gives the “Safe Passage” as an option for customers who do not believe Oracle can support Peoplesoft in the future. But, SAP’s idea to support a third party software is dicey when being fully-aware that Oracle will continue updating and tweaking these products as technologies change; and providing a support product without knowing about the original codes and that to without infringing upon patents is one hell of a tough task! And that too at half the cost!!
What will happen? Allegations and counter-allegations, and lot of free publicity for the two! As no one more than the media loves a public mud-slinging! For more keep watching this space...
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