1999 Intelligent Enterprise Readers' Choice Awards

Oracle and Sun Microsystems were the biggest winners in this year’s contest

If the Readers’ Choice Awards are a popularity contest, Oracle was a very popular company this year: It garnered 10 first-place tallies. Most of these results rightly reflect Oracle’s dominance in data management, but others — in the application server, design tool, and IT integrator categories — took us by surprise.

The other most notable results include Sun Microsystems’ clean sweep of all three hardware platform categories. In particular, as the popularity of the E10000 (Starfire) attests here, Sun is clearly giving IBM stiff competition at the high end of the market and more than holding its own against Dell and Gateway at the low end. And who would have predicted Windows NT to be more popular among voters than any flavor of Unix?

Many thanks to all you members of the Intelligent Enterprise community who took the time to participate in the voting process. As you can see here, your opinion most assuredly matters.

Analytical Application Solutions

Winner: Oracle Financial Analyzer

Runner-up: IBM DecisionEdge
Oracle Financial Analyzer took the honors in this increasingly important category, but IBM’s recently announced DecisionEdge line (only a Relationship Marketing module is yet available) didn’t lag too far behind. SAS Institute’s CFO Vision gets an honorable mention for a strong third-place showing.

Application Development

Winner: Oracle Developer

Runner-up: Microsoft Visual Studio
A surprise; Oracle is not known for its development tools. Nevertheless, the venerable Oracle Developer package, perhaps by virtue of its tight integration with other Oracle products, barely edged powerhouse Microsoft Visual Studio.

Business Intelligence

Winner: Seagate Software’s Crystal Reports

Runner-up: Business Objects’ BusinessObjects
For the second year running, Seagate’s Crystal Reports demonstrated its popularity in the business intelligence category. BusinessObjects also made a strong showing in the crowded field.

CASE, Design, and Modeling

Winner: Oracle Designer

Runner-up: Computer Associates International’s ERwin
Is ERwin — an extremely popular tool when under the wing of Logic Works — now withering on the vine at CA? Unexpectedly, Oracle Designer unseated it as the favorite design tool among voters.

Customer Relationship Management

Winner: Oracle CRM

Runner-up: Siebel Systems Inc.’s Siebel 99
Another surprise. It’s difficult to determine where the Oracle CRM initiative begins and ends in terms of available products, but enough subscribers were impressed to generate double the votes of Siebel 99.

Data and Application Integration

Winner: Data Junction Corp.’s Data Junction

Runner-up: IBM DataJoiner
Data Junction — recently redubbed Universal Transformation Suite — vanquished better-known rivals for a second straight year, and by a huge margin.

Data Warehouse Management

Winner: Oracle Enterprise Manager
Runners-up: IBM Visual Warehouse and MicroStrategy Inc.’s DSS Administrator
Oracle reigns supreme as a data warehousing platform, and so did Oracle Enterprise Manager in this voting category. IBM and MicroStrategy were distant runners-up.

Database Servers

Winner: Oracle RDBMS

Runner-up: Microsoft SQL Server
It’s only fitting that the yin and yang of today’s database market should divide the spoils in the Database Servers category. The Oracle RDBMS takes its rightful place at the top here, unseating surprise 1998 winner Oracle Rdb.

Distributed Systems Management

Winner: Hewlett-Packard OpenView

Runner-up: Microsoft Systems Management Server
A shocker: Not only did HP OpenView outperform rivals by a considerable margin, but so did Microsoft Systems Management Server, which nobody will ever confuse with Unicenter TNG in terms of data center credentials.

Hardware Platforms — Enterprise Systems

Winner: Sun Microsystems E10000 (Starfire)

Runner-up: IBM S/390
If the word is true that Sun can’t manufacture Starfire boxes fast enough, it’s reflected in the results here: the company’s high-end server sweeps all hardware platform categories.

Hardware Platforms — Midrange Corporate Computing

Winner: Sun Microsystems E5000

Runner-up: Compaq Digital AlphaServer Series
As goes the E10000, so does the E5000; Sun won the midrange segment as well. The IBM RS/6000 was but one vote away from achieving runner-up status along with AlphaServer.

Hardware Platforms — Workgroup/Department Computing

Winner: Sun Microsystems E450

Runner-up: Dell PowerEdge Series
Only one vote separated the winner and runner-up in this popular category.

IT Integrators/Consulting Organizations

Winner: Oracle Consulting

Runner-up: PriceWaterhouseCoopers
IBM Global Services gets most of the attention, but not from voters in this category. Oracle Consulting earned the first-place prize.

Knowledge/Content Management and Corporate Portals

Winner: Microsoft Exchange

Runner-up: Lotus Notes
In most organizations, “knowledge management” still means groupware and messaging. As long as it does, Exchange and Notes will likely dominate here.

Middleware — Application Servers

Winner: Oracle Application Server

Runner-up: AOL/Netscape Netscape Application Server
Oracle’s first-place finish in this highly strategic category is telling: Many customers would rather go with a vendor they trust where business-critical solutions are concerned.

Middleware — Transactions and Messaging

Winner: Microsoft Transaction Server

Runner-up: BEA Systems Inc.’s Tuxedo
A shocker: Voters preferred Microsoft Transaction Server, which isn’t even a standalone product at this point, over dominant TP monitor Tuxedo and other high-octane alternatives.

Mobile/Embedded DBMSs

Winner: Oracle Lite

Runner-up: Sybase Adaptive Server Anywhere
Where relational databases are concerned in the Readers’ Choice Awards, Oracle is tough to beat. But fans of well-regarded Adaptive Server Anywhere made its popularity known.

Object DBMSs

Winner: Object Design Inc.’s ObjectStore

Runner-up: Computer Associates International’s Jasmine
The bloom is off the rose for 1998 winner Jasmine; ObjectStore supplanted it in the Object DBMSs category by a large margin.

Operating Systems

Winner: Windows NT

Runner-up: Solaris
Sun Microsystems may have swept the hardware platform categories, but Windows NT was the winner where operating environments were concerned. Linux made a strong third-place bid.

Packaged Enterprise Applications

Winner: Oracle Applications

Runner-up: SAP R/3
Oracle’s extremely strong showing in the 1999 Readers’ Choice Awards completes with a first-place result for Oracle Applications, recently updated in a Web-only incarnation as Oracle Applications 11i.

Storage Management

Winners: EMC Symmetrix and Compaq StorageWorks (tie)

Runner-up: Sun Microsystems DataShare
Dominant storage-management company EMC shares the prize with Compaq in this category.

Best Intelligent Enterprise Personality

Winner: Ralph Kimball

Runner-up: Joe Celko
Better luck next year, Joe. Ralph Kimball was the most favored columnist among voters in 1999.

Last Year's Winners

Application Development Magic Software Enterprises’ Magic CASE, Design, and Modeling Platinum Technology’s (now CA) ERwin Components, Frameworks, and Libraries ProtoView Development’s ActiveX Component Suite Data Migration and Cleaning Data Junction’s Data Junction Data Warehouse Systems MicroStrategy’s DSS Administrator Database Administration Embarcadero Technologies’ DBArtisan Database Servers Oracle Rdb E-Commerce Cognos’ DataMerchant Middleware and App Servers Microsoft IIS Object DBMSs CA’s Jasmine Packaged Apps Oracle Applications Query, Reporting, and Analysis Seagate Software’s Crystal Reports Source Code Management Intersolv’s (now Merant Corp.) PVCS Systems Management CA’s Unicenter TNG Testing and Software Quality Rational Software’s SQA Suite Best Columnist Joe Celko

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