Database vendors rally against Microsoft standard

NEWS Five of the world's leading software vendors - including IBM, NCR and Oracle - have joined forces to develop a rival metadata standard to Microsoft's Open Information Model. Hyperion and Unisys have teamed up with the big three to submit their jointly developed standard - the Common Warehouse Metadata Interchange (CWMI) - to the Object Management Group for approval. CWMI defines a universal data format for warehouse and business intelligence products. It also employs XML to help integrate data with ecommerce applications. The announcement takes CWMI into direct competition with Microsoft's Open Information Model - a standard developed by the software giant and handed over to the independent Metadata Coalition earlier this year. Chris Ward, marketing manager for business intelligence at Oracle, explained why he thinks CWMI will win the battle: "Our proposed standard is not proprietary-based in terms of object model or platform, therefore we are independent and we can take the most suitable solutions to marketplace. "The Microsoft standard is not a scalable or flexible platform for warehousing," he claimed. But Marina Steadman, Microsoft UK's server product manager, expressed surprise at the announcement. "We already have a datawarehousing alliance, where we have all agreed to exploit an open model," she said. "And IBM and Hyperion are already part of the Metadata Coalition. From a customer point of view this is not ideal." Phil Cross, developer marketing manager at Microsoft UK, went even further: "When you try to create an open standard there are two things people can do - join it and make it successful for the customer, or try to divide and conquer." Mary Hope, senior analyst at Ovum, said the move is politically motivated: "Oracle has drawn on its many allies, and is taking this very seriously. But there are no substantial differences in the technology. Ownership is the key. "It's 50/50 as to which one will survive," she added, "but we could potentially end up with two. They could co-exist side-by-side - which would stop it becoming proprietary, but would force customers to test everything with two tools."