Oracle hopes to get to smaller businesses by using the same cost-saving pitch.
Consider a business with about 40 employees. If you're working with the rest of the world, you're going to need a file server - let's say NT 4.0. You're also going to need a mail server, probably running Exchange Server. Throw in client administration, hand-holding, upgrades, and specialty software, and before long you've got a full-time, reasonably well-paid employee dedicated to keeping things together.
I've been that guy. Every day my boss walked by my office, curled his lip, and made some comparison between my salary and his daughter's tuition.
Obviously, my boss couldn't implement Oracle 8i. Even if it were a one-time expense, the US$150,000 for the server, $40,000 for the software, plus a good $100,000 for a professional setup would kill his business.
In Oracle's view, smaller businesses would save money by using simple Internet connectivity to access the same sort of power on remote, "professionally managed" systems.
The other major advantage is that sharing good information with outside resources would be much easier since everything is stored remotely. Take accounting as an example. If a company's books were stored properly in a location where an accountant had real-time access to the most current information, everyone involved could save money.
Stay with me for another moment: The logic may not be that easy to follow. This is Oracle's line of reasoning, not mine.
With all of this great information stored in usable ways on perfectly managed machines, Oracle foresees a time when all but a company's "core competency" is outsourced to firms that have specific skills in various disciplines. Using the Internet, a small firm could easily outsource all of its human resources, purchasing, and other departments. Oracle has decided that the method of data exchange within its systems is going to be XML. There is a Java parser built into 8i which can automatically process files brought into the system.
Still unsure? Do you still see too many gaping holes and leaps in logic in the plan? Well, I do, too. But I have absolutely no doubt that many of the technological problems will be solved relatively quickly - within the next three to five years.
Even if Oracle's plan does come to pass, what does it mean for you and me? It seems Web building skills would be in even greater demand. I'm also guessing that in addition to design, a greater amount of coding would be needed as well as some skills in working with relational and object databases.
So I'm not giving up on the future of the Internet. Instead of selling the store and moving to a farm in the hinterlands, I'm brushing up on my SQL and buying a book on Java.
