Market Analyst Reports Booming SQL Server Licensing Revenue

Good news for the SQL Server business and for the relational database industry in general. IDC, a market intelligence analysis firm, today published its annual report on worldwide relational database management systems (RDBMS) revenue by vendor for 2007. According to the IDC report, Microsoft SQL Server grew revenue faster in this time period than other RDBMS vendors--14% in 2007. The report's findings are based on sales of currently available versions of SQL Server. SQL Server 2008 is scheduled to ship in Q3 of calendar year 2008.

According to a press release from Microsoft the company anticipates a surge of interest when SQL Server 2008 becomes available. Microsoft reports over 175,000 downloads of the Community Technology Previews (CTP)of the product. For more background on SQL Server CTPs see "A Look at SQL Server CTP 6" and and "Getting Your Feet Wet in SQL Server 2008."

The IDC report notes that top five RDBMS—Oracle, IBM, Microsoft, Teradata, and Sybase—represent 90% of the market. IDC estimates that the RDBMS market grew by 12.6% from $16.7 billion in 2006 to $18.8 billion in 2007. The report acknowledges Oracle as the market leader, with an increase in market share in 2007.

For information on IBM/System i databases see "Access MS SQL Server Database from an RPG Program" and "Leap Ahead with DB2 for V6R1."

Some of the findings in the IDC report include growth in acquisitions of smaller niche companies by the larger companies, competition heating up in the mid-market segment, and sales driven by data warehousing and master data management (MDM).In addition, the big companies are facing off over technologies such as compression, security, and unstructured data support.

The IDC report, entitled "Worldwide Relational Database Management Systems 2007 Vendor Shares," is available for a fee at http://www.idc.com/.