November 16, 1999 Web posted at: 10:25 a.m. EST (1525 GMT) by Marc Songini

From...

(IDG) -- Oracle last week threw its considerable weight behind the upcoming Monterey operating system release -- a joint program by IBM and Santa Cruz Operation to build a version of Unix for Intel's upcoming 64-bit processors.

Oracle has joined a growing list of independent software vendors to jump on to the Monterey bandwagon, along with BMC, BEA Systems, Computer Associates and more.

The company says it will start offering Oracle Internet Directory as an option for AIX, IBM's own existing Unix flavor, and Monterey, according to Michael Rocha, a vice president at Oracle.

The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol-based Oracle Internet Directory stores data about users and applications in an Oracle database shop that network professionals can use to manage their Oracle environment.

Later, Oracle will port its other database and applications suites to the two IBM platforms. Oracle will maintain its existing relationships with Unix vendors Sun and Hewlett-Packard, Rocha says. Among the server vendors who plan to bundle Monterey on their boxes are Compaq, Unisys and Acer.

Not only does this mean more server vendors will be selling Oracle's products, it may also give IBM and Oracle the muscle it needs to compete with Microsoft's SQL database product.

Monterey is due for release in the second half of 2000; the Oracle Internet Directory is slated for release on AIX by year-end.