Linux Experiences Strongest Operating System Growth Rate with 67 Percent Revenue Increase

STAMFORD, Conn., June 18, 2007 — Worldwide relational database management systems (RDBMS) total software revenue totaled $15.2 billion in 2006, a 14.2 percent increase from 2005 revenue of $13.3 billion, according to Gartner, Inc.

The overall RDBMS market continued to be dominated by the top-tier vendors, as the top three vendors (Oracle, IBM, and Microsoft) accounted for 85.6 percent of worldwide RDBMS revenue (see Table 1). Oracle and Microsoft experienced growth rates above the industry average at 14.9 percent and 28 percent, respectively, while IBM trailed in terms of growth with an 8.8 percent revenue increase in 2006.

“As the popularity of the data-intensive initiative continues to grow, the relational database management system is receiving ongoing attention,” said Colleen Graham, research director at Gartner. “We expect this to continue as organizations show no sign of flagging in their pursuit of performance management and overarching enterprise information management initiatives.”

“Organizations are looking to gain insight into the business to make better decisions and identify new opportunities. This is forcing them to invest in their data assets, purchasing new technology and tools that increase operational efficiency, and enable better use of data management resources,” Ms. Graham said.

Table 1
Worldwide Vendor Revenue Estimates from RDBMS Software, Based on Total Software Revenue, 2006 (Millions of Dollars)

Source: Gartner Dataquest (June 2007)

Each of the major three vendors continue to dominate their particular platform; Oracle on Unix and Linux, Microsoft on Windows, and IBM on the zSeries. Unix and Windows Server were still the leading RDBMS operating system (OS) in 2006 with 34.8 percent and 34.5 percent market share. Linux was the No. 3 RDBMS OS with 15.5 percent market share, but it continued to dominate in terms of OS growth, with 67 percent growth over 2005.

Gartner defines RDBMS as a database management system that incorporates the relational data model, normally including a Structured Query Language (SQL) application programming interface. It is a DBMS in which the database is organized and accessed according to the relationships between data items. In a relational database, relationships between data items are expressed by means of tables. Interdependencies among these tables are expressed by data values rather than by pointers. This allows a high degree of data independence.

Gartner's Software research group has traditionally measured market share in terms of new license revenue. However, due to the emergence and increasing popularity of open-source software and buyer consumption models such as hosted and subscription offerings, Gartner has moved to measure market share in terms of total software revenue which includes revenue generated from new license, updates, subscriptions and hosting, technical support and maintenance. Professional services and hardware revenue are not included in total software revenue.