Oracle may want to squash Microsoft in the business software market but it isn’t about to alienate both companies’ share in the process.
Oracle’s Grid Control management tool will now care for Microsoft and Oracle programs running on the same computers, Oracle said today.
Oracle’s Grid Control’s alerts, performance data collection and trending tools may be used to automate Microsoft applications and services, thanks to seven new software plug-ins that seek out potential problem areas.
“Customers now have even more depth and a greater ability to view Microsoft middleware and database operations directly in the context of operating system activity,” Oracle said in a statement.
Priced at $1,500 per plug-in per CPU, the Oracle offering includes a plug-in for SQL Server, the product Oracle competes with in the multi-billion-dollar market for database software.
This plug-in patrols SQL Server databases and the applications that run on them for bugs or potential trouble spots.
The management software also has an adapter for the .NET Framework to help customers using .NET to manage their entire application environment, including .NET and Java applications.
The other plug-ins for Grid Control manage Microsoft Active Directory; BizTalk Server; Commerce Server; Internet Information Services; and Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server.
The adapters also allow administrators to remotely manage computer systems without installing Oracle management agents in Microsoft systems.
Oracle said the plug-ins are the byproduct of the Oracle Enterprise Manager Partner program it initiated last fall to provide broader management of disparate enterprise software environments.
In this effort, other software vendors work with Oracle to develop plug-ins and management connectors to help pare the cost and get Oracle’s management software to communicate with other programs, even from competitors such as Microsoft.