Oracle is considering opening up its software to support other databases.

Chief executive Larry Ellison told delegates at the OpenWorld user conference in San Francisco that the company is committed to work with open standards, and will compete on reliability and security. He says Oracle is thinking of making its software open to a number of other database standards, but has not yet made a decision on this.

‘We believe our products are strong enough to stand up and compete on their merits,’ he said.

Ovum analyst David Mitchell says there is already a strong push in Oracle towards opening up to other databases.

‘Would Ellison have mentioned it if there wasn’t already a strong push in one direction? I think it is quite likely there will be support for other databases coming through within six months,’ he said.

‘The question will be the nature of the support. Will you be able to use DB2 on MySQL databases? What will the compromises be?’

Ellison also announced a $2bn research and development schedule, focusing on security, business intelligence, specialist industry functionality and storage automation.