Oracle Wants To Kill HP-Itanium, Users SayOracle Wants To Kill HP-Itanium, Users Say

A majority of IT pros believe that Oracle's decision to discontinue support for Intel's Itanium platform was motivated by a desire to kill off HP's Itanium-based hardware and lure users to its own Sun-Sparc servers, according to the results of an independent survey released Monday.

"A massive 77% of our survey respondents say Oracle did it to kill HP's Itanium server product lines," said Dan Olds, founder of Gabriel Consulting Group, which conducted the survey of 450 data center managers.

44% of the survey respondents said they agreed with the statement that Oracle's Itanium dump was "a competitive move to kill HP's HP-UX and NonStop products." Another 33% said they strongly agreed with the statement. 13% said they were not sure, 8% disagreed, and 2% strongly disagreed.

Oracle in March surprised the tech industry when it announced that it would no longer produce versions of its database and ERP software that can run on Itanium-based systems. Oracle said it had concluded that Intel was no longer commitment to Itanium, an assertion that the chipmaker vehemently denied. Oracle's decision mainly affects HP's Superdome and Integrity servers.

GCG's survey shows that Oracle, which may indeed convince some HP users to move to Sun servers rather than migrate to a new database, risks alienating others, many of whom see its actions as heavy handed.

42% of the respondents to GCG's survey strongly agreed with the notion that the Itanium decision is "the first step in Oracle's plan to put all competitors at a disadvantage vs Oracle hardware products." 37% agreed, 11% were not sure, 7% disagreed, and 3% strongly disagreed.

"It's clear that customers believe Oracle dumping support for Itanium isn't just 'business as usual.' In their minds, Oracle has a much more ambitious agenda," said Olds.

For further reading: Oracle Vs. HP—Who's Got Your Back?

Also see: Where Does Oracle's Itanium Dump Leave You?