As advertised, Sage CTO Klaus-Michael Vogelberg discussed the mySQL announcement with me this morning. Also as advertised, he was a tad coy in view of the upcoming Connections conference.
The thrust of the conversation was around what Sage plans to do with this deal. Klaus-Michael gave a few hints:
“It was important for us to structure the deal so we can use mySQL anywhere we need to.”
This is because Sage is looking to build for the future. The way it sees the playing field:
“We must secure the infrastructure [on which Sage runs] for the long term…the medium to long term strategy is to replace the back end databases.”
Klaus-Michael suggested that settling on a single provider for the entire infrastructure stack is ‘dangerous’ because:
“It makes you a hostage to a single provider.”
He can only be referring to Microsoft, with whom Sage has traditionally partnered for much of its technology. That is unlikely to change in the short term but nothing is ruled out. That’s ironic yet understandable.
The logical next step is to use mySQL as the way to create a common database between all SME applications. This won’t be easy and may not mean ‘global’ systems though that would be nice. If Sage pulls this off, then driving a consistent and more acceptable user experience will be a whole lot easier than it is today. Maintenance should be cheaper and internal product management will be an order of magnitude easier. As a by-product, it should mean that more of the R&D budget actually gets spent on innovation rather than backfilling existing products.
Klaus-Michael wouldn’t be drawn on specifics, but affirmed the company will be making significant announcements (as I suspected) at the upcoming Connections conference.
One thing that surprised me was Klaus-Michael’s view that vendor consolidation in the market could lead to more rather than less innnovation. We didn’t have time to pursue that line of thinking but I’ll certainly be interested in finding out how he comes to that conclusion. Seems counter-intuitive to me.
Surprisingly, he said the company is prepared to talk about SaaS and web 2.0 stuff. I must admit that makes me smile because I know they need to deal with this one way or the other. Klaus-Michael was making the standard case for on-premise and co-existence but I’m not convinced he really believes that.
At the moment, anything 2.0 makes my skin crawl but unfortunately we seem to be stuck with the moniker. Even so, it will be good to meet up with the team and get a clearer line of sight into what Sage is really saying.
Watch this space. It is going to be interesting.
Technorati Tags: innovation, SaaS, Sage
