The modern data management landscape is dotted by new players seeking to secure their very own slice of the increasingly lucrative analytics pie, but the incumbent vendors continue to rein at the top of the table, their presence felt as strong as ever.  That’s been especially true these past few days as three of the largest names in the enterprise successively upped the ante on how information is applied to business goals.

Oracle kicked things off with the introduction of a cross-platform structured query capability that allows users to manipulate information across multiple systems with a single request written in the same familiar SQL syntax they’ve been since before data became a buzzword. In addition to eliminating the need to write the same query multiple times, which opens the door to potentially disastrous constitutes, the feature accelerates response times through the use of Smart Scan offloading technology from Oracle’s Exadata line of pre-configured analytical appliances.

Hot on the heel of Big Data SQL making its debut, the series received an upgrade of its own in the form of a new system designed to run in-memory configurations of Oracle Database. The machine is identical in purpose to the ConveregedSystem 900 Hewlett-Packard is offering for SAP’s competing HANA platform, and packs an identical amount of RAM at 12 terabytes.

More rivalries & makeups

Salesforce.com  shelled out a hefty $390 million for RelateIQ, the company behind the data-infused customer relationship management (CRM) platform of the same name. The deal, which is set to close in the third quarter pending regulatory approval, is significant because it serves to kill two birds with one stone, removing a future threat while denying competitors such as Oracle an opportunity to gain new ground in the CRM market.

The buyout underscores the continued rivalry between the two industry titans, which could be viewed as the modern-day enterprise equivalent of the historic feud between IBM and Apple that  famously saw the consumer electronics giant paint Big Blue as Big Brother in its “1984” ad for the Macintosh. Yet although there’s no telling what the future holds for Oracle and Salesforce, it’s worth nothing that the decades-long relationship between the latter pair serves as an example of not only competition but reconsolidation as well.

IBM and Apple this week entered a landmark partnership to jointly develop more than 100 industry-specific analytical applications for iOS, the platform of choice in the enterprise according to a recent poll by JAMF Software. Under the collaboration, Big Blue will also deliver a range of cloud services optimized for the iPhone and iPad, in addition to pre-packaged management solutions designed to simplify device activation, supply and management in large organizations. Apple, meanwhile, is rolling out a new support plan that it describes as tailored to meet the specific needs of corporate users.

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