Oracle Enhances Free Migration tools

January 08, 2015 (Computerworld) -- Beset by customer defections to Microsoft Corp. and open-source vendors such as MySQL AB, Oracle Corp. is making a bid to win back users by enhancing its free tools for migrating data and applications from non-Oracle to Oracle systems. . .

With its graphical user interface and its ability to browse database objects, run SQL statements and scripts, edit and debug PL/SQL statements and run reports, SQL Developer is ostensibly targeted against Quest Software Inc.'s popular TOAD database administration and development tool, said Donald Burleson, an Oracle consultant and author in Kittrell, N.C.

In fact, SQL Developer, Migration Workbench and a third application migration tool called Apex all form a key part of Oracle's effort to target smaller organizations by offering ease of use and convenience.

"Oracle knows that it's the application selection that drives the choice of database," Burleson said. "Extending the SQL Developer browser [to non-Oracle databases] is not a huge technical achievement, [but] it lays the foundation for migrating entire applications to Oracle by replacing foreign procedural code with Apex and PL/SQL, and using fusion middleware to allow existing applications to use Oracle as their back-end database."

Though still the dominant database vendor, Oracle has found the strategy of touting its software's best-of-breed features obsolete in the face of cheaper, easier-to-use alternatives such as Microsoft's SQL Server or open-source databases like MySQL and EnterpriseDB. . .