Officials at IBM are <A HREF="http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2124032,00.asp?kc=EWEWEMNL050107EP40E">throwing verbal haymakers at Oracle</A> as Big Blue touts its successes in the database market. The two database heavyweights alternated between offensive and defensive postures recently after IBM questioned Oracle's claims of database dominance.

"The rapid adoption of DB2 9 would seem to call their claims into question and analysts are starting to question their numbers as well," said Bernie Spang, director of IBM data servers.