
SAP's move to expand its in-memory technology beyond its business intelligence confines to broader enterprise data sets has sparked debate over the potential threat to database vendors. eWEEK reported in its Aug. 7 issue that, according to sources close to the company, SAP is broadening the scope of its in-memory technology to areas where users need fast query and transaction capabilities and, in the process, is <A HREF="http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2002981,00.asp?kc=EWEAUEMNL081506EOAD">potentially disrupting Oracle's core relational database business</A> (about 55 percent of SAP's customer's applications sit on an Oracle database) by negating the need to store data externally.