Quest offers timeline for unifying database tools

Quest Software on Tuesday announced a timetable for making its database management tools accessible through a single console, a move designed to make it easier for administrators to manage databases from multiple vendors.

The Irvine, California, company currently offers separate Quest Central toolsets for Oracle Corp. and IBM Corp. databases and some tools for managing Microsoft Corp.'s SQL Server database.

By mid-year the company will integrate Quest Central for Oracle with its Microsoft SQL Server tools, making the toolsets accessible through a single console, said Darin Pendergraft, director of product management for Quest Central. Toolsets for managing both the mainframe and distributed versions of IBM's DB2 database will be added to the console "near the end of the year," he added.

The move heats up the rivalry between Quest and BMC Software Inc., in Houston, which is also combining many of its database management tools under an initiative dubbed Project Golden Gate.

BMC is "ahead in the announcement of their strategy but behind on their delivery," according to Quest's Pendergraft.

A BMC spokesman disagreed. Its customers already can use a single, Web-based console to access tools for Oracle's database, SQL Server and the distributed version of DB2, said Karl Chen, BMC's vice president for enterprise data management. The company has said it will add IBM's mainframe database to that list in the first half of this year, he said.