Oracle's announcement last week that it will stop developing software for systems using the Itanium processor strikes me as rather tone-deaf, given the enormous pressures CIOs face these days. For some businesses, Oracle's (NASDAQ: ORCL) software may be pretty hard to walk away from, but the vendor's decision to drop Itanium almost sounds like a dare.

It is understandable that Oracle is looking for new ways to sell the hardware it acquired via its purchase of Sun Microsystems last year, but reducing customer choice and forcing pricey infrastructure changes may not be the way to win friends in today's economy. Businesses these days need technology that is not only affordable and reliable, but flexible and agile as well. Single-vendor solutions do not have a track record of displaying these latter attributes. 

A report out of Gartner in January showed that multi-vendor systems not only lower costs but also simplify operations. Gartner found that a single-vendor system is neither easier to manage nor more reliable. CIOs understand the pros and cons of end-to-end systems, and many have come to prefer the competitive benefits of greater choice.

Itanium may not be the only technology that customers move away from in the wake of Oracle's announcement. As some companies are already explaining, Oracle's decision will simply mean a faster migration not only away from the Intel chip but away from proprietary systems altogether. 

The official reaction by Hewlett-Packard to Oracle's announcement--"We are shocked that Oracle would put enterprises and governments at risk while costing them hundreds of millions of dollars in lost productivity"--was naturally overblown. Oracle will continue to support products released on Itanium for some years to come. However, there is a kernel of truth in HP's hyped sentiment. At a time when so many CIOs face extraordinary ongoing budget pressures, forcing them to come up with the time and resources to switch out their systems--only to be locked into one vendor's technology--may not be the best move. - Caron