Palm And Oracle Sign Remote Access Deal

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June 16, 1998 (12:00 AM EDT)

By Gregory Quick,

Palm Computing announced an agreement with Oracle Monday, the latest in a series of alliances aimed at integrating PalmPilot technology with the enterprise and remote access network market. The report came hours before Microsoft and its Windows CE allies were expected to make a series of similar announcements later Monday.

Palm has joined the Oracle Alliance Program, and the two companies said they will work to develop a solution that will give PalmPilot users real-time remote access to data on Oracle databases.

One of the first development areas will be the integration of the Oracle Lite client database with the PalmPilot connected organizer. This will create access to servers operating the Oracle 8 database program and will let data be transferred, synchronized, and replicated on PalmPilots.

Another early development plan calls for a conduit development kit (CDK) for Oracle, which is scheduled to enter beta in August. This will let data be safely and reliably synchronized with a shared Oracle database server.

Any solutions that emerge from this development will be jointly marketed by the two companies and sold through all their sales channels.

"The power of Oracle database-driven applications combined with the ease-of-use, portability and fast data access of the Palm Computing platform will help propel handheld computing even further into the enterprise," said Mark Bercow, vice president of strategic alliances and platform development at Palm Computing.

Palm has been very active in recent weeks, working to gain partners who will help integrate its mobile solutions into the enterprise area. Among its recent partners are Symbol Technologies, Abaco, Netscape, Remedy, Computer Associates, and Sybase.

"Our strategy is to team up with world-class companies that will use their expertise to expand the functionality of the Palm Computing platform in their specific markets, creating innovative, mission-critical business solutions that leverage the unique proposition of the Palm Computing platform and devices based on it," Bercow said.