SAP + Sybase = Oracle

I've been wondering when SAP would finally acquire a decent database. I was quite astounded when SAP passed on MYSQL and letting it go to SUN. (A complete waste in my opinion since now it's a 3rd class citizen in Oracle-land)

Now we see that SAP has purchased Sybase. An interesting purchase to be sure and one that will have some far reaching implications. First off, I think SAP will have the ability to go toe-to-toe with Oracle on almost all fronts (Still think they lack a strong access control piece)

It also allows them to include the missing piece to the entire SAP ecosystem, the environment that everything will live in. Now one wonders if they will pick up a Linux of some sort (SUSE/Novell) to compete with Solaris and maybe a hardware vendor to compete with SUN servers.

SAP in a box, anyone?