But instead of dying down, the fight soon heated up. In March 2011, Oracle announced it would . Though Microsoft and Red Hat Software had made similar decisions already, Oracle is a more important software supplier for the Integrity servers, which run HP's version of Unix, called HP/UX. In a press release, Oracle said it had reached the decision based on information from Intel that the Itanium line was being phased out. HP and Intel denied they were planning to end the Itanium line. In another press release the next day, Oracle said HP had known Itanium was nearing the end of its life and kept that information from its customers.

That's when HP filed the suit being heard next week. It wants a court to declare that the so-called Hurd Agreement reached in September 2010 is a binding contract and that Oracle breached it by dropping Itanium development. HP also accused Oracle of libel and defamation, saying the company lied when it said that Intel was planning to kill Itanium. HP said Oracle was pulling development from Itanium in a bid to pull customers over to its own hardware, which came from the Sun acquisition.

Oracle countersued, saying HP had deceived it regarding the future of Itanium and hid the fact that the platform was on the way out. Oracle called the Hurd Agreement a mere "corporate hug," and said it deliberately did not negotiate a binding commitment to Itanium development. It wants the Hurd Agreement to be scrapped. Oracle also made a defamation charge of its own, saying that HP's allegations were false and hurt its reputation.

Oracle also said HP was guilty of fraud for holding back information while negotiating the Hurd Agreement. Among the facts Oracle says HP hid during the talks in 2010 was that the company was planning to hire two executives who would be dead-set against Oracle. Soon after the deal was signed, HP picked as its new CEO Leo Apotheker, who led German software maker SAP when a division of that company information from Oracle's website. In addition, HP hired Ray Lane, a former Oracle executive who had clashed with Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison years earlier, as non-executive chairman. Lane is now executive chairman, while Meg Whitman has replaced Apotheker as CEO.

Both companies say they have their common customers' interests at heart and that the other side is hurting those users. But the dispute itself is probably hurting customers more than any verdict could hurt either company, Pund-IT's King said. While vendors want to push their own products, enterprise IT executives have their own agenda.