Robert Robinson, business systems administrator at Durr Systems Inc., said this week's moves could encourage users of other applications to buy World or EnterpriseOne. The Plymouth, Mich.-based automotive supplier runs both World and EnterpriseOne ERP applications. The announcement should also reassure customers already running J.D. Edwards and the IBM hardware that their investments are protected, Robinson said. The Fusion Option

The indefinite support will be good for customers, but an Oracle application integrated with the Oracle database and middleware could be a better solution for users, according to John Matelski, president of the independent Quest International Users Group, an organization of J.D. Edwards software users. The group is a co-sponsor of the Collaborate user conference.

Matelski, who is also deputy CIO of Orlando, said that migrating to Oracle technology would likely provide most users with the best technology.

"The city of Orlando is going to evaluate all of its options based on features and functionality as it is unveiled," said Matelski. If Oracle Fusion is optimized to run Oracle software, then the city would likely buy it, he said. The city currently runs EnterpriseOne on iSeries hardware and uses IBM's DB2 database.

"Supporting the iSeries customer was always a cash cow for J.D. Edwards," noted Joshua Greenbaum, an analyst at Enterprise Applications Consulting in Berkeley, Calif. "These systems are extremely stable and rarely, if ever, need any maintenance or upgrades."