As promised, this week we're identifying the critical questions IT leaders must ask of vendors who are pitching what they claim to be the latest and greatest in database systems.

Yesterday we tackled the hidden costs around software, and related ongoing management costs tied to applications, that some vendors don't mention too often during the product pitch.

Today the topic is identifying how versatile a database system is and what it can do beyond the basic scope of data processing.

Question: What else can this huge database system do for my IT infrastructure? What else can it run, how many Linux systems does it support?

Well, the answer for a product such as Oracle-Sun's Exadata is short.

It might be made from open components but it’s a closed system that can’t be redeployed for non-Oracle needs.

It runs only Oracle Enterprise Linux, not any other flavors such as Red Hat or SUSE Linux, or other operating systems such as IBM AIX, Windows or even Sun Solaris.

On top of that IT can’t add any third-party applications.

On the IBM side, it’s a very different picture.

IBM systems integrate easily into an existing data center infrastructure for backups, disaster recovery and running Oracle.

IBM provides flexibility and choice, more return on investment and clearly more value for the enterprise that understands that versatile technology can often provide benefits beyond just the basic work scope.

So make sure to ask how flexible a product is, how easy it will be to integrate and what else it can offer. The answers might very well surprise you.