Microsoft:
Everyone loves SQL Server 2005, which Microsoft did an excellent job of developing, proving you don’t have to lead to offer the best.
IBM:
Still pushing petabytes after all these years, DB2 continues to hold sway. And IBM’s free edition doesn’t hurt adoption numbers any.
MySQL:
A major force in the open-source database world, despite seeing its transaction engine gobbled up by Oracle.
Oracle:
2004’s thought leader continues to better its line; took a leading role with Eclipse efforts of Java persistence.
Sleepycat:
Kept its ubiquitous embeddable database purring with performance improvements and eked out the year on an up note before being skinned by Oracle.
