Oracle’s announcement of the Oracle Application Integration Architecture, code-named “Project X,” might have sounded like good news to customers gathered at the International Oracle User Group’s (IOUG) Collaborate user forum in Las Vegas yesterday.

But in point of fact, the announcement was hardly just another exercise in altruism. Over the past year or more, Oracle’s president Charles Phillips has been sounding conciliatory words to the client base about protecting investments, and not requiring forced migrations. But there are cold hard business realities that are driving Oracle to make more nice with its installed base.