In this corner, fighting out of Redwood Shores, CA and hundreds of other locations throughout the world, the current heavyweight champion of enterprise software, Oracle Corporation.

And in this corner, fighting out of Walldorf, Germany and hundreds of other locations throughout the world (with a large U.S. subsidiary in Pennsylvania), the number-one challenger, SAP.

The battle has now moved into the second round, and SAP tried to increase its tempo this week by announcing  new offices in Amsterdam, Singapore, and Reading, England, to provide discounted services to former PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards customers. Continuing to go after Oracle's newly acquired customer base, SAP's latest effort follows its similar "safe passage" service in the U.S., announced earlier this year.

SAP is, in fact, the leader in the enterprise application integration market, but is seen by many as the current underdog, given Oracle's global dominance of the database market, its recent victories over SAP in acquiring PeopleSoft and Retek, and in its reputation for aggressiveness.