Abstract: As storage of data plays an integral part of databases, security issues becomes major concerns. Relational databases hold a significant portion of data stored in software, therefore today’s database purchase decisions revolve around how secure the product is. This paper provides a categorical feature comparison between Oracle9i Database (Oracle) and IBM DB2 Universal Database (DB2), in addition to examining features provided in the SecureWay product line from Tivoli, an IBM subsidiary [7]. It explores the impact of IBM’s and Oracle’s security models on users seeking to protect their critical information systems and contrasts IBM’s strategy of building security outside of the DB2 database against Oracle’s strategy of securing information in the database server[6].In addition to the security issues we explore some of the strategical issues arises in database migration.