This Monday, news rocked the tech world . Consider me “your Oracle”, though I don’t need a crystal ball, just your attention as I tell you what really means..
What Oracle Buying Sun Means To You
Well folks, when my Monday started with a 12 hour “journey” from
Toronto to Newark - yes, what is normally a 2 hour event turned out
differently; I knew “someting had to be either very much in alignment
or out of alignment with the universe. It wasn’t until early Tuesday
morning that I had the chance to digest the news that Oracle had
purchased sun. Why is that? Well, the Business Intelligence area is
an “arena” I have some experience in, and it’s taken me some time to
“digest” this news. I’m ready to give you my “industry insider”
perspective on what, as the dust settles, will be the questions that
need to be answered, and potential fallout we might expect from this
deal having occurred.
I’ll start off by saying, that my disappointment with the way this
went was second only to the news in this “space” a couple of years ago
when SAP bought Business Objects and IBM ended up getting Cognos. This
was bad for both BI giants, and their customers. In the SAP-BO world,
SAP is more interested in how to integrate B.O into it’s
robust Dreamweaver Business Warehouse application stack than actually improving
Business Objects for existing customers. SAP bought Business
Objects also as a means of acquiring access to the customer base that
came along with it - IBM also has done little to add additional value
into Cognos, worried more about assimilating Cognos into the “IBM
Family” and schooling Cognos associates on what is one of IBM’s core
competency - increasing ARPC (Average Revenue Per Customer).
IBM - What Is Wrong With You???!
Shock and Awe. The big shock here was not that Oracle bought Sun - but more that IBM Let Them Do It!! IBM
had been negotiating this deal for some time - and had IBM pulled the
trigger on this deal, the IBM-SUN union would have controlled over 60% of the high end Unix server market. Wow, Wow, Wow. Strike 1 IBM.
IBM knew they were going to miss the quarter from a revenue
perspective. The analysts were not happy when IBM announced this on
Tuesday, one day after the Oracle-Sun announcement came out. IBM says
the acquistion doesn’t change the market - that they have been winning
against Sun and Oracle. Sun and their customers should see this deal
as a free ticket into the “ICU” where, with Oracle’s nurturing (read:
slash and hack) ways will meanincreased revenue for Oracleand
now give them access to the high end Sun Solaris Servers - Oracle can
now offer the entire stack, from the cold iron to the database and
applications - the company’s acquisition statement said: “Oracle will
be the only company that can engineer an integrated system —
applications to disk — where all the pieces fit and work together so
customers do not have to do it themselves”. This is not true of course
- IBM does this as well. But now they both can. Strike 2 IBM.
Oracle now owns Java. I’ll say it again. Oracle now owns Java.
Oracle now has access to “cloud computing” technology platforms. With
all the talk aboutprivate cloud networks these days,
you have to think Larry Ellison will build his own now. With access to
sun’s hardware as well, Oracle can really engineer and tune the
hardware to make the Oracle applications “sing” as angelically as Susan Boyle did on
the British version of American Idol. Oracle now owns Java. IBM is
heavily invested and reliant on Java. Oracle now owns Java. Strike 3 IBM.
Microsoft - What Is Wrong With You???!
Ballmer said on Monday, get this, that he was:
“very surprised’ by Oracle Corp’s (ORCL.O) plans to buy Sun Microsystems Inc (JAVA.O). “I just learnt it … I need to think about it. I am very surprised”
Now
what the &*^!! is that all about? Well, I’ll tell you why Microsoft
doesn’t like this. Because Larry Ellison probably does. Larry has had
the hate on for Microsoft for some time. Larry wants to grow his
empire and become the largest software company on the planet, which
would bump Microsoft out of their throne. Considering Oracle has done
what have from a market share/sales perspect from a disadvantaged
position - of course Microsoft is not just about the apps but also
about the OS.
Sun - What Is Wrong With You???!
The bottom line is that the IBM
deal would have been better for Sun. Oracle is not a hardware company,
nor does it want to be a hardware company. Hardware is a means to an
end for Oracle - that being world software dominator.
There is really nothinng ‘wrong’
with Sun. Remember, everyone has been trying to buy them. It’s good
to be wanted. Sun would have been better off with IBM as a step-father,
and IBM would have been better to have “completed” the adoption
paperwork, because now IBM is on the outside looking in. What “player”
to buy now? There is none. The playing ground is emty now.
IBM will regret this, mark my
words (if they don’t already). Remember how that “other software
company” shafted IBM with OS/2 and Basic? Think Oracle will go down in
history as the “other software company” that got them “under the Sun”.
Glass “Half-Full” Perspectives For Your Reading Pleasure
Oracle’s Purchase Of Sun To Reshape Industry
Oracle/Sun Deal Will Change Competitive Landscape in IT
Oracle-Sun Good News For Linux
Glass “Half-Empty” Perspectives For Your Reading Pleasure
Fate of Sun’s Software Is Uncertain
GoodBye, Larry - Oracle Could Slash 50% of Sun’s staff
Ex Microsoft Strategist Dissects Oracle-Sun deal
