Oracle spent most of January 27 describing its vision for Sun Microsystems. Channel Chief Judson Althoff participated in multiple Oracle briefings and a media Q&A. The VAR Guy heard plenty of answers… but he still has four questions about Oracle’s Sun strategy. Here they are.
First, let’s get the obvious question out of the way: Oracle plans to hire 2,000 direct sales pros to drive Oracle-Sun solutions into the enterprise. Will the move trigger channel conflict? Frankly, The VAR Guy thinks Oracle (like Cisco, IBM and HP…) will maintain a delicate balancing act between direct and indirect sales.
Now, for The VAR Guy’s four questions about Oracle’s buyout of Sun…
1. MySQL Partners: Oracle says it remains committed to MySQL. But can we expect the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) Specialized partner program to have a specific focus on MySQL? Hmmm… The VAR Guy thinks it’s too soon to say.
2. Unbreakable MySQL: Sure, you’re familiar with Unbreakable Linux. The VAR Guy wonders… will Oracle go up the open source stack and introduce an Unbreakable MySQL guarantee? Hmmm… The VAR Guy’s best guess is a solid maybe.
3. Solaris and Sparc Partner Specializations: Will OPN Specialized have Solaris- and Sparc-centric offerings? The VAR Guy’s best guess… Absolutely yes.
4. Java Partner Specialization: Regulators closely reviewed how Oracle’s ownership of MySQL would impact the open source database. But some observers are more worried about Oracle’s ownership of Java. Will OPN Specialized have a special focus on Java? The VAR Guy’s best guess… without a doubt.
A spokeswoman for Oracle says “stay tuned” … indicating that Oracle’s channel team will offer further comments about Sun’s assets in the weeks ahead. The VAR Guy will be listening.
Skeptics Remain
During a late-day Q&A with the media, Oracle faced some tough questions from reporters representing The New York Times, InformationWeek, InfoWorld and eWeek. The VAR Guy would have injected a question, too… if only he stopped blogging long enough to do so.
Most of the questions had a familiar theme: Why does Oracle think it can make Sun’s assets so darn profitable when Sun was imploding on its own?
Oracle remained on message, describing high-end synergies that will drive competition with HP and IBM.
Instead of getting caught up in an enterprise hardware debate, The VAR Guy continues to focus on software — and potential opportunities ahead for OPN Specialized partners.
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