Oracle President Mark Hurd offered some hybrid cloud computing teasers ahead of Oracle OpenWorld 2011 during a phone call with The VAR Guy today. Among the highlights: Hurd compared Oracle’s best-of-breed integrated stack strategy to the Apple iPad, insisting that corporate IT departments want simplified offerings that they don’t need to integrate on their own.
Here are snippets from The VAR Guy’s conversation with Hurd:
On HP naming Meg Whitman CEO: “No comment.”
On Oracle’s strategy: “Our strategy is to be best of breed at everything we do: The hardware layer, the operating system later, the database layer, [the middleware] and vertical market applications layer.” Hurd mentioned that Oracle’s Exadata and Exalogic solutions will become increasingly gain vertical market integration. He also sees more pre-provisioning for the customer, and more remote monitoring from Oracle into customer settings.
On Oracle’s Cloud Strategy: “SaaS and cloud talk will get louder at OpenWorld,” said Hurd. “On-site or in the cloud we have the exact same code base. That hybrid cloud strategy is a differentiator for us. Customers can mix and match [on premise and cloud] with us.”
On New Innovations: “Oracle has never delivered more technology in its history than at last year’s OpenWorld; I think we’ll beat that this year.” Hurd said he expects 50,000 people the conference.
On Removing Complexity for IT: “Whose doing all the integration and testing? It used to be the partner,” said Hurd. Now, he said, channel partners need to focus on knowing their target markets, their customers and pre-provisioned solutions.
“Do you buy a PC then install Windows then put in the applications? Or do you increasingly prefer the simplicity of the iPad [approach] and the elimination of complexity.”
On Vendor Lock-in: “Some people ask if there is some sort of lock-in with Exadata. The answer is no. There’s nothing that happens when you host [i.e., deploy] Exadata that stops you from
On Competing and Cooperating with Other Major IT Vendors: “The IT world is a big world. Customers expect us to be able to compete and cooperate simultaneously. It’s what great companies do.” Customers that purchase vertically integrated systems from Oracle, Hurd said, may also select additional systems partners for additional Oracle software. For instance, Hurd mentioned IBM as both ” both a competitor in some aspects and a partner in another aspect. You’ll see that at Openworld.”
On the Risk That Oracle Isn’t In Growth Markets: “There’s going to be more mobility, not less,” said Hurd. “There will be more people wanting to do more transactions, not less. There’s going to be more data — structured and unstructured. Those are opportunities for us. Plus, there’s the IT modernization needs,” a reference to vertically integrated opportunities.
The VAR Guy’s Perspectives
So, how about a reality check on each point? The VAR Guy is tied up in a meeting but here are some quick observations.
Hurd believes Oracle can drive profitable long-term growth in Oracle’s high-end integrated server stack business. And it’s clear databases, information management and applications are central to any on-premise our cloud initiative. But The VAR Guy is certainly aware of the fact that Unix-related server revenues are under big-time pressure from x86 systems running Linux and Windows. Can Hurd deliver on that hardware revenue growth? Time will tell.
Want more insights? Oracle will begin a deep dialog with channel partners on Sunday, Oct. 2, at 2:30 p.m. eastern during Oracle PartnerNetwork OPN Forum in San Francisco. The event will be streamed online at http://oracle.com/partners. The VAR Guy will be reporting live from the event… and chasing down Oracle Channel Chief Judson Althoff.
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Alright, sorry, I just get so disgusted hearing about the Exa-crud, and the over-obviousness of their goal to “say it enough that people will believe it”, that I need to write. I think in 2-3 years, people will say “wow, that Bill guy was pretty smart”, when Oracle is looking more like Digital or Sun, or other dinosaurs, clinging to yesterday, before them.
Granted this guy is on the HP Board, but this article makes a very good point about the future relevance of Oracle. Nothing happens overnight, as it took 30+ years of General Motors making bad products to finally hit a bottom, but the writing is on the wall for the long haul with Oracle as they continue to try and “protect, protect” their old models.
http://www.businessinsider.com/boxnet-2011-9
Doing “Engineered Systems” feels like the US car companies in the 1970′s saying “the Japanese can’t make cars”… Larry is now looking like a crazy old guy who likes to race sailboats…
Lastly, I have seen Judson Althoff at a bunch of these Oracle partner events. He seems like a decent guy, but anyone below the top 3-5 folks at Oracle just feels like a tool when I hear them talk. Just sayin. Think about it next time you hear him talk.