Over 50,000 people enjoyed Oracle’s OpenWorld conference in San Francisco this month.
One take-away, shared broadly by bloggers and analysts in attendance: Oracle has so many fingers in so many technology pies that there is no single OpenWorld experience. Oracle today comprises hardware, storage, databases, middleware, and virtually every Application not named Microsoft, SAP, or Infor.
My interest is squarely on the Applications side. Let’s start with Fusion.
Fusion is Oracle’s 6+ year initiative to provide its next generation ERP application suite. What started as an effort to ‘fuse’ functionality from acquired ERP packages morphed into a truly next-generation approach to ERP.
Oracle offers over 100 Fusion modules, covering the ERP waterfront. Fusion apps are whizzy, with integrated analytics, an appealing interface, and de rigueur ability to support mobile devices. Oracle did a great job explaining how Fusion apps natively integrate with existing ERPs and showing how Fusion apps can be implemented on-premise or accessed via the Cloud.
Fusion was important to Oracle’s Application messaging during OpenWorld but didn’t warrant a Keynote address.
Larry Ellison, Oracle’s Founder and CEO, provided two Keynote addresses.
The first Keynote was devoted to hardware, or more accurately “Hardware and Software Engineered to Work Together.” Neat but not my thing.
The second Keynote was used to bestow Ellison’s personal stamp of approval on the “Oracle Public Cloud” and the “Oracle Social Network.”The Oracle Public Cloud is a “broad set of best-in-class, integrated services that provide customers with subscription-based, self-service access to Oracle Fusion Applications, Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle Database, all completely managed, hosted and supported by Oracle.”
The Oracle Social Network is “is seamlessly integrated with Oracle Fusion Applications, business intelligence, and business processes,” allowing “business users to collaborate with each other using a broad range of collaboration tools.”
We’ve heard this before. Like this Summer, at Salesforce.com’s Dreamforce event.
So why is Larry Ellison putting his considerable heft behind these offerings?
For two reasons, I believe (note everything hereafter is pure speculation).
First, I think social media is a bet everyone is hedging today. It’s conceptually compelling, scads of people effectively working together across space and time. Thus the major vendors now offer some sort of Facebook-like technology to promote collaboration. The question is will customers care. I think yes, eventually, but I don’t see Oracle’s Social Network, or Salesforce.com’s Chatter, or SAP’s StreamWork going mainstream overnight.
Second, and more important, I think Oracle has officially blessed the Cloud. And I believe that’s very good news for the Cloud’s immediate future.
Oracle has been a ‘fast-follower’ most of its life, entering markets once they're established, oftentimes via acquisition.
Oracle is positioning hard against Salesforce.com, warning customers about “False Clouds”—Clouds and applications that lock customers in by eschewing open standards.
Oracle is positioning hard against Salesforce.com, warning customers about “False Clouds”—Clouds and applications that lock customers in by eschewing open standards.
Oracle’s Public Cloud could prove key to promoting Fusion apps—why would anyone rip out proven, on-premise ERP software unless they saw steep savings, whether through an “on-demand” pricing model or through the elimination of infrastructure costs.
And Oracle spent $1.5 billion today to purchase RightNow, a provider of Cloud-based customer service functionality that adds new value to Oracle’s Public Cloud.
And Oracle spent $1.5 billion today to purchase RightNow, a provider of Cloud-based customer service functionality that adds new value to Oracle’s Public Cloud.
I think Oracle is uniquely agnostic about their product stable—they’ll ride the horse customers want.
Larry Ellison used one of two personal Keynotes to tell us that he think this Cloud thing will fly.
I'm listening.
