Dana Gardner

Oracle Acquisition of Sun Makes Perfect Sense

Right, so sell the hardware, use Solaris and Java and sunset the Sun middleware. Take customers, sell support. But you overlook getting to a cloud power position faster because of Sun's technology. Oracle can get up and running on cloud much faster now, and that's important.


On Apr 20 02:20 PM Mafeking wrote:

> Sun has three broad business areas: Hardware - servers and chips,
> software - Java and associated frameworks and Services - a reasonable
> professional services outfit.
>
> Oracle can improve the efficiency and profitability of the Sun services
> organization and move their (Oracles) more aggressive and costly
> professional services people into that space. There is money to
> be made in this area.
>
> But the other two areas are more problematic.
>
> In hardware Sun is losing market share to the increasing power of
> the mulit-processor Intel and AMD chip sets. Certainly the Sun Sparc
> and n-way architecture has greater performance, but this performance
> is only required in very demanding areas. Oracle has bought a declining
> business in this area that is likely to go head to head with HP's
> servers (not cooperate with HP). I am not sure Gardner is correct
> in his assessment here.
>
> Sun's software offerings are another story. Sun invented (Gosling,
> et. al.) Java, Java libraries and Java frameworks that created almost
> a revolution in the software industry by improving software portability
> and robustness. But has never been able to truly monetize the Java
> story. I suspect the Sun software unit is not profitable. The forces
> of Open Source Java have just been too strong.
>
> So Sun's software business is also a story of declining profits.
>
>
> In the final analysis I think Ellison has bought Sun for their customer
> base and the synergies and penetration that Oracle can achieve into
> the Sun accounts and customers. Oracle is not going to make a lot
> of profit from Sun's hardware and software.
>

Oracle Acquisition of Sun Makes Perfect Sense

Agreed. Oracle will make big ISVs on Sun hardware nervous if it does not make clear hardware strategy. But it needs to wait until the Sun deal is final. TIBCO for example runs on Sun in financials, but competes with Oracle on integration and middleware. But as a hardware maker, Oracle should want ISVs like TIBCO. So it does make sense for Oracle to be in hardware. HP is best place.


On Apr 20 12:27 PM Thomas J. Gordon wrote:

> i agree with Winter Lightning. Oracle better say something quick
> about the Sun hardware business. i would guess not much db2 sells
> on sun hardware. but hp/oracle is a huge platform, they have those
> ads in the journal about a database machine and I would guess hp
> is going to get nervous about what oracle salemen are going to say
> about hardware in their sales cycle.

Oracle Acquisition of Sun Makes Perfect Sense

Nope, HP's staying out of software other than management, governance, optimization and operational efficiency looks even better now. There amy be overlap on BI, but Oracle and HP fit well as partners. Dell is in trouble no matter what, as is MSFT on the long-term basis.


On Apr 20 11:15 AM squark62 wrote:

> let's see....oracle & sun, db2 & ibm, macosx & power
> mac, cisco ios & cisco datacenter servers, google & android
> are becoming compelling trend stories in the tech world. what's
> next? microsoft & dell? if so, my alma mater HP might be looking
> for a software acquisition soon. HP just acquired EDS which i thought
> was a great move. now it's apparent to me there is another weakness
> HP needs to possibly fill to stay competitive.

Oracle Acquisition of Sun Makes Perfect Sense

Oracle has done well at culture assimilation. It removes the culture of the acquired and makes it Oracle. Oracle has a strong and disciplined culture, which will only improve Sun's. Remember, these headquarters are 20 minutes away from each other. And engineers and developers need their jobs. Sun will lose a lot of jobs, but the good people will find a good, convenient home at Oracle.


On Apr 20 10:49 AM bcncv wrote:

> I agree it makes business and technical sense. Still, I can't imagine
> a bigger conflict of cultures. Integration will be interesting,
> to say the least.

Oracle Acquisition of Sun Makes Perfect Sense

Oracle has always resisted hardware, preferring to partner with hardware makers. HP is in favor over IBM and Sun. HP has done very well with DEC, Tandem and Compaq, so I disagree there. This should not divorce HP-Oracle but cement them. Because HP does not play in databases, middleware and business apps, HP is the best hardware partner for Oracle.


On Apr 20 10:27 AM Winter Lightning wrote:

> Pardon me, but isn't it possible that this might kill the ORCL-HP
> relationship? ORCL suddenly has all it needed from HP (and RedHat),
> but better engineered (Sun's X-series and blades) and more scaleable
> (Solaris on SPARC and x86).
> HP's record of taking enterprise-class server technology isn't great
> (DEC VMS, via Compaq; Tandem). HP seems to think that this stuff
> can be turned into a commodity like printer ink.

Oracle Acquisition of Sun Makes Perfect Sense

HP could take Sun's server sites and build them out with support and/or added HP hardware. Sun also has x86 servers based on Intel and AMD, and those could be added or swapped for HP Blades. Being best in tech is not always being most successful ... the need for high-end servers was eroded by advances in software and applications. Still, the niche at the top is long-term, and HP plus Sun there is a good balance to IBM.


On Apr 20 10:18 AM Manish Shyamsukha wrote:

> I have a question for the author. Sun is regarded as the pioneer
> in the server market and yet Sun is a "business model" failure. So
> even though Sun' servers are best in the market, there are no buyers
> for it (considering the "high-end servers"). The question is why
> would HP touch Sun's hardware (servers) business?

The Gathering Clouds: Reconceptualizing Data

Marcel: Please step to the front of the class.