When Oracle announced its intention to acquire Sun Microsystems in April 2009, CEO Larry Ellison proclaimed the acquisition, “transforms the IT industry, combining best-in-class enterprise software and mission-critical computing systems.”

Although he was not ready to use the term at the time, it didn’t take long for Oracle to refer to its combined capabilities as a Cloud Computing solution set, which it recently put on full display at its annual OpenWorld conference.

The event was also a coming out party for its new President, Mark Hurd, the high flying former HP CEO who departed in disgrace only a month earlier. Hurd’s appointment wasn’t hard to understand given his hardware experience at HP and NCR, and now gives Oracle’s move into the system business even more significance.

HP has retaliated by announcing the appointment of Leo Apotheker as its new CEO, along with Ray Lane as its non-executive chairman of the board. Apotheker comes to HP … Read More »

There have been a series of acquisitions over the past few weeks which clearly illustrate how the competitive landscape in the tech industry and beyond is being fundamentally changed by the rapidly evolving cloud computing phenomenon.

The two most recent examples came this week. The first was CA Technologies’ acquisition of 4Base Technology, a virtualization and cloud infrastructure consulting firm, which CA plans to use as a cornerstone of its expanded cloud computing professional services capabilities. This is the latest in a series of acquisitions which CA has made to transform the company from a software-only to a multi-dimensional corporate portfolio which personifies its new CA Technologies company name. CA’s transformation echos the moves of other players seeking to become one-stop shops for hardware, software and services. The most significant of these was Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems.

Intel made an even more dramatic acquisition … Read More »

Oracle took advantage of IBM’s failed efforts to acquire Sun Microsystems and swooped in with a more lucrative bid today which could reap greater rewards for the company’s rapidly expanding cloud computing strategy.

Oracle’s acquisition of Sun could recast the entire computer industry by giving Oracle control of Sun’s Java software and access to its vast developer community, plus Sun’s Solaris-based server technology. These elements could bolster Oracle’s database systems and serve as a powerful web delivery engine for the company’s widening array of business applications and third-party developers.

Oracle had to be sweating bullets during the IBM/Sun negotiations because, “The Sun Solaris operating system is the leading platform for the Oracle database, Oracle’s largest business…”, according to Oracle’s press release today.

Don’t let Larry Ellison’s past pronouncements that the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and cloud computing trends are just over-hyped ideas. Folks within Oracle have been working hard to … Read More »