The acquisition extends Oracle's communications industry portfolio with service availability and management software.
Business
software and hardware systems company Oracle announced that it has entered into
an agreement to acquire GoAhead Software, a specialist in the development and
delivery of packaged service availability software for the communications
industry.
In
a joint statement, the companies said the combination is expected to benefit
network equipment providers (NEPs) like Ericsson, Motorola and Alcatel Lucent
by providing a more comprehensive and integrated offering that delivers service
availability across telecom solutions.
GoAhead,
a privately held company based in Bellevue, Wash., provides carrier-grade
software that is designed to speed the time to market and reduce the cost and
risk of carrier-grade services that need to be always available. The transaction,
which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close before
the end of 2011, and until the deal closes, each company will continue to
operate independently, an Oracle release stated.
"NEPs
are moving to a standardized software and hardware platform that can deliver
and manage highly available services," said Nigel Ball, vice president of
Oracle Communications Industry Solutions. "GoAhead software is the leading
commercially available solution that is compliant with Service Availability
Forum specifications, the most widely adopted standard for service availability
software. The addition of GoAhead technology will help us deliver a
comprehensive, standards-based, carrier-grade platform that supports the
delivery of new services in the call path of the network."
The
acquisition extends Oracle's communications industry portfolio with service
availability and management software, and the combination is expected to help NEPs
focus on high-value services by leveraging technology from a single hardware
and software provider, while simplifying infrastructure deployment and
maintenance of services.
Starting
with one CDMA wireless network element, Motorola now leverages GoAhead to
ensure uninterrupted service of more than 10 different network elements across its
wireless portfolio. "From project to project, this common COTS
application-ready platform works deterministically out of the gate. This
significantly increases our success in new projects," the company said in a
release.
"With
over 100,000 deployments of GoAhead software by leading NEPs, GoAhead brings
significant domain knowledge and engineering strength, coupled with a strong
track record of delivering solutions to global network equipment providers,"
said Asif Naseem, president and chief operating officer of GoAhead Software.
GoAhead
employees are expected to join Oracle, bringing "significant" domain knowledge
and engineering strength. An Oracle FAQ posted on the company's Website also
noted GoAhead has strong relationships with the Service Availability Forum and
OpenSAF communities, organizations dedicated to the development and adoption of
service availability software for the communications industry.
Nathan Eddy is Associate Editor, Midmarket, at eWEEK.com. Before joining eWEEK.com, Nate was a writer with ChannelWeb and he served as an editor at FierceMarkets. He is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
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