Close
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Applications
    • Applications
    • Database

    Ellison Forswears Customer Upgrade Coercion

    By
    John Pallatto
    -
    September 21, 2005
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      SAN FRANCISCO—Making a rare speech from prepared notes, Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison drove home the theme of this weeks OpenWorld conference: that his company will refrain from dragooning customers into upgrading to the new Fusion products before they are ready to move.

      In a year when Oracle purchased 10 large and small companies to swell its application product line, Ellison sought to convince a large population of newly acquired customers that he doesnt intend to alienate them with high-pressure sales tactics.

      Ellison keynotes are usually casual, off-the-cuff affairs where he makes a few brief opening remarks before inviting the audience to ask questions. On this occasion he spent more than 45 minutes detailing Oracles technology focus for the next two years before turning to the audience Q&A.

      While he said Oracle intends to make upgrades to the next-generation Project Fusion applications “a very attractive destination” for customers, “we have no interest in moving anyone” who isnt ready to upgrade.

      /zimages/5/28571.gifClick here to read Lisa Vaas reporters notebook from Oracle OpenWorld.

      Nor will Oracle pressure customers to move to newer versions of the PeopleSoft or J.D Edwards applications that are currently in the works. Ellison even extended this pledge to customers using older versions of Oracle applications.

      Oracle is going to use its Fusion middleware and open-standards Java technology to enable customers to use whatever combination of Oracle and third-party applications that they want to.

      “Maybe you built a bunch of your own applications. We intend to preserve that investment for you by allowing those applications to co-exist with our applications,” Ellison said.

      While he also reaffirmed the companys pledge to continue IBM DB2 relational database support for the products and customers that currently work with DB2, he said that the company has not decided whether the next-generation Fusion applications will also support the competing database.

      Oracle will continue discussions with customers before it decides whether DB2 support will be an essential feature for these new applications. The Fusion products, which are due for release between 2007 and 2008, will be totally new applications that encapsulate the best features of the enterprise resource planning applications that Oracle has acquired this year, according to company officials. This includes ERP and CRM applications from PeopleSoft, J.D. Edwards, Siebel Systems and the rest.

      /zimages/5/114466.jpg

      “It surprised a lot of people we intended to certify our applications” for DB2 and WebSphere, Ellison said, observing that he had heard a lot of comments from people who “thought we were going to force, coerce” customers to use Oracles middleware and database.

      But he noted that Oracle announced that its recently acquired I-Flex banking applications, which were based on Oracle will offer versions supported DB2. It also confirmed DB2 support for the Retek retail applications that it acquired this spring.

      Next Page: Supporting on-demand applications.

      Redoubling on


      -demand efforts”>

      Ellison also rejected any predictions that Oracle might “kill off” the Siebel CRM OnDemand product after it closes its acquisition of Siebel Systems.

      “We want to increase our presence in the on-demand business. We think on-demand is a very important service offering going forward,” he said.

      “We are going to redouble our efforts in the on-demand business” because the company believes that is what many customers want and because it is very conscious of the competitive challenge posed by pure-play on-demand software companies such as Salesforce.com and NetSuite Inc., he said.

      /zimages/5/28571.gifOracle details its lifetime support policy. Click here to read more.

      Its all part of the effort of giving customers another choice of how they want to buy and run business applications, he said. “You can run your entire business on-demand if you like and every flavor in between,” he said.

      In response to an audience question, Ellison reaffirmed his opposition to processor-based software pricing because it is difficult to verify how many processors or multicore processors a company is actually running.

      Instead, he prefers to offer pricing based on the total number of employees, or based on revenue with the flexibility to address annual licensing and maintenance based on whether total headcount or revenue rises or falls during the period, he said.

      Open standards, SOA (service-oriented architecture) and security will all be Oracles technology focus for the next two years, Ellison said.

      Using open standards and SOA will be the key to enabling customers to choose whether they want to run applications with Oracle or IBM middleware or with different vendors Java tools, Ellison said.

      “All of our Fusion applications are going to be built with SOA,” he said, to make it easy for customers to use the components and applications that work best for them. “You should be able to unplug our Java container and plug in somebody elses,” he said.

      Security will continue to be a prime focus for Oracle because the security risks are increasing and will only continue to increase, he said.

      One of the key questions for Oracle is whether it should even give customers the option of switching off data encryption when they do database backups, Ellison said. It may be best to assume that every data backup must be encrypted to reduce the chances that customer data will be compromised when storage tapes or removable disk drives are lost in transit, he said.

      /zimages/5/28571.gifCheck out eWEEK.coms for the latest database news, reviews and analysis.

      John Pallatto
      John Pallatto has been editor in chief of QuinStreet Inc.'s eWEEK.com since October 2012. He has more than 40 years of experience as a professional journalist working at a daily newspaper and computer technology trade journals. He was an eWEEK managing editor from 2009 to 2012. From 2003 to 2007 he covered Enterprise Application Software for eWEEK. From June 2007 to 2008 he was eWEEK’s West Coast news editor. Pallatto was a member of the staff that launched PC Week in March 1984. From 1992 to 1996 he was PC Week’s West Coast Bureau chief. From 1996 to 1998 he was a senior editor with Ziff-Davis Internet Computing Magazine. From 2000 to 2002 Pallatto was West Coast bureau chief with Internet World Magazine. His professional journalism career started at the Hartford Courant daily newspaper where he worked from 1974 to 1983.
      Get the Free Newsletter!
      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis
      This email address is invalid.
      Get the Free Newsletter!
      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis
      This email address is invalid.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Latest News

      Zeus Kerravala on Networking: Multicloud, 5G, and...

      James Maguire - December 16, 2022 0
      I spoke with Zeus Kerravala, industry analyst at ZK Research, about the rapid changes in enterprise networking, as tech advances and digital transformation prompt...
      Read more
      Applications

      Datadog President Amit Agarwal on Trends in...

      James Maguire - November 11, 2022 0
      I spoke with Amit Agarwal, President of Datadog, about infrastructure observability, from current trends to key challenges to the future of this rapidly growing...
      Read more
      Cloud

      IGEL CEO Jed Ayres on Edge and...

      James Maguire - June 14, 2022 0
      I spoke with Jed Ayres, CEO of IGEL, about the endpoint sector, and an open source OS for the cloud; we also spoke about...
      Read more
      IT Management

      Intuit’s Nhung Ho on AI for the...

      James Maguire - May 13, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nhung Ho, Vice President of AI at Intuit, about adoption of AI in the small and medium-sized business market, and how...
      Read more
      Applications

      Kyndryl’s Nicolas Sekkaki on Handling AI and...

      James Maguire - November 9, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nicolas Sekkaki, Group Practice Leader for Applications, Data and AI at Kyndryl, about how companies can boost both their AI and...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2022 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×