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Category: Sun
November 20th, 2009
EU extends deadline for review of Oracle-Sun deal
European regulators have agreed to extend the deadline to review Oracle’s acquisition of Sun, giving Oracle some more time to develop arguments in reply to Europe’s concerns, according to a Reuters report.
Earlier this month, the European Commission filed a Statement of Objections, a first step toward blocking the $7.4 billion deal, over concerns about MySQL. Oracle immediately fired back, issuing a statement that said European regulators have a “profound misunderstanding of both database competition and open source dynamics.” The same day, the U.S. Department of Justice, which has already given its blessing to the deal, pretty much backed Oracle and offered reasons why the U.S. did not see the deal as anti-competitive.
Oracle has said that delays are becoming costly - to the tune of $100 million per month - and are further damaging the economies through job losses. Sun has had to put restructuring plans in place to stay alive while everyone waits for European approval, most recently by laying off 3,000 employees.
Oracle has said that Sun’s customers “universally support this merger and do not benefit from the continued uncertainty and delay.” The company said evidence against the Commission’s position is overwhelming. and that it lacks any credible theory or evidence of competitive harm.
The deadline was extended by one week, to Jan. 27, 2010 from Jan. 19.
Also see: Oracle tries to stop Sun’s bleeding: Is it too late?
November 9th, 2009
Oracle: EC has 'profound misunderstanding' of database market; DOJ seems to agree
updated: Oracle Corp. schooled the European Commission today on some basic knowledge about open-source technology, lashing out in a statement that the regulatory agency that’s currently holding up Oracle’s acquisition of Sun has revealed its “profound misunderstanding of both database competition and open source dynamics.”
Separately, the U.S. Department of Justice released its own statement, essentially backing Oracle and explaining its reasons for giving the go-ahead for the acquisition and why it felt the deal was not anti-competitive.
The European Commission has expressed concerns over MySQL, delaying the acquisition from moving forward, filing a Statement of Objections today. In a statement responding to the Commission’s filing, Oracle wrote:
Oracle’s acquisition of Sun is essential for competition in the high end server market, for revitalizing Sparc and Solaris and for strengthening the Java development platform. The transaction does not threaten to reduce competition in the slightest, including in the database market. The Commission’s Statement of Objections reveals a profound misunderstanding of both database competition and open source dynamics. It is well understood by those knowledgeable about open source software that because MySQL is open source, it cannot be controlled by anyone. That is the whole point of open source.
The company argued that “the database market is intensely competitive,” with eight strong players and specifically names IBM, Microsoft and Sybase as open source vendors. As for MySQL competing with Oracle products, the company said they are very difference and that there is “no basis in European law for objecting to a merger of two among eight firms selling differentiated products.” In its own statement, the U.S. Department of Justice seemed to agree. It wrote:
The Division concluded, based on the specific facts at issue in the transaction, that consumer harm is unlikely because customers would continue to have choices from a variety of well established and widely accepted database products. The Department also concluded that there is a large community of developers and users of Sun’s open source database with significant expertise in maintaining and improving the software, and who could support a derivative version of it
Sun, which was already a financially-troubled company when Oracle made its acquisition bid, recently laid off 3,000 employees as part of a restructuring plans that stems from delays in regulatory approval. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison recently said that delays are costing about $100 million per month.
Oracle noted that Sun’s customers “universally support this merger and do not benefit from the continued uncertainty and delay.” The company said evidence against the Commission’s position is overwhelming. and that it lacks any credible theory or evidence of competitive harm.
Also see:
November 4th, 2009
EU showdown over Oracle-Sun; Objections seem imminent
Oracle is reportedly gearing up for a formal rejection by European regulators of its bid to acquire Sun Microsystems, according to a report in the Financial Times. An official statement of objection, the first step in blocking the $7.4 billion deal, could come as early as this week - but Oracle seems to be taking a wait-and-see approach before it makes another move.
A source tells the Financial Times that Oracle has refused to offer any concessions to regulators in Europe. Following the official statement, however, Oracle would have the chance to offer concessions or even wage a legal battle, a process that would extend a delay that’s already costing both money and jobs.
The U.S. Department of Justice has already given its blessings to the deal but the EU has expressed concerns over the future of MySQL. Opponents see the open source software as an eventual competitor to Oracle’s core business. But the company has said that it will continue to invest in MySQL.
Sun, which was already a financially-troubled company when Oracle made its acquisition bid, recently laid off 3,000 employees as part of a restructuring plans that stems from delays in regulatory approval. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison recently said that delays are costing about $100 million per month.
Also see:
October 23rd, 2009
Data center design 101
I don’t have to design data centers, but I do have to play a knowledgeable wonk on the Web from time to time. With that in mind, I attended two data center presentations at the Gartner IT Symposium to see what I could learn.
My knowledge about the data center essentially boils down to one word: Money. Companies are building new data centers to save money on power and better utilize their computing power. Sure, cloud computing is a factor, but a small one for enterprises at this juncture. These people are building data centers in a big way. The other money point: Vendors are killing each other to be the data center king. Cisco takes on HP. IBM is in there. Oracle too (via Sun). And unfortunately for IT buyers each vendor has a different twist on data center architecture.
Simply put, I’m a data center economics major with a minor in things like raised floors, cooling systems, server racks and other items.
Here’s what I learned:
Companies are only building what they need. A weak economy and green IT initiatives mean that techies are increasingly going to be judged by their data center savings, says David Cappuccio, an analyst at Gartner. An efficient data center design can cut the footprint by 60 percent.
Tiers are being mixed and matched with one data center. Data centers have tiers of availability. Tier 1 is 99.6 percent uptime and Tier 4 is 99.995 percent with Tier 2 and Tier 3 in between. To build a Tier 1 10,000 square-foot facility the cost is $9.94 million. Tier 4 will run you $34.5 million, according to Gartner.
One of the more recent trends is to mix and match tiers within one facility. With this approach, you can segment applications based on the importance to the business.
Everyone has a box for mid-sized and large businesses. IBM, Rackable, Sun, Verari Systems and HP all have trailers (right) that can extend data centers and deploy in 12 to 14 weeks. Cappuccio noted that Microsoft has a large 200-and-more-container deployment at its Chicago data center. Microsoft is also experimenting with wind-powered containers. For mid-sized companies these containers could become an alternative to traditional data centers—slap these boxes on a slab and go.
Pod architecture. Cappuccio noted that previous data center design principles went like this: Build a facility for today, estimate what you’ll need in 20 years, and go. Today, it’s all about pods. With this approach you figure out how much space you need, say 15,000 square feet, and then build out for five to seven years. Then you add pods as you grow. Pods also allow for retrofitting so a data center complex can last 40 to 50 years.
Combine pod architectures with density zones. Cappuccio added that data centers should be designed by density zones. High-density applications (200 watts per square foot) represent 10 percent to 15 percent of a total data center usage. Medium-density apps (150 watts per square foot) account for another 20 percent. The rest is low-density (100 watts per square foot). If you mix and match densities you save money on the build-out. The density zone approach is likely to be used in the majority of new or retrofitted data centers by 2013. Double bonus if you take the pod architecture and use density zones.
The money chart:
Raised floors are passe. Anyone who has been in a traditional data center knows that raised floors, anywhere from 12 to 18 inches to 24 to 48 inches, are the norm. If you design a data center properly you can use a concrete slab for the build out. Building on a slab can be $20 per square foot cheaper than a raised floor.
And once you learn the data center principles all you have to do is evaluate all of these vendor data center visions dancing around. The field: Cisco, Oracle, HP, IBM and VMware. You can toss Dell, Microsoft, Amazon and Google into the mix too. The big takeaways from Gartner’s talk on the vendor data center vision are:
- Don’t get locked into anything proprietary;
- The tectonic plates between these vendors are still shifting;
- Don’t let any one vendor creep to the point where it controls your budget. Data centers aren’t meant to be homogeneous.
That final point is very notable. Most data center players have adjacent products and if you’re not careful your entire enterprise could depend on one big name.
October 20th, 2009
Sun cuts 3,000 jobs as Oracle takeover twists in regulator limbo
Oracle hasn’t completed its Sun Microsystems acquisition yet, but the restructuring is already underway.
In a regulatory filing, Sun said Tuesday that it will lay off 3,000 workers across the globe. The company added that it had to restructure as it waits for Oracle’s purchase of the company to be approved by regulators—notably the European Union.
The filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission reads (Techmeme):
In light of the delay in the closing of the acquisition of the Company, approved a plan to better align the Company’s resources with its strategic business objectives, including reducing its workforce across the North America, EMEA, APAC and Emerging Markets regions by up to 3,000 employees over the next 12 months (the “Restructuring Plan”). The Company expects to incur total charges ranging from $75 million to $125 million over the next several quarters in connection with the Restructuring Plan, the majority of which relates to cash severance costs and is expected to be incurred in the second and third quarters of the fiscal year ending June 30, 2010.
Also see: Oracle tries to stop Sun’s bleeding: Is it too late?
October 11th, 2009
Ellison rips IBM, shows off Sun-Oracle benchmarks, offers $10M prize
On Sunday night Larry Ellison took the stage at his annual event, Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco, and came out swinging like a samurai warrior with a newly-sharpened sword. His main target: IBM.
Ellison (right) told a capacity crowd of thousands of IT professionals that IBM has been running a campaign called “Sunset” in which it has been telling Sun customers that Oracle is going to get out of the hardware business and therefore customers should start moving their software over to IBM servers.
Ellison attacked this idea. “We are not selling the hardware business,” he said. “No part of the hardware business are we selling.”
Then he actually displayed some of IBM’s own ads - a bold and highly unconventional move since it gives IBM free attention - before ripping them to shreds. Without going into the gory details, Ellison basically said IBM deploys more servers than necessary, that IBM servers are power hogs (even though IBM talks a big game about being energy-friendly), and that a Sun-Oracle combination runs circles around IBM in performance.
October 11th, 2009
Scott McNealy names Sun's top 10 tech innovations
In his first big appearance since it was announced this spring that Oracle was going to buy Sun Microsystems, Sun chairman and co-founder Scott McNealy got sentimental on Sunday night in his opening keynote at Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco.
Although the Oracle-Sun deal hasn’t gone through yet, McNealy sounded a lot like a leader who knew he was making one of his last major speeches as Sun’s chairman. He talked about how much he’s enjoyed innovating in the technology space over the past couple decades and thanked the Sun employees and customers who came along for the ride.
He also threw his weight behind the Oracle deal and tried to reassure Sun customers that an Oracle-Sun pair-up is going to be all rainbows and unicorns.
However, the most interesting part of his presentation was when he named his list of the “Top 10 Innovations from Sun.” Here is the list, copied verbatim from McNealy’s slides:
September 23rd, 2009
Ellison wants to model new Oracle after T.J. Watson Jr.'s IBM
At a Churchhill Club event, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison talked to former Sun Microsystems President Ed Zander about Oracle’s recent acquisition of Sun Microsystems. He said he’d like to pattern the new Oracle after T.J. Watson Jr.’s IBM, combining both hardware and software systems.
Ellison said that he wanted Oracle to be Watson’s IBM because that version of Big Blue was the dominant software company relative to the versions run by 
Lou Gerstner and Sam Palmisano. IBM in Watson’s heyday used software to create a hardware giant. Simply put, IBM was the backbone of Corporate America. “IBM was the environment you worked in,” said Ellison. Ellison said Oracle wants to do the same and be the dominant systems environment for enterprises, running airline, banking and telecommunications systems.
It’s an interesting take worth watching as you put the Oracle-Sun deal into perspective. Ellison’s riff on how Sun is a national treasure is a bit of a stretch, but you can see what Oracle’s master plan is.
September 15th, 2009
Oracle unveils second Exadata machine; Ellison steps up data warehousing push
Oracle chief Larry Ellison unveiled the latest version of its Exadata data warehousing appliance on Tuesday and it’s clear the company plans on increasing its data warehousing push.
Ellison’s Exadata Version 2 launch had three primary goals:
- Knock data warehousing rivals Netezza and Teradata;
- Show that Oracle wasn’t going to let IBM punch Sun anymore;
- And illustrate some of the logic behind the Sun acquisition.
The first Exadata machine was launched in partnership with HP. This go round Exadata was built by Sun Microsystems (statement). The move made sense given Oracle’s purchase of the company. The Exadata Version 2 launch also gave Sun executive vice president John Fowler an excuse to show off its the company’s FlashFire technology.
Oracle’s big sell is that Exadata Version 2 “was designed for online transaction processing and data warehousing,” said Ellison. Running online transaction is “something Netezza can’t do at all” and “something Teradata can’t do at all,” he added.
Ellison also added that Oracle is installing Exadata machines “within the Teradata installed base.”
September 14th, 2009
Oracle to unveil Sun-based Exadata database machine
Oracle Tuesday will unveil a database machine that runs on Sun’s FlashFire technology.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, along with Sun executive vice president John Fowler, will showcase the “world’s first OLTP database machine with Sun FlashFire technology.” OLTP refers to online transaction processing, which requires 24×7 availability.
The move comes as Oracle steps up its defense of Sun as its proposed acquisition is held up by European Union regulators. Sun has been losing server share to the likes of IBM and Oracle is trying to stop the bleeding.
Also see: Oracle tries to stop Sun’s bleeding: Is it too late?
Oracle pitched its Webcast (Sun version), which happens at 1 p.m. PT Tuesday, as a chance to “learn firsthand how the partnership between Oracle and Sun can benefit customers now and in the future.”
Judging from the invite, it appears that Oracle will offer a Sun-based flavor of its Exadata database machine.
September 11th, 2009
Red Hat: Quiet winner amid Sun's server apocalypse?
Oracle has thrown down the hardware gauntlet against IBM to stem the bleeding at soon-to-be-acquired Sun Microsystems—assuming the EU plays along—but Red Hat may be among the big winners amid the server wars.
Too often, we look at IBM’s shredding of Sun on server sales as a hardware story. IBM, HP and Dell appear to be taking share from Sun. So much so that Oracle is opening a blitz to stop the Sun bleeding and take on IBM directly.
Here’s the IDC tally:
So what is replacing these Sun boxes? A few industry contacts—who conduct some of these server swaps—have noted that Sun is being replaced by Dell, HP and IBM boxes. And most of these boxes are running Red Hat.
Add it up it appears that while most of us are focused on the server wars Red Hat may be quietly gaining share in the background as Linux gains share.
September 10th, 2009
Oracle tries to stop Sun's bleeding: Is it too late?
Oracle has officially came out of the corner to stem the defections from Sun Microsystems’ customers. The message: Oracle is serious about hardware and is looking forward to swinging back at IBM.
As pointed out by Matt Asay, Oracle has launched a full court press to convince Sun customers to stick around. Sun has been pummeled by IBM on server sales. Meanwhile, the EU is looking to drag out approval of Oracle’s purchase of Sun. Toss in question about whether Oracle will even keep Sun’s hardware business and you have a recipe for disaster.
Here’s that disaster (click to enlarge):
September 2nd, 2009
Report: EC considering delay of Sun-Oracle over MySQL concerns
The European Commission may delay Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems over concerns about Oracle getting its hands on Sun’s MySQL, according to a Reuters report that cites at least two unnamed sources. The delay, if the commission decides to open an investigation to look into its concerns, could be as long as four months.
Regulators in the U.S. gave the deal a thumbs-up last month after initially delaying it over concerns about licensing of Sun’s java software but gave no indication that MySQL was a concern.
The deal, valued at $7.4 billion, was announced in April after talks between Sun and IBM reportedly broke down. Since then, rivals such as HP and IBM have been trying to lure Sun’s customers. A delay would give the competition even more time to grab Sun customers.
Also see: ZDNet’s full coverage of Oracle-Sun acquisition news
September 2nd, 2009
IBM, Dell gain server share amid server sales carnage; HP share flat
Server sales continue to tank with worldwide server revenue falling 30.1 percent in the second quarter to $9.8 billion. That decline has set up a market share duel that IBM appears to be winning, according to IDC.
According to IDC server revenue fell for the fourth consecutive quarter to the lowest sales tally since the research firm began tracking it in 1996. Unit shipments also fell 30.4 percent in the second quarter compared to a year ago. First quarter server sales fell 26.5 percent.
Simply put, few enterprises are refreshing their servers. What do you do amid the carnage? Duke it out for market share. IDC reckons that companies will have to refresh their servers at some point, but it’s unclear when.
In the meantime, here are the standings that illustrate how IBM and Dell are gaining share:
Dell and IBM have ganged up on Sun, the weak link, to gain market share, and HP stayed flat.
Under the hood:
- Windows Server revenue fell 27.7 percent in the second quarter, but Microsoft had 38.1 percent market share.
- Linux revenue fell 28.9 percent in the second quarter to $1.3 billion. That sum is good for 13.8 percent market share, up from 13.5 percent a year ago.
- Unix server sales fell 30.9 percent in the second quarter to $3.1 billion. IBM gained 7.4 percent of Unix server market share to 41.4 percent. Sun had 27.3 percent of the market followed by HP at 24.8 percent.
September 2nd, 2009
Xeon 5500 (Nehalem) servers: a group test
Intel’s Xeon 5500 processor has made a big splash in the server world as the major manufacturers each have their own brands featuring the 45nm Nehalem architecture. But which one is best? ZDNet UK’s Alan Stevens puts the top models to the test and chooses a winner:
The introduction earlier this year of Intel’s Xeon 5500 Series processors has given the server market a major boost, and in more ways than one. Improved performance is the most obvious advance, with the 45nm Nehalem micro-architecture behind the 5500 series supporting dual or quad cores, with hyperthreading on some versions. Automatic over-clocking of individual cores is also supported, via what Intel calls Turbo Boost Technology.
The Xeon 5500 also sees the first major implementation of QuickPath. Intel’s answer to AMD’s HyperTransport, QuickPath eliminates the frontside bus (FSB) bottleneck that handicapped earlier designs, giving each core its own integrated memory controller plus a high-speed interconnect to other cores, memory and I/O. Add in support for masses of DDR3 RAM plus PCI Express Generation 2 technology — which doubles the I/O bandwidth — and the result is a leap forward in terms of processing power.
Exactly how much of a leap depends, of course, on the system configuration and applications involved. A recent Intel presentation claimed up to a nine-fold speed improvement compared to the typical end-of-life single-core Xeon servers that customers are currently looking to replace. Alternatively, with its additional power-saving features, the Xeon 5500 lets you do the same amount of work with fewer servers and reduce energy costs by up to 90 per cent, enabling the costs of upgrading to be recouped in just a few months.
With figures like these being bandied about, the major vendors have, understandably, rushed to bring products to market, and a variety of tower, rack and blade systems are now available. Just as with earlier Xeon servers, racks are likely to be the most popular format, with the six vendors featured here each selling both 1U and 2U products. With extra room for on-board storage and expansion, 2U servers are set to be the sweet spot and it’s these we’ve concentrated on for our group test.
What we tested
* 2 x Intel Xeon 5520 processors, 8GB RAM, 4 x 146GB SAS disks, single PSU
Next — >
August 20th, 2009
DOJ gives blessing to Oracle-Sun, awaiting EC approval
Oracle said in a release today that the U.S. Department of Justice has given its blessing to Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems. The deal is still awaiting approval from the European Commission. Sun’s shareholders approved the acquisition last month.
You’ll recall that Oracle came out of left field to make a bid for Sun after talks between IBM and Sun broke down. The big headline at the time centered around Oracle becoming a hardware player - but as the dust settled, it became more apparent that the hardware side of the business could be short-lived after the acquisition.
During a conference call to discuss the acquisition, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said that Java and Solaris are the keepers in the deal. “More Oracle databases run on the Solaris Sparc than any other system,” said Ellison, noting Linux was second. “We’ll engineer the Oracle database and Solaris operating system together. With Sun we can make all components of the IT stack integrated and work well.”
Regarding Java, Ellison said it wanted Sun so it could own the building blocks for its middleware. Oracle’s middleware is built on Java and the applications giant said it will continue to invest in the software.
In a post at the time, Larry Dignan assessed the situation and noted how it would be easy for Oracle to shed the hardware business. Larry wrote: “Sun’s manufacturing is outsourced so there isn’t a lot of baggage—real estate, equipment and labor—to worry about. If Oracle decides to milk, then wind down the hardware business, it’s relatively easy. ”
The European Commission is slated to make its decision on the deal in just a couple of weeks, though John Paczkowski points out on an All Things Digital blog earlier this month that the commission seems to have some concerns over the fate of MySQL.
Still, now that the DOJ has given its blessing and the EC’s concerns are focused around MySQL, I wonder if it’s OK to start prepping that obituary for the Sun hardware business?
July 14th, 2009
Sun: Our quarter stunk; Oracle: We'll get our accretive earnings anyway
Sun Microsystems says its June quarter was horrible. Oracle contends that the Sun acquisition will be accretive to its operating profit—excluding all the bad stuff—in the first year after the deal closes. And Oracle’s purchase of Sun closes soon. Something has got to give.
And that something is likely to be Sun’s hardware business—or at least parts of it.
That’s the only way the Sun math adds up for Oracle unless CEO Larry Ellison and his troops had already modeled Armageddon. Here’s a look at the dueling statements.
Sun this morning said it sees a fourth quarter loss of 6 cents a share to 16 cents a share excluding items on revenue between $2.58 billion to $2.68 billion (Techmeme). The problem: Wall Street was expecting a loss of a penny a share on revenue of $3.03 billion. This shortfall was so material that a company that will soon be an Oracle subsidiary had to warn. Oracle quickly noted that the Sun acquisition will still boost earnings.
Now Sun didn’t offer a lot of reasons for its miss, but all you need to know is that sales will be off more than $1 billion from the $3.78 billion a year ago. We knew things were bad at Sun, but this bad?
Possible reasons for Sun’s unraveling:
- Sun is distracted by the Oracle deal.
- There’s too much uncertainty about Sun to buy in a downturn.
- IBM, Dell, EMC and HP are taking advantage of that uncertainty.
- The Oracle deal is an excuse to accelerate trends already in place (Dell noted a lot of Unix to Linux transitions today).
In any case, Oracle isn’t the type of company that misses projections so you can bet that it’ll get its accretive earnings out of Sun. That means you can bet that some of Sun’s unprofitable hardware lines—commodity storage and servers anyone?—will be offloaded in the not-too-distant future.
Sun shareholders will vote to approve the Oracle deal on July 16. Shareholders should count their blessings.
Also see: Why Oracle bought Sun: 60% of enterprise software vendors rely on Java
June 29th, 2009
Oracle: DOJ dialogue 'very good'; Sun deal on track
The Justice Department has extended its look at Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems but the software giant says it is confident the deal will close on time. The DOJ is looking at how Java is licensed.
In a statement Friday, Dan Wall, Latham & Watkins counsel to Oracle, said:
“We’ve had a very good dialogue with the Department of Justice and we were almost able to resolve everything before the Second Request deadline. All that’s left is one narrow issue about the way rights to Java are licensed that is never going to get in the way of the deal. I fully expect that the investigation will end soon and not delay the closing of the deal this summer.”
The DOJ’s investigation was expected to expire Friday night, but the government made a second request for information.
Sun shareholders will vote on the deal July 16. Analysts have speculated on how Oracle would monetize Java. The consensus is that Java will ultimately help Oracle’s middleware business, but won’t wind up being a cash cow.
June 11th, 2009
Can Oracle give Java a boost (and monetize it better)?
The prize in Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems is Java, but the big question is whether Larry Ellison and the gang can monetize the popular platform and bolster its standing against up and coming programming languages.
In a research note, J.P. Morgan analyst Adam Holt examines Oracle’s Sun purchase and how Java plays into the mix. Holt writes:
Based on our conversations with Oracle partners and Sun contacts, the importance may be primarily in developing/sustaining the end markets for their middleware technology, rather than increasing the direct monetization of Java. Given the relative scale of Oracle’s middleware business, which IDC estimates at $2.3B in 2008, versus the $220M in Java related billings Sun accrued, the potential returns are far greater in investing in the end-markets than monetizing Java, in our view.
Oracle’s challenge will be getting Java’s momentum back once the Sun deal closes, argues Holt. Java has become monolithic relative to new languages such as Ruby and application frameworks such as Springs and Seam. Oracle has promised to invest more in Java. Holt adds:
While Java enjoys widespread adoption today, particularly in enterprise applications, a monolithic architecture and complicated development process have resulted in rather slow evolution of the Java platform, particularly for new use cases and computing form factors. This has left room for a raft of new languages like Ruby and Groovy, and new application frameworks like Spring and Seam, to emerge to fill that void, particularly in the fast growing markets around the development of web 2.0 applications. Most agree this has sapped momentum from the Java ecosystem. In order to safeguard the future of the core market for its middleware technology, it makes sense for Oracle to more directly invest in Java itself.
The big question is what Oracle’s returns will look like from its Java investment. Here’s where Sun monetized Java:
The big takeaway from that chart: More than half of Sun’s Java related revenues come from licensing fees for the Java Mobile Edition virtual machine to 30 mobile phone companies. That market is saturated.
For Oracle, Java investment will turn up in the middleware business.
In any case, it will be hard to follow the Java money within Oracle. Holt reckons that Oracle will monetize Java better than Sun, but the mobile market is saturated, the third party toolbar opportunity is relatively small and the model for Java support is sketchy.
If Oracle has any shot of monetizing Java it will be in that latter category. Oracle could offer enhanced support for Java and pay per use services, says Holt.
Here’s Ellison talking about the future of Java development:
June 10th, 2009
A look at high-speed autonomous driving [video]
At JavaOne in San Francisco, Volkswagen’s Marcial Hernandez and Sun’s Greg Bollella detail Project Bixby, an Audi TTS programmed by Volkswagen and using a Java runtime environment. The vehicle will then be raced on a Rally course against other automated vehicles.
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.
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White Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads
- Email Security and Archiving - Clearer in the Cloud Google The time is NOW for businesses and organizations of all sizes to implement ... Download Now
- Three Steps You Need to Know to Stop Data Loss Varonis Sensitive data exposed to misuse or loss... it is the stuff of nightmares ... Download Now
- Virtualization: Architectural Considerations And Other Evaluation Criteria VMware Of the many approaches to x86 systems virtualization available in the ... Download Now
SmartPlanet
- Thought-provoking progressive ideas on diverse topics that intersect with technology, business, and life, and matter to the world at large. Visit SmartPlanet
- More from IBM
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- How to Drive Better Business Outcomes with Exceptional Web Experiences Download the eBook
- Driving Business Agility through SOA Connectivity & Integration Read the White Paper from IBM
- Linking Decisions and Information for Organizational Performance Read the Tom Davenport study
