On-Premise Hardware Here to Stay – Catz
Oracle has been facing a lot of criticism lately because of its decision to stick with its hardware business, when the company itself is promoting the usage of cloud as opposed to hardware. When the sales and revenue figures of the third quarter came out, the numbers clearly showed that Oracle’s hardware business is falling into pieces. But, Chief Finance Officer of Oracle, Safra Catz refused to admit that Oracle has made a mistake by sticking with its hardware business. On the contrary, she defended the company’s decision and attributed the dismal figures to a ‘regular’ phenomenon.
Here are a few points that Catz made, which might give some insight into the company’s new or evolved strategy.
- Database and Middleware Business to Remain
Catz said that the database and the middleware business of the company, has managed to generate a lot of revenue, and Oracle will use all possible means to ensure that they keep achieving the sales targets on a consistent basis. She also said that there is no question of either downsizing, or scrapping the database and middleware business of Oracle. This is good news for those of you taking Oracle training classes.
- Lack of Sales Force
Catz also highlighted that, the lack of proper sales strategy or a sales team, has not caused the drop in sales revenues for the third quarter. She said that Oracle is still one of the largest software providing companies in the world and hence, has one of the largest and most talented sales teams in the world. So, she ruled out the lack of performance of the sales team as a reason for the dismal Q3 figures.
- Focused on Providing a Range of Services
Your Oracle training classes teach you database techniques and management practices, which allow you to administrate Oracle database hardware. If you are worried that these learnt skills will go waste, stop fussing. Catz has clearly said that, the company is focusing on giving all their products, including the database and middleware hardware, the same amount of focus. She said that the company is not forcing its customers to upgrade to the cloud. The customers will upgrade with time. Oracle will be ready to provide all types of service, in the event of an upgrade, to both on-site and off-site hardware.
- The Future is in Exa
Catz said that there is no doubt about the fact that the future of the company lies in the Exes – Exadata, Exalogic, etc. She justified this point by saying that, the only reason why she and her company Oracle believes in the Exes, is because the most optimum hardware for Oracle software is Oracle hardware, and that is exactly what the company is criticized for focusing on. She said that it is only a matter of time before people start to realize its potential and focus on the Exes.
So, if you are an Oracle-trained professional or are planning to be one, by taking Oracle training classes, you might as well optimize your training to focus on the Exes.
IBM Openly Challenges Oracle
As if the hardware doubts and the Q3 reports were not enough, IBM has officially trashed the new Oracle SPARC servers. At the time of the release, Oracle had claimed that its SPARC servers are capable of delivering 5 times the performance of IBM Power servers. Also, the cost performance of the SPARC servers was claimed to be 12 times better. But, IBM has said that this is not true.
IBM justified its challenge by stating that Oracle’s test conditions were not updated to meet the current systems performance. IBM officials said that Oracle used 3 to 5 year old systems to test its SPARC servers, and came to the wrong conclusion that it is faster than the IBM Power server.
Both Companies Trying to Boost respective Hardware Businesses
It is no surprise that IBM has swiftly reacted to Oracle’s claim about the SPARC servers. The hardware sales figures of IBM also are not very good and the company is trying to boost its hardware business. Since innovations are not happening as frequently as anticipated, they have resorted to market techniques to establish superiority over their closest competitors.
It might be no surprise if you see both Oracle and IBM timing their future product releases to coincide with each other. This is not only a good way of splitting up the attention but also getting the customer to focus on the positive aspects rather than the drawbacks or the redundancy.
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