Did Oracle tackle the route to become a full-range IT supplier by buying Sun?

Comment by Thomas Karle, Division Manager at the long-term Oracle partner PROMATIS, on the acquisition of Sun Microsystems by Oracle

Ettlingen, June 2, 2009 – With roundabout 7.4 billion US Dollars, the acquisition of Sun Microsystems would surely not be Larry Ellison’s most expensive deal. What makes this remarkable is that Oracle has turned towards the hardware business for the first time. With the Sun product portfolio the software giant now has a complete range of IT products, with hardware, operating systems, data bases, middleware and business software.

Even if Oracle’s standing as a full-range supplier in the market will be improved, it was not Sun’s hardware portfolio that was decisive for the deal. The focus lied much more on Java, which has been used by the data base specialist for quite a while now, and where his products are consequently based on. This makes the object-oriented programming language a key technology for the Oracle Fusion Middleware and the currently being newly developed Business Software (Fusion Applications). Since Oracle has already been strongly engaged in the Java Community, here the acquisition has been taken in rather serenely. The pressure on Microsoft has certainly increased, now that next to Java also the Open-Source Software MySQL belongs to Oracle’s products. With MySQL a cost efficient alternative data base can be offered, especially for the mid-sized sector.

A bit less safe is the future for Sun’s operating system Solaris. Admittedly, with a own operating system one can tie up interesting packages. However it remains to be seen, in how far a backslide from Linux will take place. And there is no authoritative forecast for the Sun hardware either. Especially the future of the Sparc processors is questionable. Indeed, Larry Ellison did emphasize the past few days the goal of an integrated system with hard- and software. But just in processor development Sun has lost market shares lately compared to the competition. Continuing these technologies would also be very cost-intensive. In addition Oracle always points out the platform’s independence, which so far has always contributed to the success of Oracle’s products. A further development of Sun’s hardware and Sun’s operating system is therefore still written in the stars.