Sun and Oracle Commit to Grid and Java
Sun and Oracle Commit to Grid and Java
January 13, 2006: Sun and Oracle have jointly announcement that Oracle has extended its commitment to Sun's Java platform for another ten years, and to publicly commit to push grid computing in the marketplace.
The plan will see both companies marketing a grid computing package made up of Sun's UltraSPARC 4 server and Oracle's database. The package will also include one year of Oracle support.Sun CEO Scott McNealy said that the deal was priced in such a way that Oracle's database and year of support was being given away for free, making it an attractive choice for Sun's platform .
The grid element - Sun's N1 Grid strategy - of the marriage sets up a challenging contrast to the hell-for-leather charge into Virtualisation using services such as VMWare's. With Virtualisation being the accepted battle plan put forward by many analysts for 2006, Sun is having to fight hard to ensure that its extensive N1 investment is not left well behind the lines.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's desire to attach his organisation to Java maintains the database's OS-agnostic appeal to many Enterprise-level organisations that are equally keen to be able to leverage their hardware spends against choice.
The close partnership has spawned rumours of a merger, which CEO's Scott McNealy and Larry Ellison jokingly dismiss. The two stress that their relationship is 95% complimentary, while simultaneously underlining that Oracle's working relationships with companies like Dell - and its work on Linux - will not suffer as a result.
"It's in our interest and in Sun's interest that there's good healthy cooperation and competition, and it's really important we win against the proprietary guys." says Ellision.
Sun's agreement with the industry heavyweight - and the additional firepower provided by master-spruiker, Ellison - provides immense credibility and huge referentiality. Making the agreement so public while simultaneously quashing any shareholder-confusion is also to be seen as savvy.
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