EMC Sees a Shift in the Oracle Landscape
April 25, 2009
The doings of the storage and database communities interest me. I pay some attention because search requires data management plumbing so the major players drift on and off my radar. I found the article “EMC’s Tucci: Oracle-Sun Combo Raises the Stakes” in CRN Australia here interesting. For me the key comment in the write up was:
Oracle wants to build a vertical stack of hardware and software, and in doing so will change the IT industry’s competitive landscape. EMC’s Joe Tucci said Oracle’s planned acquisition of Sun Microsystems will be a game-changer, and that it will force customers to choose between what he called the “vertical stack” and the “horizontal stack.”
I don’t like the word “stack”. I prefer vertical one stop shop or the River Rouge metaphor. The wordsmithing is secondary to the observation, however. As the economy continues to struggle, vendors have to lock in revenue. The cash that goes for hardware and storage, from Oracle and other similarly inclined companies, is rightly supposed to go to Oracle. Not surprisingly, the Oracle buy of Sun Microsystems adds a chunk to the Oracle River Rouge one stop shop.
I don’t think horizontal and vertical are the issue. The issue is capturing revenues that once flowed to ecosystem partners. In today’s world, partners are likely to find themselves on the outside looking in.
Stephen Arnold, April 24, 2009
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