In the high stakes of M&A chicken, Oracle has stolen Sun from IBM and has changed the IT landscape forever. While this makes for great headlines, the hard work has yet to be started.
To do list (not complete):
* Pump life into Sun’s workforce
* Reassure Sun’s customers
* Calm Sun’s channel
* Dismantle Sun’s executive management team
* Triage Sun’s product portfolio
* Integrate, Integrate, Integrate
* Market, Market, Market
* Embrace the Open Source Community
* Provide a vision for Java, GlassFish, OpenOffice, VirtualBox, etc.
* Disrupt Cisco, HP, and IBM
* Attack the storage and storage back-up markets
* Attack Netezza and Teradata
* Promote Oracle 3.0: The Application Centric Datacenter
* Use Oracle’s Market Power to change the IT Paradigm
If Larry really wants to challenge Cisco, HP and IBM, he needs two more pieces; a top-of-the-rack switch and a next generation datacenter switch. Look no further than Arista Networks and Woven Systems.
Finally, would Oracle dare to disrupt the industry with an innovative pricing model? Would they take a loss on equipment for lucrative software and maintenance revenue? Or, do they show the world how Open Source Software can make money without inhibiting the community? Oracle in a box or a cloud?
Success or failure will be determined by Larry’s team and his will. Do this right and this industry will never be the same. Do this wrong, and the critics, IBM, HP, and Cisco will smile from sea to shinning sea. It’s hard to bet against Oracle and Larry Ellison and I’m not betting against this Iron Man of Tech.
PlatenReport 