Interesting Times

‘May you live in interesting times.’ It may be real a curse from ancient China or merely something invented by an imaginative book editor. Either way, it fits the world of enterprise software. In case you missed it yesterday, approximately nine BILLION in cash and stock went from Oracle and Sun to BEA and MySQL, respectively.

Here at JackBe we love Oracle and Sun. And not just because they give me a couple of gazillion dollar corporate acquisitions to talk about during my guest appearance on Fox Business News last night, but because we’re close partners with both companies and we have over a dozen Oracle/Sun alumni. So it’s no surprise that we follow both companies closely. In my opinion, both acquisitions are biggies for the acquirers, the acquirees, and the enterprise software industry in general.

In case you didn’t know, Sun already has two database products. JavaDB is based on Derby and is all Java. Maybe it’s not an enterprise-grade database but it’s there. And back in 2002, Sun acquired Clustra, a high-performance clustered database. Many of us at Sun at the time thought this was the Oracle competitor but it didn’t seem to go anywhere. So, I bet you’re thinking what I’m thinking: what the hell is Sun going to do with MySQL? Is Sun onto something here? Are they the one to bring some fresh perspective into the database space? Boy, I hope so. This is certainly their chance. Here are a couple of possible outcomes:

1. Sun offers a shrink-wrapped ‘DB-in-a-Box’. For a few million you get a high-performing Sun E25K server optimized and bundled with MySQL.
2. Sun creates the first database on a chip. If anyone can do it, Sun can. They own the hardware and the operating system. It’s right up their alley.
3. (My Favorite) They service-enable MySQL and make it their entry into the Web 2.0 space. Quoting directly from Sun’s press release: “This broad penetration coupled with MySQL's strength in Web 2.0, Software as a Service (SaaS), enterprise, telecom and the OEM embedded market make it an important fit for Sun.’ Sun, if you’re reading this, we’re here to help.

As for Oracle, a quick Google search on the phrase ‘Oracle acquisition’ will confirm what you probably already know: Oracle has done a lot of acquiring and BEA isn’t likely to be the last one. So, ho-hum, another part of the enterprise-solution pie is now owned by Oracle. Interestingly, in one odd way the Oracle acquisition parallels the Sun acquisition: Oracle will now have 4 distinct portal solutions (Oracle Portal, Oracle Webcenter, BEA WebLogic Portal, and the Plumtree products that are now under BEA AquaLogic brand). The Oracle Fusion and BEA AquaLogic feature sets also have a great deal of overlap. It kinda makes Oracle the 800-pound gorilla of portals and SOA.

Are you a Portal/Fusion/WebLogic/AquaLogic user who is now a little concerned about the future? This screams for consolidation of the portal and SOA product lines. And as we’ve written in the recent past, this becomes yet another Oracle-owned property that has only marginal tangible integration to other Oracle products for the immediate future. Sure, Fusion will fix it all but that’s not a journey that will be completed anytime soon. Oracle, if you’re reading this, we’re here to help.

Finally, here’s a result of these acquisitions that hasn’t gotten as much attention as it should: Sun and Oracle become real software competitors. MySQL has nibbled a $50M hole in Oracle’s database pie already. And once you remember that Sun sells a lot of hardware that runs Oracle databases (especially the big boxes that sell for up to $4M), you’ve got to wonder how these moves might impact the lucrative Sun-Oracle server-database relationship. On the portal front, Oracle’s portal domination could also impact Sun’s portal, Sun Java System Portal Server. Do you turn to a low-cost Sun alternative to avoid the confusion of the Oracle portals? Perhaps it’s too soon to tell.

Interesting times indeed. And it’s only January 17. It’s shaping up to be quite a year!

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