EMC and Oracle unveil new business software

EMC Corporation has unveiled innovative new storage capabilities and features to help regional customers using the latest software from Oracle to deploy business solutions faster, better control costs and improve information management.

They include pre-tested, integrated and documented configurations for Oracle Database environments as well as the validation of EMC technology with Oracle Database 11g, which allows faster and easier configuration and management of EMC network attached storage (NAS) in Oracle grid computing environments, said an official spokesman.

“The EMC and Oracle partnership gives regional customers an advantage over their competitors as we are completely focused on helping clients control costs and get the most value from their technology infrastructure,” said general manager, EMC Middle East & North Africa, Mohammed Amin.

“We have invested a great deal and work closely to combine our products and supply clients with the simplest and most effective ways to deploy them. Combined with our shared service and support capabilities, we’re in a unique position to help customers with their Oracle Database 11g implementations,” he added.

EMC and Oracle jointly tested the Oracle Database 11g Direct NFS Client (network file system) feature. By integrating Direct NFS Client directly into the database software, regional Oracle Database 11g users can streamline performance and functionality as the database communicates automatically with the storage system.

This eliminates time consuming manual tasks, including setting NFS parameters such as block size, cache size and other parameters. EMC worked extensively with Oracle as a beta test partner.

“Oracle and EMC have collaborated for more than a decade and have provided thousands of mutual customers with solutions and services that have enabled them to get the most value from their information. Oracle Database 11g is designed to be effectively deployed on everything from small blade servers to the biggest SMP servers and clusters of all sizes and we’re working with EMC to make sure that the integration between the database and EMC storage systems and software are as seamless as possible,” said vice-president, Worldwide Platform and Distribution Alliances at Oracle, ,” Judson Althoff.

In the Middle East, EMC and Oracle work together with a diverse group of enterprise customers that span many sectors including government, aviation, oil and gas, telecommunications and manufacturing. Internationally, they have more than 55,000 mutual customers.

EMC is a Certified Advantage Partner in the Oracle PartnerNetwork and Oracle is an EMC Global Alliance Partner. The two companies use each other’s technologies to run their respective businesses.

Source: www.tradearabia.com

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Oracle posts strong gains, alleviating investor concern

Business software maker Oracle Corp. on Wednesday posted a 35% gain in second-quarter profit, topping Wall Street's expectations and alleviating the concerns of investors looking at the company as a gauge of the broader tech market's health.

Oracle said net income for the period ended Nov. 30 rose to $1.3 billion, or 25 www.cents a share, from $967 million, or 18 cents a share, in the same period a year earlier. Meanwhile, revenue rose to $5.3 billion from $4.16 billion.
Excluding special items, Oracle said earnings for the quarter were 31 cents a share. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial had been estimating Oracle would post earnings of 27 cents a share, on $5.04 billion in revenue.

Oracle Chief Financial Officer Safra Catz said in a prepared release that the results came thanks to "strong revenue growth across all product lines and geographies."
Oracle said sales of new software licenses grew 38% over the period a year earlier, marking the strongest quarterly increase in the past 10 years.

Analysts closely monitor Oracle's sales of new licenses to help them gauge the company's ability to wrangle new business, rather than depending on revenue drawn from maintaining and updating software already sold to existing customers.
Shares of Oracle jumped nearly 5% in after-hours trading to $21.73 following the company's quarterly earnings announcement.

Investors and analysts are especially interested in the health of Oracle's business now that the overall economy has faltered. Some have wondered whether the tough times will translate into fewer sales of Oracle's software to its many large customers in the financial, retail and other industries.

But Wednesday's results seemed to address those concerns in a resounding manner.
Oracle said its sales of new software application licenses grew 63% in the period compared to a year earlier.
Oracle's applications software is of particular interest to analysts, as the company has sought to build up its applications business in recent years -- mainly via acquisitions -- in order to provide a balance to its traditional database software business.
The increased emphasis on applications software has also drawn Oracle into tighter competition with German rival SAP AG.

SAP is expected to report fourth-quarter results in January.
Maintenance revenue has been a key point of contention between Oracle and SAP. An SAP subsidiary called TomorrowNow was attempting to undercut Oracle's lucrative product support business by pilfering documentation and offering cut-rate service for Oracle products, according to a lawsuit filed earlier this year by Oracle.
For its second quarter, Oracle said revenue from software license updates and product support grew 3%, to $2 billion.

Author: John Letzing @ www.marketwatch.com

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With economy sluggish, all eyes will turn to Oracle

Investors looking to gauge the effect of the troubled U.S. economy on the technology sector will focus on Oracle Corp.'s second-quarter earnings report, expected after the market's close Wednesday.
Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expect Oracle to post earnings of 27 cents a share for the period ended in November, on $5 billion in revenue.

Many analysts and investors are keen to hear what Oracle has to say about the health of its business now, amid the ongoing credit crunch and troubles stemming from the subprime mortgage crisis.
Business software maker Oracle has numerous customers among the country's largest financial services firms and other corporations. Some have speculated that these firms may scale back their purchases of software and other technologies amid the economic turbulence.

But analysts have made generally positive predictions for Oracle's quarterly results and outlook. Broadpoint Capital analyst Mark Murphy wrote in a note to clients Tuesday that he expects Oracle to beat consensus estimates on second-quarter sales and profit.
"Despite signs of softening macroeconomic demand, we continue to view our [Oracle earnings] forecast as being relatively resilient, due to Oracle's acquisitiveness and its large base of recurring maintenance revenue," Murphy wrote.
Oracle has turned in a string of well-received quarterly reports this year, translating its many recent acquisitions into quickly growing revenue while branching into new and more specialized areas of the business software market.
Shares of Oracle have risen more than 20% in the year-to-date, while U.S.-traded shares of rival business software maker SAP AG have fallen roughly 5%. Oracle shares rose slightly Tuesday, to $20.98.

Oracle's most recent acquisition, of Netherlands-based Moniforce, was announced earlier this month. Performance management software maker Moniforce "has a presence in the retail, federal, and financial sectors," CIBC World Markets analyst Brad Reback wrote in note released to clients.
Though Oracle's sales to financial firms may be slowed by the credit crunch, it should be able to cover its losses in the second quarter with gains in sales in other sectors, Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry wrote in a note to clients earlier this month.
The "subprime mortgage industry may negatively impact Oracle's business by 2% to 4%," Chowdhry wrote, "however strength in healthcare, packaged goods and hi-tech verticals may offset the above weakness."
Chowdhry said he is expecting a "positive revenue surprise" for Oracle's second-quarter results, and "in-line guidance."
Pacific Crest Securities analyst Brendan Barnicle concurred with Chowdhry's upbeat expectations for the quarter.
"We have been very surprised by the strength of our [second-quarter] Oracle channel checks," Barnicle wrote in a note to clients earlier this month.
Barnicle said he's heard of strength in Oracle's sales to financial services firms, "which we certainly did not expect," as well as strong sales to small and medium-sized businesses, "which has historically been weak."

Author: John Letzing @ www.marketwatch.com

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