The five biggest Oracle headlines of 2007

The headline-generating machine known as Oracle Corp. didn't miss a step in 2007.

But amid the flood of daily Oracle press releases about products and minor acquisitions, five news stories stood out and made serious waves within the IT industry.

Those five stories, which among other things included a major Oracle business intelligence (BI) acquisition, the release of Oracle Database 11g, and a high-profile Oracle lawsuit against SAP, are sure to continue making news throughout 2008. Here's a rundown of those stories:

1. Oracle sues SAP

Oracle's decision to sue SAP -- specifically, SAP's TomorrowNow arm -- over copyright infringement was perhaps the biggest Oracle story of 2007.

The lawsuit alleges that TomorrowNow, a third-party business application support provider, repeatedly gained unlawful and unauthorized access to Oracle's customer support website and illegally provided customers with proprietary Oracle information.

SAP, which eventually requested mediation in the case and admitted to inappropriate downloads, says that any wrongdoing was confined to its TomorrowNow division.

Not surprisingly, SAP has since expressed interested in selling TomorrowNow to the highest bidder. The case is still making its way through the legal system.

2. Oracle buys Hyperion

Oracle made a big BI splash in March when it announced that it would acquire Hyperion Corp., a BI vendor that specializes in corporate performance management, in a deal worth $3.3 billion.

Oracle, which has been on an acquisition spree over the last several years, buying up more than 30 companies since 2005, immediately told the world that the Hyperion buy meant that Oracle was now the leader in BI software.

"This extends our business intelligence strategy of a year ago, when we launched Oracle business intelligence. That's been one of our highest-growth product lines," Oracle president Charles Phillips said at the time. "We now have the most comprehensive BI product line."
3. Oracle debuts Database 11g

The latest version of Oracle's flagship database management technology, Oracle Database 11g, was released last summer after years of anticipation on the part of Oracle users.

The new release, which includes hundreds of new features and enhancements, left some experts wondering whether Oracle should revise its patching policies to help users better manage all of the newly added functionality. Oracle had come under fire in recent years for sitting on patches for longer than some would like.

"I know that Oracle has to spend an inordinate amount of time testing each patch or each bug fix before they release it in a patch," Brian Peasland, an independent Oracle consultant, said at the time. "But it seems that some of these bugs have been known for two years or even longer before they get patched, and that's just quite disturbing, actually."

4. BEA rejects Oracle takeover bid

Oracle tried to buy enterprise infrastructure software provider BEA Systems Inc. back in October. But like an unpopular kid looking for a prom date, Oracle got summarily rejected.

Oracle initially offered to buy BEA for about $6.66 billion, but BEA's board of directors said the offer was too low. Oracle later refused to increase its bid for the firm.

"We believe our all-cash offer provides the best value for BEA's shareholders and the best home for BEA's employees and customers," Oracle president Charles Phillips said. "This proposal is the culmination of repeated conversations with BEA's management over the last several years."

5. Ellison unveils first Oracle Fusion apps

For years now, Oracle has been touting its Oracle Fusion plan, which will combine "the best" spoils of its many acquisitions onto a brand-new, service-enabled platform. And at Oracle's OpenWorld event last October, Oracle founder Larry Ellison finally gave users a look at what the first Fusion applications will be like.

According to Ellison, the first Oracle Fusion Applications are called Sales Prospector, Sales References and Sales Tools, and they're likely to be released during the first half of 2008.

The three salesforce automation applications, which are based on existing Siebel tools, are not designed to be replacements for applications provided by the likes of Salesforce.com, Ellison said. The key difference between the new applications and Salesforce.com-type applications is that the older tools are designed primarily to help the salesperson forecast, while Oracle's upcoming Fusion tools are designed to "help the salesperson sell."

Author: Mark Brunelli @ searchoracle.com

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Oracle helps Manchester Airport lift baggage rule

Manchester Airport has implemented Oracle's BI service to enable it to become one of the first airports in the UK to lift the one item of hand baggage per person regulation.

The rule had been in place since August 2006, and was applied in response to security fears. A recent ruling by the Department for Transport (DfT) means airports can now apply for permission to lift the ban.

In order to lift the ban, airports had to demonstrate that check-in times and passenger movement would not be affected by having extra baggage and security checks.

Oracle's BI service has provided Manchester Airport with interactive dashboards containing flight information and passenger and baggage movements. Oracle's software analyses passenger and baggage information with the aim of identifying trends.

It is hoped this will give Manchester Airport the ability to cope with screening extra bags as well as helping the management team at the airport to plan in advance to employ extra staff or install additional X-ray machines during busy periods.
Martin Bell, Business Consultant, Information Services, Manchester Airports Group (MAG), owners of Manchester Airport, said that the core team of 12 workers who will be using the software required two days of training. "We received customised training and support from a dedicated team. The integration was reasonably easy because we're using Oracle's BI Enterprise edition which helps with third party database integration."

Although MAG did consider other proposals, previous dealings with Oracle persuaded them to use Oracle's BI software for this project. "We did review other companies but our knowledge of Oracle meant there was no need to go elsewhere," Bell said.

MAG has plans to install the software at its other airports, East Midlands, Bournemouth and Humberside. Bell said: "We hope to install this at East Midlands Airport within the next six months, certainly within the next year. Hopefully, the other airports will follow."

Author: Steve Evans @ www.cbronline.com

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Red Hat CEO targets Oracle, Microsoft

RALEIGH, N.C. - Software maker Red Hat Inc. CEO Jim Whitehurst said Friday — his fourth day on the job — that he's angling for a showdown with much larger Oracle Corp. and Microsoft Corp. over leadership in open source products.

Moving beyond defending a company as he did as an executive at Delta Air Lines Inc., Whitehurst is ready to go on the offensive as he builds Raleigh-based Red Hat.

"A lot of work at an established company like Delta is about preserving market share and defending against incumbents," said Whitehurst, who helped guide the airline out of bankruptcy before leaving in August.

"Here, we are the attacker. If you listen to all the squealing that Microsoft and Oracle do about us, clearly they're worried about us."

Microsoft has put its weight behind the open-source software platform peddled by Novell Inc.

Oracle has been even more aggressive, announcing more than a year ago that it would sell maintenance service for Red Hat's product — essentially copying the company's business and offering a lower price.

Whitehurst said anything short of success in the skirmishes with Oracle and Microsoft would endanger the open-source industry and the free flow of information — though he acknowledged that competing against those two "very large and very wealthy" rivals will be difficult.

"We are working to democratize information," Whitehurst said. "A lot of people don't see the importance of that. But, ultimately, it is about information freedom and making sure information's accessible.

"If we don't fight those battles now, our entrenched competitors will lock up file formats, force you to use their software or force royalties," he added. "Then the information stored in those formats will no longer be free."

Unlike Microsoft, which keeps the code for its Windows operating system and its software secret, Red Hat collaborates with outsiders to develop its product and then gives away the software, allowing users to copy, distribute and modify it.

The company makes money by selling technical support services.

Red Hat's software core Linux brand operates the back room servers of many companies and government agencies around the world. The company estimates that the data center business overall is worth $100 billion, and it has only tapped a small portion of that.

Whitehurst also hopes to expand into software applications and onto desktop computers. But he wasn't sure that will happen immediately: "I just found the bathroom and coffee machine around here, so, we'll see."

A handful of analysts and observers questioned Whitehurst's appointment over more prominent tech-industry leaders. But the self-described "techie geek" said he is plenty qualified to handle the job.

He's a computer science graduate who runs Linux on his home computer and does programming in his spare time. And, he points out, Delta didn't exactly ignore high tech with a technology budget of about $400 million — about equal to Red Hat's annual revenues.

Whitehurst said he passed up offers from private equity groups and others to help turn around struggling companies. He enjoyed the work at Delta — a company he called "an institution that deserved to be saved" — but he wanted a new job he could get excited about.

"I am absolutely passionate about what we do and the importance of what we do (at Red Hat)," Whitehurst said. "By doing well, we do good."

Former Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik, Red Hat's CEO since 1999, stepped down at the end of 2007 to deal with family health issues, he said. He will continue as chairman of the company's board of directors.

Red Hat shares were trading down 24 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $20.47 in midday trading Friday.

Author: Mike Baker @ news.yahoo.com

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