Interview with Larry Ellisson about Sun acquisition. Part one
Why does Oracle, a company that prides itself on high profitability, wants a low-profitable hardware business? Do you want to enter the market?
Now, we definitely do not want to enter a new market. While the hardware business is scarce in profit, companies like Apple and Cisco enjoy a very large income because they develop their hardware and collaboration software. When a company develops both hardware and software at the same time, it creates systems much better than when it only develops software. That is why the iPhone is much better than Microsoft phones.
Well, Apple and Cisco have proven that they can, but what is Oracle’s experience with the joint development of hardware and software?
Oracle began developing hardware and software several years ago when it launched Exadata, a data warehouse complex. Some of our competitors, Teradata and Netezza, for example, supplied preconfigured hardware / software, while we delivered only software. Combining hardware and software has performance advantages for data storage applications. We had to respond with our own iron / software combination - Exadata. Oracle Exadata, a complex for data storage, is much faster - at least 10 times than the work of Oracle software on ordinary hardware. All software and hardware databases are included. You simply take and use - no integration is needed.
')
Great, Oracle integrated software development with hardware into Exadata. But Exadata uses standard Intel chips. Will you stop the production of SPARC chips?
Not. As soon as we acquire Sun, we will increase our investment in SPARC. We believe that the design of our own microchips is very, very important. Even Apple is developing its own chips today. At the moment, SPARC chips do certain things better than Intel and vice versa. For example, SPARC uses much more efficient energy than Intel, delivering the same performance per socket. This is not only an environmental problem, it is also an economic problem. Today, data centers pay as much for electricity consumption as for the purchase of computers. SPARC computers are cheaper than Itel computers.
So here's your plan, use SPARC to reduce electricity bills in data centers?
No, our main goal is to develop our own microchips in the production of computers with the best performance, reliability and security available on the market. Some system actions work much better if they are performed in silicon than in software. By purchasing Sun, we will be able to plan and synchronize new features - from silicon to software, just like IBM and other major system vendors. We want to work with Fujitsu to develop modern technologies in a SPARC microprocessor aimed at improving the performance of Oracle databases. In my opinion, this will present the ability of SPARC Solaris to mainframes and servers to challenge IBM's dominance in data-cents. Sun has been very successful for a long time in sales of computers based on SPARC chips and Solaric OS. Now, with the added power of integrated Oracle software, we think this will happen again.
Your manual has no experience with the supply of equipment. There is a risk when you enter an unfamiliar business.
Obviously, we want to keep an experienced team of first-class hardware engineers with Sun. For years, Sun has led the industry in the development and provision of innovative systems. For example, Sun was the first company to provide multi-core processor systems - Niagara, followed by the industry. Oracle has good experience in retaining technical talent in absorbed companies, everything will be the same with Sun. In addition, over the past few years, Oracle has gained a lot of experience in developing and delivering our integrated hardware and software systems - Exadata. We have a lot of experience in the hardware field in Oracle. Hundreds of Oracle engineers came from companies like IBM and HP. Even I began my career in Silicon Valley working for a company that worked for Futjitsu to design and build the first IBM compatible mainframe.
Well, then you have engineers who have experience from both software development and hardware, but Oracle has outsourced production of HP to Exadata. You have no experience in production.
The fact that we acquire Sun does not make Oracle a manufacturer. Sun transfers almost all of its production to companies like Flextronics and Fujitsu. With one small exception - Sun produces nothing, so it will be with us.
There was a lot of speculation in the press that Oracle plans to sell a certain part or all of Sun's hardware business. From your previous answers, you can see that you will not do this. Will you continue to own a data warehousing and backup business?
Yes of course. We believe that the best experience for users is when all the “pieces” of the system are designed to work as one unit. Information data warehouses and backups are critical components in high performance, high reliability and high security of database systems. We are planning to develop and supply these "pieces" too. Clearly, many Sun customers choose third-party storage systems. This is the principle of open systems - the user chooses what to use. But Oracle will continue to compete in the storage market after buying Sun.
Will Exadata Move to Sun SPARC Solaris?
Exadata is built on HP based on Intel microprocessors. We have no plans for the SPARC Solaris version for her. We have an excellent relationship with HP, which we will continue. Exadata provides high performance for less cost than ordinary iron. Customers love her. This is the most successful Oracle product for the entire 30 year history. Sun's acquisition does not annul our commitment to Exadata.
This text was prepared and translated by Eugene aka jeje . If you like the text, then thank Eugene, he himself cannot publish the translation due to the limitations of karma.
Now, we definitely do not want to enter a new market. While the hardware business is scarce in profit, companies like Apple and Cisco enjoy a very large income because they develop their hardware and collaboration software. When a company develops both hardware and software at the same time, it creates systems much better than when it only develops software. That is why the iPhone is much better than Microsoft phones.
Well, Apple and Cisco have proven that they can, but what is Oracle’s experience with the joint development of hardware and software?
Oracle began developing hardware and software several years ago when it launched Exadata, a data warehouse complex. Some of our competitors, Teradata and Netezza, for example, supplied preconfigured hardware / software, while we delivered only software. Combining hardware and software has performance advantages for data storage applications. We had to respond with our own iron / software combination - Exadata. Oracle Exadata, a complex for data storage, is much faster - at least 10 times than the work of Oracle software on ordinary hardware. All software and hardware databases are included. You simply take and use - no integration is needed.
')
Great, Oracle integrated software development with hardware into Exadata. But Exadata uses standard Intel chips. Will you stop the production of SPARC chips?
Not. As soon as we acquire Sun, we will increase our investment in SPARC. We believe that the design of our own microchips is very, very important. Even Apple is developing its own chips today. At the moment, SPARC chips do certain things better than Intel and vice versa. For example, SPARC uses much more efficient energy than Intel, delivering the same performance per socket. This is not only an environmental problem, it is also an economic problem. Today, data centers pay as much for electricity consumption as for the purchase of computers. SPARC computers are cheaper than Itel computers.
So here's your plan, use SPARC to reduce electricity bills in data centers?
No, our main goal is to develop our own microchips in the production of computers with the best performance, reliability and security available on the market. Some system actions work much better if they are performed in silicon than in software. By purchasing Sun, we will be able to plan and synchronize new features - from silicon to software, just like IBM and other major system vendors. We want to work with Fujitsu to develop modern technologies in a SPARC microprocessor aimed at improving the performance of Oracle databases. In my opinion, this will present the ability of SPARC Solaris to mainframes and servers to challenge IBM's dominance in data-cents. Sun has been very successful for a long time in sales of computers based on SPARC chips and Solaric OS. Now, with the added power of integrated Oracle software, we think this will happen again.
Your manual has no experience with the supply of equipment. There is a risk when you enter an unfamiliar business.
Obviously, we want to keep an experienced team of first-class hardware engineers with Sun. For years, Sun has led the industry in the development and provision of innovative systems. For example, Sun was the first company to provide multi-core processor systems - Niagara, followed by the industry. Oracle has good experience in retaining technical talent in absorbed companies, everything will be the same with Sun. In addition, over the past few years, Oracle has gained a lot of experience in developing and delivering our integrated hardware and software systems - Exadata. We have a lot of experience in the hardware field in Oracle. Hundreds of Oracle engineers came from companies like IBM and HP. Even I began my career in Silicon Valley working for a company that worked for Futjitsu to design and build the first IBM compatible mainframe.
Well, then you have engineers who have experience from both software development and hardware, but Oracle has outsourced production of HP to Exadata. You have no experience in production.
The fact that we acquire Sun does not make Oracle a manufacturer. Sun transfers almost all of its production to companies like Flextronics and Fujitsu. With one small exception - Sun produces nothing, so it will be with us.
There was a lot of speculation in the press that Oracle plans to sell a certain part or all of Sun's hardware business. From your previous answers, you can see that you will not do this. Will you continue to own a data warehousing and backup business?
Yes of course. We believe that the best experience for users is when all the “pieces” of the system are designed to work as one unit. Information data warehouses and backups are critical components in high performance, high reliability and high security of database systems. We are planning to develop and supply these "pieces" too. Clearly, many Sun customers choose third-party storage systems. This is the principle of open systems - the user chooses what to use. But Oracle will continue to compete in the storage market after buying Sun.
Will Exadata Move to Sun SPARC Solaris?
Exadata is built on HP based on Intel microprocessors. We have no plans for the SPARC Solaris version for her. We have an excellent relationship with HP, which we will continue. Exadata provides high performance for less cost than ordinary iron. Customers love her. This is the most successful Oracle product for the entire 30 year history. Sun's acquisition does not annul our commitment to Exadata.
This text was prepared and translated by Eugene aka jeje . If you like the text, then thank Eugene, he himself cannot publish the translation due to the limitations of karma.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/59193/
All Articles