$22.64
-0.02 (-0.09%)
Oracle Corp. (ORCL)
CAPS Rating:
The Company develops, manufactures, markets, distributes and services database, middleware and applications software that helps organizations manage and grow their businesses.
RSS Headlines
Fool UK
Recs
This company is going to get eaten by open source alternatives. Today's earnings miss is not entirely due to weakness in corporate IT spending -- rather, I think we are seeing the beginning of the end for Oracle. Now that MySQL and PostgreSQL are fully backed by Sun and IBM respectively, the last shoe has dropped for Oracle's database business. In the meantime, their middleware products are under pressure on three fronts -- Microsoft's .NET is a superior alternative for those who don't mind vendor lock-in, Sun's J2EE takes the other side of the big-enterprise market, and ad-hoc open source frameworks are sneaking in everywhere else.Goodbye Oracle. You will not be missed.
I don't think so. I work in IT, I actually implement complex corporate IT solutions, and I don't see corporations adopting open source any time soon. Oracle is just like Microsoft, may be a bit more aggressive. It is not going anywhere any time soon. It is almost a monopoly. Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Cisco, - they are in this together, boring but necessary.
Russiangambit is exactly right. As an IT consultant I observe that there will always be a market for Microsoft and Oracle. MySQL plays an entirely different game. Humongous companies that need humongous enterprise level systems will go with a fully supported Oracle system rather than take a risk on an open source where they will have to pay someone like me to support it.The name of the game for Oracle and Microsoft at this point will be in they're acquisitions. They are in a well leveraged position now as industry leaders so whether or not they will continue to grow at a profitable clip will depend on how shrudely they acquire competitors and/or niche market suppliers.
"Humongous companies" like Google and Yahoo already use MySQL for most of the database needs... And those that don't are wasting their money. I think many IT managers realize this, but as you say, many have been reluctant to move to MySQL or Postgres because these options have in the past lacked the big corporate representation (i.e. "no one to sue"). With Sun and IBM taking over, this is no longer an issue.These open source products, for a variety of reasons, are able to evolve much faster than legacy-laden crap. I work with both Oracle systems and MySQL/Postgres on a daily basis, and the Oracle stuff we have in house is increasingly starting to feel like a cruel joke -- a joke with a big up-front price tag on it.
Google is a very progressive company. Sadly most mainstream businesses do waste money out of convention. Why would anyone use Microsoft Office when OpenOffice does the exact same thing? Because everyone else uses Microsoft Office and businesses need to be compatible. It will take a sea change to shift businesses to use open source, it's just as likely going to happen as America electing a third party president.
Thank you. That's an interesting comment on the stock, however I'm betting that the management of Oracle and the founder will be able to re-invent themselves if it comes to that and after all, Microsoft has not been dragged down by Open Source Code. I will watch IT stocks for inflexable managements and bail if needed.
I have been an (Oracle) consultant for 5 years, and i would like to give you a simple insight:Oracle Databases are here to stay.In the past 5 years, i have worked in companies with a total net worth reaching $500B, all using Oracle as their database of choice. (Yes, thats B for billion.. Hint: One of the companies i worked for was in the Tobacco industry, another in Realty, another in Media).For those in the 'know', databases by different companies have inherently different characteristics mostly in areas of security/redundancy and concurrency controls. Although at a simple level they all intend to achieve the same thing (store information), they are not at all equal in how they deliver their goals. The crux of the matter is that corporation A might take a look at other companies' db product (say, microsoft or ibm), but ultimately the final decision rests on a multitude of things: support being on top of the list, price next, functionalities, so on and so forth. These are areas where Oracle has been the traditional leader and will continue to be for many years to come.(trivia: microsoft came up with its own database as a direct result of Oracle's success, much like it is coming up with its own Ad service as a direct result of Google's success. The point being, Microsoft is not "the" first thing that comes in mind when corporations ask "what database should we use?".. Oracle DB will always come first, followed by the alternatives).And for those saying that Oracle DB is 'legacy' and does not deliver equally or better than MySql or other databases, my question is: "Show me the proof." Also, ofcourse Oracle is legacy.. Who made and marketed the first ever Relational Database? Who was the first company to produce a complete setup of RDBMS? Which database has consistently reached ANSI standards (6 out of 7, the highest out of any DB companies)? Who has produced the first grid-db? Legacy does not mean antiquated in Oracles case though.Again, its a matter of delivery/implementation, not of the database itself. And i might add, perhaps the DBAs should be put in question if the Oracle "system" somebody else mentioned seemed crappy.I could go on and on about the question "why not use Mysql, MS db, etc", well.. i ask this of you "why not Oracle?". For corporations, support is an important issue, which is why there would always be an IBM, a Microsoft, and an Oracle. There are the exceptions, ofcourse. Google (which incidentally uses a couple of Oracle Products), Yahoo, Amazon, Ebay (also uses some Oracle Products) all use their almost proprietary-like systems because they have the resources to do so, and quite frankly because they need to. So no, Oracle will not "vanish" nor will it die. As a matter of fact, Oracle is to database what Google is to search. Both are industry leaders with quite a load full of competitors. Sure those might eat into their market, but they will always have the biggest slice of the pie. It's not even a question of "when will we replace google/oracle as the defacto search/database?".. Oftentimes its a question of "how much market share can we snag away from Google/Oracle, knowing full well that we can never take their lead away."
The key point here is 'support' and 'someone to sue' , so Oracle has a bright future. Again Oracle has entered the SOA market where all the money and jobs are.
Thank you for this excellent and informative thought piece. J
Anybody who says OpenSource is here to take over everything is drinking the opensource coolaid. I'm a huge opensource supporter, and push for all things opensource. However, there is a HUGE difference between opensource and actual supported products. The reason huge corporations can use opensource, is because they have the human talent WITHIN their companies to fix something when things go wrong and they can't wait for the community to fix.
At the same time, the REST of the companies out there would rather not be bothered with it. It comes down to support, and quality of hardware & software. I think Oracle with Sun will be a formidable competition to IBM. Also remember, as much as MSFT touts SQLServer, they're barely catching up to Oracle (rather barely finishing to copy Oracle's features) and can run ONLY on Windows whereas Oracle runs on all 3 major platforms.
Anybody who says OpenSource is here to take over everything is drinking the opensource coolaid. I'm a huge opensource supporter, and push for all things opensource. However, there is a HUGE difference between opensource and actual supported products. The reason huge corporations can use opensource, is because they have the human talent WITHIN their companies to fix something when things go wrong and they can't wait for the community to fix.
At the same time, the REST of the companies out there would rather not be bothered with it. It comes down to support, and quality of hardware & software. I think Oracle with Sun will be a formidable competition to IBM. Also remember, as much as MSFT touts SQLServer, they're barely catching up to Oracle (rather barely finishing to copy Oracle's features) and can run ONLY on Windows whereas Oracle runs on all 3 major platforms.