Oracle Enters Hardware Market In Time For Slowdown (ORCL, HPQ)

There have been more press releases out of the Oracle OpenWorld conference in San Francisco this week than you can count.  But one from Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) is perhaps the most interesting.  It isn’t virtualization, it is isn’t on operating systems, it isn’t on collaboration, and it isn’t on acquisitions.  Oracle has partnered with Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) for its debut into the hardware sector.

Oracle isn’t going to be selling PC’s in Best Buy any time soon, but itis introducing the HP Oracle Database Machine for enterprises.  The company aims tomake performance ramp tenfold over existing Oracle data warehouses.This will consist of a grid of Oracle database servers and a grid ofnew HP Oracle Exadata Storage Servers packaged in a single rack orderedas a complete system from Oracle. You can read more about the details here at Oracle’s site.

This may seem like a game-changing event, but if you look at itsprogress this seems more like the natural progression of thecompany and the industry.  Unfortunately, Oracle is doing this at the time when companies are experiencing severe businessinterruptions and are cutting back or slowing down on some of theenterprise plans into 2009.

Jon C. Ogg
September 25, 2008