The medium-term future of Sun will look much safer if
Oracle's proposed $7.4bn acquisition goes through. But while it
may provide assurances for end-user customers, it could present
channel and technology partners with food for thought.
The industry took a deep intake of breath earlier today as it
emerged that
Oracle had replaced IBM as the likely buyer of troubled Sun,
with both describing the situation as a momentous day for the
industry.
There had been question marks hanging over Sun's future, as the
company had consistently made quarterly losses and struggled to
fully regain the market position that it enjoyed during the dot.com
boom.
The deal with Oracle will ensure the survival of Sun for the
medium term, said Peter Spreadbury, director enterprise partners at
corporate integrator-come-reseller SCC. But he added that it could
disrupt technology partnerships Oracle holds with HP and IBM.
"The challenge is how will HP and IBM digest the development?
They are big partners to Oracle and now Oracle is acquiring one of
their biggest competitors," he said.
Official figures are not available but according to estimates,
20% to 30% of Oracle database software ships on Sun hardware.
"Oracle could upset the other 70% of the market by buying a
competitor to them," said Greg Carlow, managing director at
Repton.
But Alastair Kitching, COO at Esteem Systems, believed this
would not be a concern in the polygamous IT industry. There are
already a number of complex relationships in place with vendors
competing and co-operating in different market sectors.
"The deal is good news for Sun and its customers but I am not
sure what it means for the channel because I don't think Oracle has
as good a reputation for channel management as Sun, so from that
perspective the verdict is out," he added.
The initial view from Mike Phillips, chief executive at Morse
was that Oracle's acquisition of Sun should prove less
destabilising than if IBM's bid had been successful.
"A deal with IBM would have led to a re-organisation, so some of
our relationships would have been less strong but we do not
anticipate as many duplications with Oracle," he said.
IDC European server research programme director, Nathaniel
Martinez, thought there were "synergies" between the two
organisations in the datacentre, but a question mark hangs over
Sun's open source software business.
"I don't see Larry Ellison (Oracle CEO) being too happy about
that technology because it is free which won't help Oracle's
database margins," he said, adding Sun has "best of breed" software
but has failed to commercialise it.