Byrne Tony Byrne

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Oracle buys Sun

20-Apr-2009

Tags: Portals and Content Integration, Marketplace at Large, Selecting Technology, Vendor Viability & Financials, , Liferay Portal , WebCenter Suite

Well, I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was. Here's the Sun press release. At one level, the move fits a definite pattern: Oracle talks about acquiring technology, but really it likes to buy customers and absorb brands. And it seems to me that's what's happening here.

Oracle-HP-adI'll leave it mostly to others to assess the implications for Sun's hardware and operating system portfolio. Though I note this ad that greets me from the front page of my Wall Street Journal nearly every morning -- and have to wonder if HP isn't the big loser here.

The key Sun product that CMS Watch covers is Sun Enterprise Portal, recently getting deprecated in favor of a Sun-branded version of Liferay. If Oracle continues the Liferay productization effort, it will be no less than the 5th portal platform they support. But we suspect that Oracle WebCenter Suite will get the most love going forward.

Back to the bigger picture, I think you'll also see a definite culture clash, as the easy-going Sun folks meld with the hard-nosed Oracle culture. Sun is the sort of place nice people go to work for, usually knowing full well what life is like at the Oracle HQ up the road.

If you're a Sun customer now, you can likely expect to be dealing with more aggressive salespeople and tougher contract negotiations. Steel yourself accordingly.

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