SAPGenius

In the aftermath of the acquisition of Sun by Oracle it is time to reflect and reconsider everything we believed was Open Technologies. Sun will be best remembered for the propagation of Java to an almost ubiquitous level. Java world almost became a universe, facing hordes of hopeful programmers that wondered indeed, "Will this be the end of Java as we know it?". In reality, the true effect was the annihilation of a virtual reality and the far bigger question  from SAPians "Can this acquistion of Sun by Oracle be a wake up call for SAP ?"

The selection of Sun as an acquisition target enabled Oracle to create a dream world and a monumental  testament to an example of inorganic growth of technology. Prior to the acquisition, it was widespread knowledge that  majority of Sun's revenue came not only from software license but from the hardware and servers.  In April 2009, Sun had a vibrant community of customers, developers, partners and employees across the globe.

 

Coupled with Oracle's focus  to reach  customers using enterprise software (read SAP),  executives, architects, project managers,  programmers, testers, tech blogs and mega systems integrators tell the same story -  This twin assets Java and Solaris, can serve as a wake up call for SAP.

 

Many opined that Sun also roped in MySQL, which was a good seeding ground for Oracle to open dialog with a powerful and influential  development community.

Much has been publicized by the response of other competitors impacted by this acquisition, namely SAP, IBM, Microsoft  and  HP. When we look at some of the cover stories of that day, and juxtapose with the events today.

 

On November 24 2010,  there were press releases that Oracle was awarded $1.3 billion in SAP lawsuit.

 

“The only reason we don’t have what we want in life is the reasons we create why we can’t have them.” ~Tony Robbins

 

It is clear that Oracle will undoubtedly protect its proprietary margins against open-source assets by targetting the competition biggies like SAP which have invested a huge foot print in Java technologies, in their effort to embrace open software feedom. It might be a moot point to have a blame Oracle as villian strategy. Rather, given the fact that it is going to be two years since the acquisition, perhaps a path forward approach for SAP is to take this event as a wake up call and prognosticate foreseeable competitive landscape. 

 

Anil Baddi, a senior enterprise architect, says in this context, "Oracle is reaping the seeds sowed by Sun".