Oracle Shows New Partnership Commitment
As its new Linux partner program and push into Web services indicate, Oracle is committed to realigning its partner programs to invite more allies into the fold. For years, the company has trumpeted the need for open computing systems and bemoaned the rigid dominance of Windows. It has consistently pushed for and supported open-standards initiatives as a way of undercutting Microsoft's control and promoting competition.
Yet what considerable clout Oracle does have has been built on the ownership of its own technology. For Web services to truly prosper, and for Oracle to prosper in the space, the company will have to loosen its grip on its technology.
"Web services is an interesting challenge for Oracle because its position in the market always has been dependent on having a fair amount of control over the technology stack," says John Rymer, a vice president at Giga Information Group. "They've always wanted customers to store everything in a single database,not just in one brand of database, but in one database only. Services are a mechanism for opening up the stack, and Oracle hasn't been very aggressive about that until recently."
He says Oracle's historical insistence on control isn't much different from other vendors', but to play in the services space, this focus will have to change. "Wanting control isn't that unique; everybody operates that way," he says. "The emphasis these days is on selling to and retaining your installed base, which is anathema to openness."
Nevertheless, Oracle is pushing full steam ahead on its new partnering plans. The Unbreakable Linux program follows the reorganization of its sales unit last fall and its targeting of Web services as examples of the company trying to better utilize its partnerships. "Resellers have traditionally been closed out by Oracle, but if the reorganization of their sales force doesn't boost application sales by the end of the year, it may open opportunities down the road for VARs in the mid-market," says Bob Sutherland, senior analyst with Technology Business Research.
Meanwhile, Oracle's existing partners are taking a cautiously optimistic view of the company's metamorphosis. CollabNet, which makes a Web-based environment that allows software developers to collaborate online, will partner with Oracle by porting to its 9i database and by qualifying on its 9i Jdeveloper toolkit. (Oracle also is an investor in the company.) CollabNet president and CEO Bill Portelli says Oracle's efforts show that the company is committed to adopting the open environments standards demand, but that it still has a ways to go before it can match the open development environments of companies like Sun and Sybase.
"People are trying to create standards, but all companies also are motivated to give their brand a competitive edge," Portelli says. "They more they understand collaboration, the better it will be. Oracle hasn't quite plugged that capability into their technology yet the way some other companies have. They 'get' what it means, but it takes a deep methodology and process shift for a software company to decide to open itself up to third parties."