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So has Oracle come up with something different that is revolutionary with how the company is bringing solutions to market with the vertical stack?
This is huge. Want to make it simpler and simpler and easier and easier. And integrate these things and test them, what people have had the channel do (in the past). The channel has added a lot of value integrating piece parts. We can do it for them and save them costs and give them a better value prop to take to the market.
I think the better message I would love to see you write is that we are going to keep on it. You don't want us to have one time economic model, one time couple of valued product introductions. You want a drumbeat from Oracle over the next quarters and years. That we are going to continue to drive the strategy that pushes on this focus of looking down by market segment, by target market, by industry, trying to enable solutions that get into these target markets, that get into these partners' hands, that can help us by getting to more distribution and properly and professionally represent us in front of the customer.
That is as big an issue to us is recruiting the partner, that we can get people that sell solutions. We are just not going to be looking for somebody whose only skill is to move boxes. It doesn't help us. We need people that can sell solutions.
You called the Exadata the iPad of the enterprise. Is that the model here?
I think it gets back to the core of what we were talking about. Here is a case of you can go buy any brand PC at Best Buy and you buy Microsoft Windows at Best Buy and the first time those products really come together from an engineering perspective is at your house.
Now when you are building this (an iPhone and an iPad) you get a level of hardware engineering, a level of software engineering and you did it together and you integrate it. And then you went back and did it again. And then you integrated it again. You integrated it multiple times before this (the iPhone and iPad) came to market and you get a different user experience out of it. It is just a definition of people optimizing at every turn.
Exadata is the same way. When that thing is engineered the hardware guy says well listen what if I put more flash in here. The database guy says what if I change my algorythm to align to the flash, etc.,etc.,etc. What if I run this compression algorythm differently than I did before?
So now you have hardware guys and software guys sitting next to each other saying 'I didn't know I could do this' And you get a different product on the other end of the pipeline. It is not only optimized for performance. But it's easier to use, it is easier to support because it has been built together.
So the reason that I use that example is because people relate to it on a consumer level. And in the enterprise people seem to think of the enterprise as more complicated and move involved. And while it may be. It is the same concept: that if you can engineer these things together you are going to get a better answer. You are going to get a better experience.
You personally have an iPhone and a iPad, so do you admire what Apple has done?
They did good things. The thing I like about it is that I can sync up. Everybody is different. I don't do a lot of email off this (the iPad). I might do three or four emails a day unless I see something where the answer is no. You write me a note that says why don't do we do this. No or Yes.
The fact that I can see all my emails on here I like that. The fact that I have my contacts that I can leverage between the two and I get an integrated ecosystem it is attractive. And I have got to tell you from the days of carrying big laptops, this is just easy. It is easy.
You talked about the channel as good business. One of the reasons there was a lot of allegiance and the feeling that you were a channel zealot was because you went to VARs and spoke to their customers. Are you going to be doing that at Oracle?
I want to do it. The view I had with these partners was you are a surrogate for me. So for you to have your best customers in a room if I can help you sell send me in! And I will go help you represent your brand, your capabilities. The only thing I want to know from my team is that they believe in you. And that you have committed to doing the things necessary to properly do that. If so get your best customers (together and bring me in).
