Oracle’s Cloud Computing Strategy
Update: fixed white paper citation.
Given what we do as a consulting firm, we have to be a keen observer of the latest industry trends and advances in the technology marketplace. It is, after all, what our clients talk to us about daily. In the case of cloud computing, its emergence is but another important manifestation of industry innovation resulting in solving real business problems.
We think Oracle’s white paper, entitled Achieving the Cloud Computing Vision (PDF link; published in October 2010), says it best. From the Executive Summary:
Cloud computing is enabling the agility required by organizations to be leaders in today’s ever growing global economy. It is accelerating the time to market for new products and services while reducing the costs to design, build, deploy, and support these products and services. It has the ability to fundamentally change the way IT services are delivered and consumed.
The cloud computing storm has been brewing since the early days of computing. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, the expense of acquiring and running mainframe computer systems necessitated the use of pooled resources and virtualization. In the 1980’s and 1990’s, inexpensive commodity hardware enabled distributed computing with rich user interfaces. In the early to mid 2000’s, a virtualized grid of commodity hardware emerged. Today, cloud computing is adding self service and metered usage to the virtualized grid, enabling capabilities such as dynamic workloads and automated provisioning.
The promise of cloud computing is extraordinary. Improved agility, reduced CAPEX and OPEX, faster time to market, among others, are just some of the business benefits. And to realize your vision, it takes a disciplined approach to building a proper business case and sustainable future state architecture. This paper provides a framework and process that organizations can use to achieve their cloud computing vision.
As the hype has built, Oracle has been relatively indifferent to the cloud trend, but finally we are seeing how they view the market and its accompanying technology. Watch the video below (it’s under six minutes) and let us know if Oracle’s cloud strategy is aligned with what you envision for your organization. All comments welcome.
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