On Jan 27th Sun, as an independent company, died and Oracle’s reign begins. No time was wasted. As you no doubt have noticed by now, sun.com redirects to Oracle.com, which is in keeping with its acquisition history… but even so it happened quicker than I expected. No time being wasted.
Oracle hosted a 5 hour (yes, 5) event in Redwood City (Oracle HQ) to lay out its strategy for Sun.
- Charles Phillips: Welcome and Oracle + Sun: Transforming the Industry
- John Fowler: Hardware Strategy
- Thomas Kurian: Software Strategy
- Edward Screven: Operating Systems and Virtualization
- Juergen Rottler: Customer Service and Support Strategy
- Jeff Epstein: Operational Strategy
- Larry Ellison: Oracle + Sun
Find all the above webcasts, both full and highlights, plus slide decks, here: Oracle + Sun: Transforming the IT Industry. If you only watch one, make sure to watch the final webcast with Larry which is an open Q&A.
(Selfish note: Joyent’s logo is on the customers slide in the Operating Systems and Virtualization presentation. w00t.)
This is followed up by a Oracle + Sun Welcome Event world tour beginning in March. Look for an event near you.
In addition, several webcasts have been produce in the last couple weeks discussing technologies and the strategy going forward. Find them all here: Oracle + Sun Product Strategy Webcast Series.
So onto the guys who got us here in the first place.
Jonathan returns to blogging, “With the passing of that milestone, I can once again speak freely”, in Where Life Takes Me Next…. He tells us how great things will be now that he’s not running the company, points us to his Twitter feed, and yet again extols the brilliance of Greg Papadopoulos.
Now, I probably shouldn’t pick a fight with Mr. Papadopoulos, but here goes. We hear again and again how brilliant this guy is… but look where we are. Seriously, how can you stand on the ruins of a fallen empire saved only because a neighbor took pity on us, and then tell us how brilliant one of the guys in charge was? I know I’m going to regret saying that, but he should have been smart enough to beat some sense into folks. I digress….
Scott McNealy, who took over for Jonathan either because the job wasn’t getting done or because he wanted to take credit for “saving” the company (I’m not sure which yet; maybe both), sent out a old-skool company wide memo: Subject: Thanks for a great 28 years. Best summary of the situation was: “This is a very powerful merger. And way better than some of the alternatives we were facing. ” Then he starts threading in capitalism, almost blaming but not blaming, the system as a whole for stacking the deck. I sense a story behind it all.
Scott gives us the answer to the horrible question “Why?!?!” We all know it, but its good to hear him admit it: “And though we did not monetize our inventions as well as we could have…” Under. Statment. Of. All Time.
