Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Oracle To Acquire Sun Microsystems For $7.4 Billion

It's sad to see an independent company like Sun Microsystems being acquired but Oracle is probably a better acquirer than IBM and this acquisition has a high probability of success.

First, there is no hardware overlap. The OS and hardware from Sun will create a lot of synergies for Oracle as they will be able to offer completely integrated (hardware and software) solutions to their customers. The goal here is to reduce the costs of integration. I'm still amazed that IT teams have to spend money (directly or through integrators) to install and configure operating systems, middleware and enterprise software packages. I've heard that Oracle is only acquiring Sun for Java. I don't think it's the case. IBM and HP are Oracle's competitors and Oracle needs hardware to fight them in the marketplace.

Second, these are two bay area companies with similar cultures, much easier to integrate. They have been partners for over 20 years. They have developed joint call centers, and engineers and marketers on each side are very familiar with the other company's portfolio. It's probably not a good example to bring back to the table but Sun and Oracle were viewed as two of the four horsemen of the new economy back in 2000.

There is a risk that software vendors who competing against Oracle in the enterprise software area, stop supporting the Sun HW platform. Interesting challenge for the market development teams!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Frost and Sullivan Acknowledges Omnitrol Networks’ Real-Time Network Infrastructure that Drives Operational Excellence for its End Users

As our software is getting traction in the supply chain, it is good to get more recognition from Frost & Sullivan. Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has excelled in customer values through its products and services that offer increased profitability and reduced life cycle costs.

You can read more there. but here's a short excerpt:

“Omnitrol’s cutting-edge solution suite automatically collects information from a large variety of sensors and, through predictive analytics, delivers real-time visibility with accurate forecasting between business partner operations,” says Frost & Sullivan Program Manager Arunkumar J. “Potentially, any control system or middleware may help an end-user integrate back-end and shop-floor, but Omnitrol infrastructure extends business intelligence directly from the operations-floor without the complexity of multiple software layers, thereby minimizing total investment and improving ROI.”