Oracle’s Cloudy Cloud Computing Plans

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I guess Enterprise Software is still not sexy. There’s more money in it than all the consumer apps in the top half of TechMeme lumped together, yet the speculation about Oracle’s foray into Cloud Computing barely shows at the bottom, attracting little interest.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Oracle Corp. is developing a set of online software offerings, an expansion of the company’s use of a business model it has often resisted.

The software giant is working on seven new online products, including offerings to help business run sales campaigns, keep track of employees and job applicants, according to people briefed on the plans and a company document reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

So why is it speculation rather than news? The article is as vague as it gets, citing “people briefed on the plans and a company document”:

It is unclear when the products will be available. These people had expected Oracle to discuss some of the offerings at an event next week but now say an announcement will instead take place at a later date

Let’s also not forget that the only source is the Wall Street Journal, which has proved how they “don’get it” in the past. Here’s a previous mega-blunder:

Yes, the WSJ was the only media outlet pre-briefed about SAP’s Business Suite 7 announcement, yet they totally misunderstood it. Business Suite 7 is SAP’s traditional, on-premise product line, has nothing to do with Web-based software.

Uncertainties aside, I actually believe the Journal may be right this time – Oracle will get into SaaS, the move is inevitable, if not now, eventually – so one day the WSJ will get it right.

Here’s what the two arch-enemies, Oracle and SAP have in common: they both have a huge, juicy on-premise market to protect, with huge maintenance revenues from their installed base. No wonder they will downplay SaaS, (pretend to) ignore it as long as they can. Oracle’s Larry Ellison famously ridiculed Cloud Computing:

The interesting thing about cloud computing is that we’ve redefined cloud computing to include everything that we already do. I can’t think of anything that isn’t cloud computing with all of these announcements. The computer industry is the only industry that is more fashion-driven than women’s fashion. Maybe I’m an idiot, but I have no idea what anyone is talking about. What is it? It’s complete gibberish. It’s insane. When is this idiocy going to stop?

I’ve never quite bought that speech. I’ve often said, forget what he says, watch where he puts his money.

Ellison is still majority owner of NetSuite, a pure-play SaaS provider; Oracle has continued to develop Siebel On-Demand, launched Sourcing On-Demand , they have an all Oracle Cloud Computing Center, and are offering Oracle on EC2 in partnership with Amazon Web Services.

He can make fun of SaaS all he wants, but believe me, when the big $ starts to flow in SaaS, Oracle will be there. Whether the WSJ gets it or not .