Oracle Ready to Manage IaaS Clouds?
April 4, 2012
Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center 12c, announced today, is designed to help customers manage Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) clouds. The new release surfaces about two weeks before Oracle (ORCL) hosts a private analyst gathering at its Redwood Shores, Calif., headquarters. If history is any indication, Oracle President Mark Hurd (pictured) will offer a cloud computing strategy update at that closed-door gathering.
First, the details on Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center 12c. Oracle says it’s designed to help customers and IT service providers that need to manage traditional, virtualized and cloud environments built atop Oracle solutions…
Indeed, the management platform can help users maintain: Oracle Engineered Systems, Oracle’s SPARC servers, Oracle’s x86 servers, Oracle Solaris, Oracle Linux, Oracle’s Sun ZFS Storage Appliance, Sun Server Networking, and Oracle Virtualization (including Oracle VM for SPARC, Oracle VM for x86 and Oracle Solaris Zones). Bottom line: The management platform truly is for Oracle-centric shops.
Meanwhile Oracle has also introduced the Ops Center Everywhere Program. Talkin’ Cloud doesn’t have deep details about the program and its requirements. But Oracle offered this teaser statement about the effort:
“Through the program, qualified customers can download and use Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center to manage their Oracle systems at no additional cost.”
I’ll be sure to ask Oracle how the Ops Center Everywhere Program works, especially as it relates to cloud services providers, cloud integrators and cloud consultants.
Hush, Hush
Looking ahead, Oracle is set to host a private analyst gathering at its headquarters the week of April 16. The gathering is a closed-door session so don’t expect any public news to emerge. But it’s a safe bet Hurd will be on hand to update analysts on Oracle’s overall strategy — and potential cloud computing moves. Hurd typically uses the event to potentially preview themes that will emerge at the annual Oracle OpenWorld conference (Sept. 30 – Oct. 4, San Francisco).
Oracle recently announced stronger than expected financial results, led by the company’s software licensing revenues. But Oracle’s hardware business continues to face intense competition from third-party Linux and x86 solutions.