Oracle CEO on Sun Micro future

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But Oracle lacks hardware experience

Mail to friend Q. Your management team has no experience with delivering hardware. There is a lot of risk in going into an unfamiliar business. A. Obviously, we want to hold on to Sun's experienced team of first-rate hardware engineers. For years, Sun has led the industry in building and delivering innovative systems. For example, Sun was the first company to deliver systems built on a multi-core processor -- what Sun called the Niagara chip - and the industry followed. Oracle has a good track record of retaining the engineering talent from acquired companies; Sun will be no different. In addition, over the last couple of years Oracle gained a lot of experience developing and delivering our first integrated hardware and software system, the Exadata database machine. We have lots of hardware experience inside of Oracle. Hundreds of Oracle's engineers came from systems companies like IBM and HP. Even I started my Silicon Valley career working for a hardware company that worked with Fujitsu to design and build the first IBM compatible mainframe.

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What about disk and backup business?

Mail to friend Q. There has been a lot of speculation in the press that Oracle is going to sell some or all of Sun's hardware businesses. From your previous answers it certainly seems like you are keeping SPARC Solaris systems business. Are you keeping the disk storage and tape backup businesses? A. Yes, definitely. We believe the best user experience is when all the pieces in the system are engineered to work together. Disk storage and tape backup are critical components in high-performance, high-reliability, high-security database systems. So, we plan to design and deliver those pieces too. Clearly many Sun customers choose disk and tape systems from other vendors. That's what open systems are all about: providing customers with a choice. But Oracle expects to continue competing in both the disk and tape storage businesses after we buy Sun.

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Is it end of relationship with HP (for Exadata)?

Mail to friend Q. Is Exadata moving to Sun SPARC Solaris? A. Exadata is built by HP using Intel microprocessors. We have no plans for a SPARC Solaris version of Exadata. We have an excellent relationship with HP that we expect to continue. The Exadata database machine delivers record-setting database performance at a lower cost than conventional hardware. Customers love the machine. It is the most successful product introduction in Oracle's 30-year history. The Sun acquisition doesn't reduce our commitment to Exadata at all.