Oracle OpenWorld: SaaS Surprises?

When Oracle OpenWorld kicks off Oct. 11 in San Francisco, Channel Chief Judson Althoff will be unveiling a new Oracle Partner Program. Sounds intriguing. Next up, The VAR Guy wonders if Oracle has any SaaS surprises in store for partners attending the conference. Here’s the scoop.

Let’s start with hard facts: Despite the economic environment, a spokeswoman says, Oracle has “a record number of pre-registered attendees for the Oracle PartnerNetwork Forum portion of the conference — which includes live streaming. And there’s buzz that Althoff will unveil some sort of new Oracle Partner Program.

Now, for the speculation. Back in June 2009, Oracle announced a “SaaS for ISVs” monthly licensing model. Sure, that program was designed for independent software vendors. But The VAR Guy wonders: Does Oracle have similar plans in store for VARs and solutions providers?

No doubt, SaaS and cloud computing are tricky topics filled with hype. Oracle remains a mostly on-premise titan, while many smaller-but-growing SaaS companies (Salesforce.com, NetSuite, RightNow, and so on) continue to chip away at the on-premise approach to business.

InformationWeek in September 2009 suggested that Oracle will increasingly offer SaaS-based applications to mid-market customers. And rivals like SAP have been sorting out their SaaS strategies as well.

When Althoff launches a new partner program at Oracle OpenWorld on Oct. 11, The VAR Guy will be all ears. And our resident blogger will be sure to ask Oracle’s channel chief if he sees Oracle’s partner program and SaaS strategy converging. Oh, and we’ll see if Oracle is any closer to closing the Sun Microsystems deal.