When we stop and think about 2016, a few things come to mind. One, how is it nearly over? Two, this means we are another year older. Three, what do we have to show for it?

2016 was a huge growth year for Oracle PartnerNetwork. The cloud messages that came through at Oracle OpenWorld 2016 have us very excited for what’s to come.

To (re)-whet your appetite for 2017, listen in to why partners were excited about OPN Central 2016, and have a look at the messages that conquered during OpenWorld (and 2016 in general).

First up was the Oracle PartnerNetwork keynote

In arguably the most important part of the OPN Keynote, partners discovered that with the necessary skills and infrastructure to build, deploy and manage workloads (Oracle and non-Oracle), they can now offer customers a complete solution for workloads on Oracle PaaS + IaaS architectures. We’ve coined it the Oracle Cloud Managed Service Provider (MSP) Program, and the goal is for MSPs to be able to buy Oracle Cloud Platform based on the unique needs of the customer, package their MSP services and sell the integrated solution through an efficient business model. In this scenario, partners reap the benefits of building their services on first-rate cloud infrastructure, and customers get the tools they need to optimize their cloud programs while reducing risks and complexities. It’s a win-win, really.

Partners also attended the Complete, Integrated Cloud keynote

Larry Ellison zeroed in on Oracle ERP Cloud growth and on Oracle’s “aggressive” goal in moving into the IaaS space. Although Ellison acknowledged a specific competitor’s early-days success in the space, he laid out the reasons Oracle is better suited to take over the IaaS market, and explained Oracle’s strategy for surpassing competition in the Cloud. View the full keynote on-demand.

Partners listened to customer success stories at The World Ahead keynote

Oracle CEO Mark Hurd put his talk show host hat on, speaking with some of Oracle’s leading customers. HSBC’s Technology and Services CFO Joanna Fielding joined Hurd onstage to talk about the bank’s global ERP overhaul, noting that moving to the Cloud is part of their “new technology strategy.” HSBC selected Oracle Fusion in the Cloud and is implementing ERP and EDM for the whole of HSBC global services, essentially half of the banks.

Oracle customer ClubCorp urgently needed to modernize its IT environment. By selecting Oracle SaaS applications, ClubCorp cloud-enabled many of its solutions using Oracle PaaS and also relied on Oracle IaaS to “exit the data center business” altogether. ClubCorp accelerated the delivery for its business while saving money. Another win-win. And good fodder for partners on the types of cloud deals in place.

Last but not least, The Future of Cloud Database and Infrastructure keynote

Partners were given a history lesson on the four generations of computing: mainframe to client-servers to Internet to now, Cloud. Larry Ellison asserted that Oracle’s infrastructure services will deliver twice the compute power, twice the memory, four times the storage, and 10 times the input/output speeds than the competition. He reminded partners and customers that Oracle is not only making it easy to migrate to the Cloud, but making it easy to migrate and take advantage of cloud computing.

2017: Taking advantage of a modern cloud

We will see more and more enterprises migrating to the Cloud in 2017. The Cloud is finally mature and secure enough for large companies, and the many benefits outweigh any limitations. 

We’re also going to see managed services become more diversified, which means the portfolio of managed services will grow. This makes MSPs more important than ever. To borrow a quote from IDC’s Steve White, “Cloud represents the new tech battle ground as companies of all sizes look to modernize their infrastructure to stay competitive. The new Cloud MSP program from Oracle offers partners and customers an avenue to pair leading services with Oracle’s Cloud platform to help orchestrate this evolution to the Cloud in an efficient model.”

Oracle has taken huge strides into the unbounded cloud landscape in 2016. We find ourselves ahead of the pack and plan to stay ahead. We couldn’t do it without you, our partners, so we thank you for your ongoing dedication.

Happy holidays,

Oracle PartnerNetwork