safra catz

Althoff told roughly 4,500 Oracle partners that HP has lost $80 billion in market capitalization over the past year, and he slammed HP for lack of R&D, while pointing out that Oracle’s R&D has nearly doubled in the past three years — growing to $4.5 billion from $2.6 billion. Without mentioning HP by name, Althoff said Oracle’s rivals are trying to take old products, blow off some dust, and sell them to customers.

Side notes: Althoff failed to mention many of HP’s R&D cuts occurred under former HP CEO Mark Hurd, who is now president of Oracle. The VAR Guy did not reach out to HP for response since it’s Sunday, but The VAR Guy has requested an update on HP’s ProLiant server strategy.

Exadata and Exalogic

Althoff shifted his keynote to Exadata and Exalogic vertically optimized servers. Althoff claimed the Exadata and Exalogic systems deliver 10X to 20X performance increases to help partners “transform customers’ data centers.” He also claimed ISVs will focus on Exastack efforts — to optimize their applications on Oracle’s processors and databases. To build his case, Althoff invited three Oracle ISVs onto the stage (cVidya, Triple Point and GoldenSource) to describe how they are optimizing their applications — including cloud applications — on Exadata.

Distributors Check In

Next, Althoff pointed to Oracle’s distribution partners — Arrow and Avnet — which now represent more than $2 billion in combined revenues for Oracle each year.

Tom Colleary, VP of the Oracle Group at Arrow ECS, North America, said Arrow is focusing on five markets with Oracle: Data analytics/business intelligence; data center convergence; mobility; security; and value added services and cloud strategy. Colleary mentioned that Arrow will help Oracle  target the HP installed base. (Ironically, Arrow also has an HP-focused business unit).

Colleary said PRM (partner relationship management) registrations and acceptances are at all time highs with regard to Oracle partner engagements.

Meanwhile, Avnet VP Mike Hurst said the distributor is already helping partners to ramp up on Exadata. Also, Avnet is looking to make investments in the Exalogic and Oracle Database Appliance to help VARs accelerate their Oracle businesses.

Parting Shots

Finally, Oracle CFO and President Safra Catz took some aggressive shots against Hewlett-Packard and IBM. The VAR Guy caught Catz’s thoughts on video. With a bit of luck and a lot of broadband, The VAR Guy will share Catz’s comments soon.