oracle attacks

Catz and Oracle (ORCL) Channel Chief Judson Althoff shared the stage during Oracle PartnerForum, part of the broader Oracle OpenWorld gathering today. Amid an audience of roughly 4,500 Oracle partners, Catz took aim at Oracle’s four fiercest rivals. Her comments were captured in this FastChat Video:

Catz: In Her Own Words

“It’s fun to be Oracle right now,” Catz said. “The bottom line is products win, and the best breadth of products win big.”

Catz on IBM: “Watching what has gone on with IBM; it’s a great implementer of ours and a good partner, but the fact that they run full-page ads against little-old-us means we’ve got their attention.”

Referring to Oracle’s Exadata and Exalogic strategy, Catz said: “If I was in Armonk [IBM’s headquarters] I’d be under my desk. We come out with Exadata and they buy Netezza. If Netezza is the answer I don’t know what the question is.”

Catz on HP: “Then, you know, we’ve got our former partners to some extent with HP. I think this is the first year they [HP] don’t have a keynote [at OpenWorld] in forever. They have a new management team which is nice; the previous CEO we believe stole our stuff — as did a giant jury in Oakland. The new management team is going to be better,” Catz said, perhaps with tongue in cheek. “I’m sure of it. I have nothing else to say.”

 Catz on SAP: “They are still selling products they built 17 to 20 years ago. As far as we can tell they haven’t started building modern systems.”

Catz on Microsoft: “And then there are good friends in Redmond,” Catz said with a hint of sarcasm. “I’m thrilled the Xbox 360 is doing so well. I’m sorry about the Zune not doing so well. But I’m hopeful the little Windows mobile phones distract them from the business of grownups… As far as I can tell they are completely ignoring the issues and work of enterprises and government. They’ve focused on my 16 year old — which is really delightful. At least when you go to Redmond they give you toys and fun stuff to play with; if you visit Oracle and you’re lucky to get a hat or pen.”

Equal Time?

Of course, The VAR Guy has to offer HP, IBM, Microsoft and SAP equal time on this topic (i.e., competing with Oracle). The VAR Guy is tied up at Oracle OpenWorld the next few days but will certainly give each of Catz’s targets an open microphone to reply to Oracle’s claims.

The Hunt Continues

Now, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is on stage at Oracle OpenWorld. His key point: Oracle’s databases and Java are faster than IBM’s alternatives. Next, Ellison said Oracle will catch up with IBM on the processor front.

Ellison’s keynote continues now. The VAR Guy will be back with some insights soon.