Global CIO: Larry Ellison's Top 10 Priorities At Oracle Open World

I have heard very little or no talk from Oracle about this becoming a top priority and I don't expect that to change over the next week. Conversely, as SAP makes mobility a centerpiece of its strategy, Oracle's mobility gap takes on some significant risk.

7) Competing against IBM. True to form, Ellison this year has said his Exadata 2 machine can thrash comparable systems from IBM in performance as well as cost. It probably won't shock you to hear that IBM believes quite the opposite, and the bigger point here is that while Oracle has made some strides with fleshing out a hardware strategy from Sun's products and technologies, IBM has been on a tear this year with its revamped offerings, now ranging from x86 servers to Power 7 servers and all the way up to the new z196 mainframe running the world's fastest chips (made by IBM, of course). THE UPSHOT: I think Ellison will use the launch of a few new Exadata-type machines to reiterate, in unmistakably blunt terms, that Oracle won't rest until it pulls IBM into an all-out battle for supremacy in the optimized-systems business.

8) Competing with SAP. Ellison declared that the war with SAP for supremacy in enterprise apps will be based on two things: Fusion's modern architecture versus SAP's antiquated and inflexible underlying technology; and, on the superior industry-specific functionality of Oracle's apps over SAP's. THE UPSHOT: SAP has shifted the grounds of the debate by releasing Tuesday a slew of real-time analytics solutions, and until Oracle responds with something more than just a promise that 'Fusion is coming—Fusion is coming!', SAP will hold or possibly extend its lead over Oracle in enterprise apps.

9) Java: what's the plan? I don't mean a map to help you find a "Free Java" T-shirt; rather, how Oracle chooses to exercise its control over Java when thousands of software companies use it extensively. Maybe I need glasses, but I don't see Larry Ellison giving in on this one. THE UPSHOT: If Ellison does end up mentioning Java in any of his public comments, I think those remarks will be limited to the fact that Oracle's new Fusion apps have been written in Java.

10) MySQL: what's the plan? Similar to #9: the world outside of Oracle can howl about implied promises and shared/open control and Free Willy and all that, but Ellison's decision will be based on what's best for Oracle and on conforming to the 10 developer/customer commitments Oracle made to the EU to win approval for the Sun acquisition. THE UPSHOT: I'll bet chief corporate architect Edward Screven, who's responsible for the MySQL business, will share some customer testimonials saying that Oracle's being a fair and transparent steward of MySQL. If Oracle has some customers saying that, then the "open source advocates" can screech like roasted cats but it won't make a bit of difference to Ellison and Oracle.

See you in SF.

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