Oracle Execs Outline Cloud Strategy: $7.4B Sun Microsystems Acquisition Has 'More Than' Paid for Itself

It’s been three years since Oracle bought Sun Microsystems (News - Alert) – a deal that has already paid for itself, according to Oracle president Mark Hurd. During a press update on Monday, Hurd called the deal “phenomenal” and said that the company’s cash flow in relation to the purchase price of $7.4 billion has “more than” paid for Oracle’s (News - Alert) well-publicized 2009 acquisition.

Oracle uses Sun’s Java software to build its Fusion Middleware, and company officials have said that it is the most important software Oracle has attempted to acquire.

This is one of several updates company executives shared on Monday during a press teleconference, most of which focused on Oracle’s cloud strategy.

Hurd kicked off the call by reviewing the Redwood Shores, Calif.-based company’s third quarter results. In December, the tech giant reported that revenue was up three percent to $9.1 billion. Software license updates and cloud software revenue was up 17 percent to $2.4 billion. As further evidence of its growth in the cloud segment, Hurd said that nine out of 10 “top” SaaS providers are powered by Oracle.

Oracle’s take on cloud has changed drastically in recent years. The company’s CEO, Larry Ellison (News - Alert), remains infamous for his 2008 “cloud rant,” in which he shunned the potential of cloud computing, bashing it as “gibberish” and “idiocy.” Since then, the company has forged aggressively into the cloud space. Hurd said Oracle is the “only cloud company in the world” that gives customers the ability to take advantage of the benefits public cloud offers in a private cloud.

“There are things we will now do for customers in a private cloud what we would do for them in a public cloud. That gives them tremendous flexibility and choice,” Hurd said.

Providing further insight into the company’s cloud strategy, Oracle EVP Thomas Kurian said that since OpenWorld in Dubai in mid-January, Oracle has updated its cloud offerings in three ways:

1) Public clouds – Oracle offers a new ERP SaaS (News - Alert) product, new sales and marketing applications, and new releases of talent management and customer service apps in the cloud;

2) PaaS – Database as a service and Java as a service, Oracle has integrated those with Fusion applications to extend the functionality of its SaaS products; and

3) Oracle has launched two new releases of social products – social marketing and social listening.

Kurian said Oracle plans to make announcements around new PaaS offerings for storage and messaging. Oracle has opened new data centers to support for these services in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, he added.

“This allows us to bring public cloud services to global customers concerned about their data coming into North America,” Kurian said.

He also underscored the benefits of Oracle’s IaaS, which is designed to help customers build their own private clouds that run in their own data centers. Earlier this month, Oracle launched its Infrastructure as a Service (Oracle IaaS) with Capacity on Demand service.

As more businesses focus on the need to meet internal and regulatory compliance and security requirements, the on-premise, private cloud infrastructure is designed to give organizations direct control and visibility over their IT environments.

Oracle’s IaaS product offers the ability to use engineered systems on a monthly subscription basis; flexibility for customers to use systems for capacity on demand, depending on compute needs they can flex up or flex down. The IaaS product also includes a number of value-added services including Oracle’s Platinum Plus service.

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