Healthcare Matters

Just last year, Larry Ellison referred to cloud computing as “complete gibberish.” So it follows and is fitting that Ellison put himself on the hook today for articulating Oracle’s cloud computing business/sales strategy. I was hoping to have details to share, but it will have to wait until later this evening or tomorrow. No announcements at the time of this post have been released. All we can guess about today’s presentation at Oracle Corp.’s Redwood Shores headquarters is that Ellison will not disappoint. He’s got an asset mix, an installed base of traditional software licensees and a new computing environment to juggle in a strategy that must convince analysts that Oracle can continue to grow its “wallet share.”

Oracle’s cloud offering is already being promoted as the largest and most diverse suite of fully integrated business applications (“full ERP service in the cloud”) available. And because the Oracle cloud combines its database software with Java, users can write custom applications within the cloud, using the environment like a “virtual machine.”

Oracle also just announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Collective Intellect. Collective Intellect’s cloud-based social intelligence solutions enable organizations to monitor, understand and respond to consumers’ conversations on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. It will be integrated with Oracle’s Software as a Service and Social Platform. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. “Gaining intelligence from consumer conversations across social media, and knowing customers’ intentions and interests helps organizations create better products and deliver better service,” said Thomas Kurian, executive vice president, Oracle Development. “Collective Intellect’s leading cloud-based applications for social media monitoring, combined with Oracle’s social relationship platform offers a complete social experience to our customers.” According to Oracle, the move to buy Collective Intellect ’made good’ the company’s recent promise to embrace Cloud computing and follows its acquisition of Cloud-based customer service company RightNow Technologies.

Larry intends to make his first tweet after the conference today. In fact, Larry’s pending first tweet is already dominating the news cycle. Go figure.

—Tom Finn