Oracle’s Open World ends in a “cloud”

“Cloud Computing in a box” was heralded as the next big thing by Oracle’s CEO, Larry Ellison in his closing remarks at this year’s “Open World.”

After characterizing IBM as SAP as antiquated supply chain competitors, he noted that the company’s new Exalogic system – or “cloud in a box” – would transform the industry. He also noted that Oracle has introduced more new technology than at any time in the company’s history, largely as a consequence of its acquisition of Sun Microsystems earlier this year.

Exalogic system combines a variety of components into one “box,”  thereby replacing a host of servers most computing centers rely on.

Earlier in this week, Andy Mulholland, Global Capgemini CTO and author of “Enterprise Cloud Computing,” told of the need to transform technology-focused “business as usual” to innovation-focused business.

Oracle Fusion Applications is “at the heart of this transformation,” he said,  “evolving from traditional applications to SOA (service oriented architecture) -based collaborative applications in the cloud.”

Not everyone is sold on every aspect of the “cloud” enterprise, however, with many consultants issuing caveats recently.

“Shifting your portfolio to the cloud should make a lot of behind-the-scenes processes easier, particularly when it comes to some of the more technical implementation issues,” said Scott Rosenberger, a transportation sector leader with Deloitte Consulting LLP. “But it doesn’t change the underlying reality that there has to be a strategy for putting together all the people, processes and tools that the cloud supports in order to maintain security and reliability.”

He concludes in a recent paper, however, that the good news is that the shift to cloud services can liberate IT to operate more strategically:

“Whether you have a separate group responsible for managing and overseeing it, or it’s built into the group’s DNA, enterprise architecture will be one of the prime enablers of IT in this new world.”