Gabriel Consulting Unveils Key Findings of New Oracle Survey
Customers speak out on what they expect next from Oracle; will potential Oracle moves pay off?
BEAVERTON, Oregon – May 2, 2011 — Gabriel Consulting Group (GCG), an independent analyst firm, today released more key findings from its “What’s Up With Oracle?” survey, which is focused on Oracle’s recent decision to discontinue porting new versions of its software to Intel’s Itanium processor. The survey was conducted among enterprise IT professionals responsible for data centers of all sizes. There are 450 respondents; 94% are current Oracle customers.
Survey results released today cover the sections of the survey in which customers predicted Oracle’s strategic moves going forward and shared their opinions on how the company’s various options might harm or enhance its reputation. Results from the “What’s Oracle’s Next Move?” section include:
- An overwhelming 85% of customers surveyed believe that Oracle will “do everything possible to persuade/force customers onto all-Oracle solutions.”
- Customers doubt that Oracle will reverse course and port to Itanium again. Barely a quarter think they will, and nearly half think they won’t.
- Half of all survey participants believe that Oracle will eventually withdraw support for IBM’s Power Systems.
- Even more respondents (60%) say that Oracle will increase costs for RedHat and other non-Oracle Linux customers.
- Fewer respondents (37%) say that Oracle is likely to increase costs for Microsoft customers.
“We were surprised by the large number of customers who see Oracle pursuing a grand plan that’s designed to put Oracle’s system and o/s competitors at a competitive disadvantage,” said Dan Olds, Principal Analyst at GCG. “Customers quite clearly expect Oracle to pull out all the stops to use their power in software to give their hardware a leg up. They really see Oracle pushing hard to get customers to adopt all-Oracle infrastructures.”
In the “Will Oracle’s Strategy Pay Off?” section of the survey, customers responded, “Help Oracle” or “Hurt Oracle” to each item on a list of potential Oracle strategic moves. Results from this section include:
- General competitive moves not targeted at specific competitors, while not necessarily popular with the respondents, are seen as ultimately helping Oracle in the medium to long term.
o Over 40% think it would benefit Oracle to release new versions of its software on its own platforms first.
o Over 40% think adjusting license/support costs to gain an advantage over competitors would help Oracle.
o The big exception in this category: “Do everything possible to persuade or force customers onto all-Oracle solutions” will hurt Oracle, according to more than half of all respondents.
- Competitive moves targeted at specific competitors are seen as damaging to Oracle by an overwhelming number of enterprise customers. Between 60% – 70% say that the following will hurt the company:
o “Withdraw support for IBM’s POWER processor or AIX”
o “Increase costs for RedHat or other non-Oracle Linux”
o “Increase costs for Windows environments”
“It’s interesting that the general, untargeted moves are seen as somewhat helpful to Oracle, while potential actions that single out particular competitors are judged as ultimately harmful to Oracle,” said Olds. “We think that when respondents looked at the targeted actions, it made them think about the non-Oracle platforms in their own data centers and how the Oracle move might affect their own organizations.”
“The accompanying qualifying responses lead us to believe that customers perceive these moves as Oracle trying to force them into actions they don’t necessarily want to take. If Oracle goes down these roads, it’s going to be interesting to see if customers react in the way that Oracle desires.”
The “What’s Up With Oracle?” survey was conducted independently by Gabriel Consulting Group and not sponsored by any vendor or organization.
GCG will be releasing more findings in the next few weeks. More information and detailed results are available here. Visit GCG on Facebook and follow Dan Olds on Twitter @danolds.
About Gabriel Consulting Group
Gabriel Consulting Group is a research, analysis, and consulting firm dedicated to helping clients achieve maximum return on their Information Technology investment.
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Contact: Dan Olds
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