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Oracle Corporation () is one of the major companies developing database management systems (DBMS), tools for database development, middle-tier software (Fusion Middleware), enterprise resource planning software (ERP), customer relationship management software (CRM) and supply chain planning (SCM) software. Oracle was founded in 1977, and has offices in more than 145 countries around the world. As of 2005, it employs over 50,000 worldwide.
Lawrence J. Ellison (Larry Ellison) has served as Oracle's CEO throughout the company's history. Ellison served as the Chairman of the Board until his replacement by Jeffrey O. Henley in 2004. Ellison retains his role as CEO. Forbes magazine once judged Ellison the richest man in the world.
Ellison was inspired by the paper written by Edgar F. Codd on relational database systems named A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks. He had heard about the IBM System R database from an article in the IBM Research Journal provided by co-founder Ed Oates, also based on Codd's theories, and wanted Oracle to be compatible with it, but IBM stopped this by keeping the error codes for their DBMS secret. He founded Oracle in 1977 under the name Software Development Laboratories. In 1979 SDL changed its name to Relational Software, Inc. (RSI). In 1983, RSI was renamed Oracle Systems to more closely align itself with its flagship product Oracle database with Robert Miner as senior programmer.
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History
June 1979: SDL is renamed to Relational Software Inc. (RSI), and relocates to Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California. Oracle 2, the first version of the Oracle database runs on PDP-11 and is sold to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The company decides to name the first version of its flagship product version 2 rather than version 1 because it believes companies may hesitate to buy the initial release of its product.
October 1979: RSI actively promotes Oracle on the VAX platform (the software runs on the VAX in PDP-11 emulator mode)
February 1981: RSI begins developing tools for Oracle, including the Interactive Application Facility (IAF), a predecessor to Oracle
March 1983: RSI rewrites Oracle in C for portability and Oracle version 3 is released. RSI is renamed to Oracle to more closely align with its primary product. The word Oracle was the code name of a CIA project which the founders had all worked on while at the Ampex Corporation.
October 1984: Oracle version 4 released, introducing read consistency
November 1984: Oracle ports the Oracle database to the PC platform. The MS-DOS version (4.1.4) of Oracle runs in only 512K of memory. Oracle for MSDOS version 5 was released in 1986 running in Protected Mode on 286 machines using a technique invented by Mike Roberts, among the first products to do so.
April 1985: Oracle version 5 released. It is one of the first RDBMSs to operate in client/server mode.
1986: Oracle version 5.1 released with support for distributed queries. Investigations into clustering begin.
August 1987: Oracle founds its Applications division, building business management software closely integrated with its database software. Oracle acquires TCI for its project management software.
1988: Oracle version 6 is released, featuring the embedded procedural language PL/SQL and support for row-level locking and hot backups.
1989: Oracle moves world headquarters to Redwood Shores, California. Revenues reach US$584 million
1990: In the third quarter, Oracle reports its first ever loss, hundreds of employees are laid off. Ellison hires Jeffrey O. Henley as CFO and Raymond Lane as COO.
June 1992: Oracle 7 released with performance enhancements, administrative utilities, application development tools, security features, stored procedures, triggers, and support for declarative referential integrity.
1994: Oracle acquired the database-product DEC Rdb (now called Oracle Rdb) from Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and development is still going on. Oracle Rdb is only available on the OpenVMS platform (also a former product of DEC).
June 21 1995: Oracle announces new data warehousing facilities, including parallel queries.
November 1995: Oracle is one of the first large software companies to announce an internet strategy when Ellison introduces the network computer concept at an IDC conference in Paris
April 1997: Oracle releases the first version of Discoverer, an ad-hoc query tool for business intelligence.
June 1997: Oracle 8 is released with SQL object technology, internet technology and support for terabytes of data
September 1997: Oracle announces its commitment to the Java platform, and introduces Oracle's Java integrated development environment, which will come to be known as Oracle JDeveloper.
January 1998: Oracle releases Oracle Applications 10.7 NCA. All the applications in the business software now run across the web in a standard web browser.
May 1998: Oracle Applications 11 is released.
April 1998: Oracle announces that it will integrate a Java virtual machine with the Oracle database.
September 1998: Oracle 8i is released.
October 1998: Oracle 8 and Oracle Application Server 4.0 are released on the Linux platform.
May 1999: Oracle releases JDeveloper 2.0, showcasing Business Components for Java (BC4J), a set of libraries and development tools for building database aware applications.
2000: OracleMobile subsidiary founded. Oracle 9i released.
June 2000: Oracle9i Application Server released with support for building portals.
2001: Ellison announces that Oracle saved $1 billion implementing and using its own business applications
2004: Oracle 10g released.
December 13 2004: After a long battle over the control of PeopleSoft, Oracle announces that it has signed an agreement to acquire PeopleSoft for $26.50 per share (approximately $10.3 billion).
January 14 2005: Oracle announces that it will reduce its combined workforce to 50,000, a reduction of approximately 5,000 following the PeopleSoft take over. 90% of PeopleSoft product development and product support staff will be retained.
March, 2005: Oracle extends its Middle East operations by opening a regional office in Amman, Jordan.
November 2 2006: Oracles announces that it has agreed to acquire Stellent, Inc. (NASDAQ: STEL), a global provider of enterprise content management (ECM) software solutions, through a cash tender offer for $13.50 per share, or approximately $440 million.
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Technology Timeline
1979: Offers the first commercial SQL RDBMS.
1983: Offers a VAX-mode database.
1984: Offers the first database with read consistency.
1986: Offers a client-server DBMS.
1987: Introduces UNIX-based applications.
1992: Offers full apps implementation methodology.
1995: Offers the first 64-bit RDBMS.
1996: Moves to an open standards-based, web-enabled architecture.
1999: Offers its first DBMS with XML support.
2001: Becomes the first to complete 3 terabyte TPC-H world record.
2002: Offers the first database to pass 15 industry standard security evaluations.
2003: Introduces what it calls "Enterprise Grid Computing" with Oracle10g.
2005: Releases its first free database, Oracle Database XE.
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Oracle Acquisitions
Starting with Peoplesoft in January 2005, Oracle has made acquisitions an important component of its growth strategy.
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Oracle Databases
As of 2004, Oracle Corporation shipped release 10g (g: grid) as the latest version of the Oracle Database. Oracle Application Server 10g using Java EE comprises the server part of that version of the database, making it possible to deploy web technology applications. The application server is the first middle-tier software designed for grid computing. The strong interrelationship between Oracle 10g and Java has enabled the company to allow developers to set up stored procedures written in the Java language, as well as those written in the traditional Oracle database programming language, PL/SQL.
Oracle Rdb is a relational database system running on OpenVMS platforms. Oracle acquired Rdb in 1994 from Digital Equipment Corporation. Oracle made lots of enhancements and development is still going on.
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Oracle Fusion Middleware
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Oracle Enterprise Manager
Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM) used by database administrators (DBAs) to manage the DBMS, and recently in version 10g, a web-based rewrite of OEM called "Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control". Oracle Corporation has dubbed the super Enterprise Manager used to manage a grid of multiple DBMS and Application Servers as "Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control".
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Oracle Secure Enterprise Search
Oracle Collaboration Suite contains messaging, groupware and collaboration applications.
Oracle Corporation's tools for developing applications include Oracle Designer, Oracle Developer - that consists of Oracle Forms, Oracle Discoverer and Oracle Reports, Oracle JDeveloper, and several more. Many external and third-party tools make the Oracle database administrator's tasks easier.
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Application Products
Besides databases, Oracle also sells a suite of business applications. The Oracle eBusiness Suite includes software to perform financial (Oracle Financials), manufacturing, enterprise resource planning and HR (Human Resource Management Systems) related functions (Oracle HR). User access to these facilities is provided through a browser interface over the internet or corporate intranet.
Consequent to a number of high-value acquistions beginning in 2003, especially in the Applications domain, Oracle currently maintains a number of Product Lines:
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Oracle eBusiness Suite
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PeopleSoft Enterprise
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Siebel
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JD Edwards EnterpriseOne
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JD Edwards World
Development of applications commonly takes place in Java (using Oracle JDeveloper) or through PL/SQL (using, for example, Oracle Forms and Oracle Reports). Oracle Corporation has started a drive toward 'wizard'-driven environments with a view to enabling non-programmers to produce simple data-driven applications.
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Services
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Competition
In 2004, Oracle's sales grew at a rate of 14.5% to $6.2 billion, giving it 41.3% and the top share of the relational-database market (InformationWeek - March, 2005), with market share estimated at up to 44.6% in 2005 by some sources *. Oracle's main competitors in the database arena are IBM DB2 and Microsoft SQL Server, and to a lesser extent Sybase and Teradata *, with open-source databases such as PostgreSQL and MySQL also having a significant share of the market. In the applications arena, their main competitor is SAP.
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"Cant break it, cant break in"
Oracle markets many of its products using the slogan "can't break it, can't break in", or "Unbreakable". This signifies the increasing demands on information safety. Oracle Corporation also stresses the reliability of networked databases and network access to databases as major selling points.
The slogan backfired two weeks after its introduction in 2002, as David Litchfield, Alexander Kornbrust, Cesar Cerrudo and others demonstrated a whole suite of successful attacks against Oracle products.. The slogan was widely criticized as unrealistic, and as an invitation to crackers. But Oracle chief security officer Mary Ann Davidson says the criticism is unfair. Rather than representing a literal claim that Oracle's products are impregnable, the campaign refers to fourteen independent security evaluations that Oracle's database server passed.
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Relationship with John Ashcroft
Former Attorney General John Ashcroft sued Oracle in 2004 to prevent a contract acquisition. Then, in 2005 Oracle hired Ashcroft's recently created lobbying firm, The Ashcroft Group, LLC. Oracle, with Ashcroft's lobbying, then went on to acquire the contract, a multi-billion dollar intelligence application.
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Headquarters
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Oracle Corporation has its world headquarters on the San Francisco Peninsula in the Redwood Shores area of Redwood City, adjacent to Belmont, near San Carlos Airport (SQL).
Oracle HQ stands on the former site of Marine World, which moved from Redwood Shores to Vallejo in 1986. Oracle Corporation originally leased two buildings from the site, moving its finance and administration departments from the corporation's former headquarters in Davis Drive, Belmont. Eventually, Oracle purchased the complex and constructed a further four main buildings.
The Oracle Parkway buildings were prominently featured as the futuristic headquarters of fictional company "NorthAm Robotics" in the Robin Williams film Bicentennial Man (1999).
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The Oracle
On October 20, 2006 the Golden State Warriors and the Oracle Corporation announced a 10 year agreement in which the the Oakland Arena will be known as The Oracle. The Oracle will continue to be managed by Oakland-Alameda County Authority (JPA) and SMG. The JPA will be asked to approve the deal at its November 10 meeting. A formal press conference of the agreement will be held on October 30th.*
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Trivia
Oracle was referenced in a Saturday Night Live skit on May 14, 2005. The skit involved Will Ferrell as a team leader at a Oracle summit/convention. Ferrell's character did song parodies that reflected Oracle.
Part of Oracle's early success was due to the fact that they used the C programming language to implement their products such that they could be ported to different operating systems (most of which support C). This gave them an advantage over companies that used operating-system-specific languages.
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Notes
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See also
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