Oracle looking for depth from partners

Oracle and former Sun channel partners attending this year's OpenWorld event have been assured of ongoing partner commitment, provided that channel partners are willing to skill up to fit the company's rebirth as a systems vendor.

The company - which invited former Sun partners to join the Oracle Partner Network (OPN) by October 16 - would not divulge how many of these former Sun partners have moved across to Oracle nor how many attended OpenWorld.

Steve Au Yeung, executive vice president for Oracle Asia Pacific, argued that numbers didn't matter when it comes to partner engagement.

"We want to be more selective in working with partners," he said. "But for those we work with, we will invest in, big time. You will see over time much less partners, but much bigger partners."

Yeung said Oracle will be "very transparent" in its expectation of partners in areas such as requirements for certified staff.

"The objective is to sell integrated systems, so if our partners cant sell integrated pieces, it defeats the purpose," he said.

Patricia Nance, the newly-appointed general manager of alliances and channels for Oracle Australia, told CRN the company prefers partners that will "embrace the whole stack".

Nance would only say that there was a "pretty healthy movement" of partners from the Sun SPA program to OPN, but would not divulge numbers. 

Steve Murphy, managing director at long-time Sun partner Frontline Systems, said the company was yet to switch across to OPN but was confident it would within a month of the deadline, once some small contractual issues are ironed out.

He said the early messaging from Oracle was concerning but discussions have since proved more fruitful.

"The darkest part of night is just before dawn," he said. "We're now seeing the sun come up.

"The [discussions] aren't completely finished, but I give Oracle credit for one thing - if they do make mistakes, they reverse out of them pretty quickly."

Murphy was relieved that Oracle committed to the SPARC processor platform for another five years - a platform in which Frontline customers have invested heavily, and he was also attracted to the appliance strategy around Exadata and Exalogic.

He expressed confidence Oracle would continue to rely on partners.

"They have so much to offer in terms of solutions - they can't cover the territory without it."