Oracle 向 Redhat 宣战

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在一封写给Financial Times的信件里, Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik 回复了Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's 关于该公司将涉足Linux事业的决定. 在信中RH CEO表示了一种疑问, 是否是因为RH收购了JBoss而让Oralce产生了担忧.  Szulik 是这样发出疑问的 "Is it possible that the dominant provider of databases feels pressure from its long-time partner, Red Hat, because of our recent purchase of an open-source middleware company, JBOSS?"  "Some reporting would set up a showdown between Red Hat and Oracle. This seems like a stretch to me."

在Oracle Open World上, Larry宣称Oracle将要把Red Hat的系统贴上自己的牌子来销售和提供支持, 而且Oracle提供的产品和服务将比Red Hat便宜更多. Ellison先生说 "If you are a Red Hat Linux customer, you now have a choice,"  "You can very easily switch from Red Hat support to Oracle support. We will backport your bug fixes. We will indemnify you from intellectual property problems. And our support costs way less than half of what Red Hat charges." 这个事件 , 从本质上来说可以下这样一个判断, Oracle正在动Red Hat的乳酪. Oracle霸占别人的产品并且贱卖它. 这的确是一个残忍而且不君子的举动, 但Larrry肯定不会为此而感到抱歉. 看看他说的 "This is capitalism,"  "We're competing. We're offering a better product at a lower price." 当被问道强占并重贴牌他人品牌产品是否有违道德标准时, Oracle的CEO这样回答 “It’s an open-source product, right? That is what open source means.”

对于Oracle的这样的大胆富有攻击性,又有点鲁莽的举动, 大多数人都对此表示了怀疑和轻蔑, 更有人觉得是一种夸大其词. Oracle的一名老兵 Dave Dargo 对他的公司此举颇有微辞. Dave Dargo 参与建立了Oracle的Linux Program Office 并且参与制定公司的开源战略. 他指出Oracle从来没有历史提供 superior value at a lower cost. "There's a survey from CIOInsight  that shows Red Hat is the number one vendor for value as rated by CIOs in 2004 and 2005," "Where does Oracle fit on that chart? Glad you asked, they ranked 39 out of 41. The other thing I'm most curious about is the concept of Oracle's Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN). The claim is that it takes less than a minute to switch from Red Hat's Network (RHN) to ULN. It's going to take more than a minute, and a fair amount of cost, to get through the legal agreements and process of switching over. But even with that aside, I'm mostly curious as to why Oracle's first real support network is for someone else's product. Where's the Oracle Database Network and Applications Network and PeopleSoft Network and Siebel Network? Where are the support infrastructure networks for Oracle's own products to automatically distribute fixes, patches and alerts? It's amazing that they can provide all that for a mere $399 for a competitor's products, but not for their own $200,000 product."

个人认为, Oracle 这家公司充满了Larry的个人色彩. 它富有攻击性, 富有活力但不够稳重. 从近年来的收购浪潮可以看到, Oracle通过不停的收购占领了很大的市场份额, 这其中包涵数据库, 企业应用软件和中间件的市场. 这些都是收购带来的好处, 从表象上看在应用软件领域Oracle的增长超过其主要竞争对手SAP很多, 客观上也令SAP面临了巨大的压力. 但是, 令人担忧的是收购的副作用, 内部组织结构的复杂而带来的管理上的隐患;产品线的过于完整 (Oracle的产品线是所有企业软件供应商中最完整的)而分散精力,无法持续的提高产品质量. 等等问题,都将渐渐在LARRY办公桌上出现. 一个巨人生病, 不会马上就病入膏肓, 需要时间, 所以我对Oracle的前景持观望态度. 很有可能Larry将把Oracle提升到一个新的高度, 但Oracle也会在短暂的辉煌过后步入没落.