Sun to shine on if Oracle deal is sealed

Reseller interest in Sun could be revived post-acquisition, predicts John Taylor

Taylor: Although the deal has not been finalised, the acquisition of Sun has already sparked interest in the channel

When Oracle announced plans to acquire Sun Microsystems back in April, Sun resellers could have been forgiven for getting a case of the jitters.

There were plenty of rumours in the press and blog community at the time, suggesting that Larry Ellison would look to jettison the Sun hardware business at the first opportunity.

But Ellison has stated his intentions to keep Sun’s hardware business running should the deal go through – and he did this through the Wall Street Journal and Reuters.

The Oracle-Sun deal has yet to receive a full stamp of approval from the EU competition bods. Nevertheless, we think there is a newfound interest in reselling Sun hardware.

This could just be down to Ellison’s impassioned commitment to the hardware business, but I believe wise resellers are already realising the potentially wider benefits of working with Sun post-acquisition by Oracle.

For Open Access Program resellers, there are the traditional reasons for working with Sun, which are likely to hold true post-acquisition:

* Resellers can access a premium brand name, which is a valuable tool for opening the door to new deals;

* Resellers can still benefit from being new to market with Sun hardware and getting in early with customers; and

*Resellers can benefit from taking a different, unexpected proposition to their customers. Most customers still expect resellers to push HP, IBM or Dell solutions, but that no longer needs to be the case and customers are welcoming the opportunity to deploy Sun hardware running not just Solaris but also Linux and Microsoft.

Second, there are the new reasons. For instance, Larry Ellison has now sent direct messages about the x86 Server platform to resellers; he has sent his unequivocal intent to commit to Sun hardware and make it even more attractive for resellers.

To quote Ellison directly, he said recently: “We’re in it to win it; IBM, w e’re looking forward to competing with you in the hardware business.” This commitment and future vision from the highest level gives customers confidence in the longevity of the product range and creates sales opportunities for resellers.

Oracle possesses a complementary software stack to support Sun hardware, making it easy for Sun hardware resellers to cross-sell software or, more importantly, sell the complete Oracle software and Sun hardware solution.

This software and hardware pairing is likely to strengthen post-acquisition, with Larry Ellison recently comparing the Oracle and Sun merger to innovation at Apple.

“If an engineer can solve hardware problems simultaneously with software problems, they can do well. There are some advantages to having a single operation,” he has reportedly said.

It is likely that Sun hardware resellers will have existing customers using some part of the Oracle software stack already – existing applications, MySQL, Java and the like. This will open doors and encourage new sales.

Similarly, Sun resellers are likely to be given access to Oracle’s estimated 320,000 customers, and this strong sales potential is compelling for resellers.

In our own experience, Sun hardware resellers are now already getting access to larger FTSE 100-type customers (not just SMBs and local businesses) because customers too can see the benefit of an Oracle-Sun deal.

Sun hardware may receive investment from Oracle, turning over developments and enhancements quickly and creating sales opportunities for resellers.

At Oracle OpenWorld 2009 in San Francisco recently, it was actually Sun Microsystems founder and chairman Scott McNealy who said that Oracle will boost developer spending. At the same conference, Ellison also commented that Oracle would double the number of hardware specialists selling and servicing the Sparc and Solaris systems.

We’re also not the only ones to see the potential in this deal. Julian Fielden, managing director of HPC integrator OCF, recently told me that Sun has always had good technology. As long as Oracle can keep prices down, invest and continue to develop Sun’s technology in the right way, then the deal has the potential to be good for the channel, he said.

Far from giving resellers the jitters, the potential Oracle acquisition of Sun is seen by many resellers as an opportunity to create sales and, as such, resellers are rapidly joining the Sun channel community to take advantage.

John Taylor is Sun business unit director at Interface Solutions