Alan Hartwell

Career so far: I joined Oracle in 1998 and have worked in a number of roles, including financial services, Oracle consulting and vice president of marketing for the UK, Ireland and Israel. Prior to Oracle, I had a number of roles in the IT and banking sectors.

If you could be anyone else for a week, who would you be and what would you do? I'd like to run the England Bid for the 2018 World Cup - it's got to be ours.

What would you have as your last meal? Something that takes a very long time to prepare.

What is the best corporate jolly you have ever been on/taken partners on? Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco this year - fantastic product launches and a Black Eyed Peas concert. What more could you ask for?

Do you see the cloud as a threat or an opportunity? An opportunity, definitely. At Oracle OpenWorld, we launched ‘cloud in a box' - our exalogic elastic cloud. It's the world's only integrated middleware machine. It moves IT to the next level, where customers and partners can become ideas and revenue centres as well as reduce cost.

Have any of your predictions come true this year? We said that the combination of Oracle and Sun was game-changing. No one else can provide customers with full solutions - from application to disc. Our recently announced innovative products (software and hardware engineered to work together) make this prediction a reality.

What do you see as the channel's biggest challenge in 2011? I am not an economist, but times are difficult and customers are much more careful. They want solutions and want to see returns quickly - and they rely on experts for this. A key challenge for partners will be to ensure they stand out from the crowd. Profit comes from competitive advantage, and partners need to devote time and resource to achieve this. This is why we encourage partners to become specialised.

What is the best part of your day? The kids' bedtime, definitely. They are still just about young enough to want a story read to them, so I'm making the most of it while I can.