News
Ellison Will Talk "Raw" Tonight
- By Scott Bekker
- November 16, 1998
Oracle Corp. chairman and CEO Larry Ellison hopes to be the main event to Bill Gates' warm-up of Comdex keynote speeches as he takes the podium tonight. He is expected to unveil project "Raw Iron", designed to deliver prepackaged server software that allows OEMs and customers to use Oracle's Internet database, Oracle8i, along with special-purpose "slim-lined" operating systems for managing Internet business applications.
The pre-configured Internet business servers will run on industry-standard hardware to help small, medium and large businesses lower their computing costs without the complexities of general-purpose operating systems.
The Oracle8i Internet database consolidates business data onto large servers for management, global Internet access and business information. Oracle will also help customers overcome labor costs through subscription-based remote support services.
"The Internet is a great equalizer that broadens a company's global reach and should simplify computing operations," says Gary Bloom, Oracle's executive vice president, Systems Products Division. "Unfortunately, modern-day operating systems like Windows NT include more than 20 million lines of code."
Bloom says Raw Iron is designed to eliminate most of the OS overhead by running "easier, better" Internet applications.
Oracle's "Raw Iron" products are expected to be available in the first half of 1999. Oracle is currently in discussions with major hardware manufacturers to prepackage systems for small, medium and large businesses. Pricing will be disclosed in 1999. --Brian Ploskina, Assistant Editor
About the Author
Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.