Oracle

In this Industry Buzz podcast, the UCStrategies Experts review 2013 in unified communications.

Creative Destruction: Could RIM's Loss be Apple's Gain for UC?

This premise might seem like a bit of a stretch for our readers here at UCStrategies, but just bear with me for five minutes. We're all seeing constant change in this space, and when it comes to disruption, these days, I don't see how you can rule anything out. Just when you thought the UC world was starting to make sense, something entirely new comes in from left field.

Oracle-Microsoft Partnership Developed Through Oracle's Database

Rivals Oracle and Microsoft have announced an alliance through which the Oracle Database 12c will be used by Microsoft in its cloud offerings.

This is an unexpected alliance, and industry observers have noted that the partnership may have come about as a result of Microsoft running into limitations relating to scalability with its own SQL Server database operating on Windows. These issues have been raised as customers begin processing workloads to the cloud.

Support for Microsoft Windows Azure, Hyper-V from Oracle Software

Oracle is set to certify and support its software products that currently operate on Microsoft Windows Azure cloud platform and Hyper-V virtualization technology, as a result of a new partnership announced by both companies earlier this week.

License mobility is being provided to customers that choose to operate Oracle software on Windows Azure, and licensed and supported Java for Windows Azure will also be offered.

Oracle Looks Deeper into the Cloud

Last week, Oracle announced the acquisition of Mountain View, California-based Nimbula, echoing the increase in cloud adoption within the channel. Nimbula is a cloud operating system company specializing in infrastructure-as-a-service software for the development of private, hybrid, or public clouds, and was co-founded by Chris Pinkham and others involved in the creation of Amazon's EC2 service.

Oracle Acquires InQuira

Oracle has announced an agreement to acquire Inquira, a provider of service knowledge management software that supports both web self-service and agent-assisted service.

The Oracle and InQuira combination is expected to deliver a comprehensive cross-channel customer support offering. InQuira, a privately-held company with over 85 blue-chip customers, helps companies improve customer service and satisfaction by helping customers find answers to their questions quickly and easily, either online or from a service agent.