Oracle, Salesforce and the Brewing Cloud Wars

Ejected from Oracle's (Nasdaq: ORCL) Open World. An impromptu gathering at a nearby restaurant. Fulsome explanations from PR flacks and tweets galore. The relations between Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) chief Marc Benioff went from wary and grudging mutual admiration, to red hot rhetoric. How red hot? Well, for starters, Ellison referred to Salesforce.com as the "roach motel" of cloud services this week.

Not that Benioff made out badly. He was reportedly willing to pay US$1 million for the chance to deliver the OpenWorld keynote. He'll get that back -- plus all the free publicity he could ask for.
The two sides appear more than eager to give their spin on the keynote kerfuffle to any and all who will listen -- although neither company was able to produce a spokesperson to talk to the E-Commerce Times about its cloud computing services for this story.
Which is, after all, what the whole circus was really about: Oracle is encroaching on Salesforce.com's turf with its own public cloud service. Competition is seriously ramping up.
"It is important to recognize that Oracle Public Cloud is still very early -- and like any version 1.0 product, there is reason for customers to be cautious, Nucleus Research Vice President Rebecca Wettemann told the E-Commerce Times.
"However, the real winners are customers that now have more choices," she said.

A Look at Public Cloud

Oracle Public Cloud, as described by Ellison, provides customers access to Oracle Fusion Applications, Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle Database, all of which are managed, hosted and supported by Oracle.
Its cloud offering, which runs on Oracle systems, also includes Oracle Fusion CRM, HCM, Social Network, Java and Oracle Database Cloud service. In short, it offers several different business applications via the cloud.

The Drawbacks of Multitenancy

It is positioned as the answer for customers that do not like the drawbacks of multitenant Software as a Service applications.
"Virtualization is an effective approach -- one that Oracle is good at -- and Oracle is clearly taking advantage of that," said Wettemann.
Salesforce.com, for its part, put a stake in the ground years ago with its firm belief in the value of multitenancy, although lately it has relaxed its stance. Earlier this year, it announced a new Database.com Data Residency option that lets companies keep readable versions of data on premises.

A Java Shop

Other considerations that prospective users should factor in are the advantages and disadvantages of using a Java-based system versus a proprietary one, said Wettemann, and whether a company will need the myriad business applications Oracle has available.
Whether the system is Java-based or proprietary, in particular, will be an important distinction for a lot of customers, she said. "Certainly it raises questions about vendor lock-in."

The Hybrid Model

Oracle is also pushing its hybrid approach to computing -- that is, the ability to move users and workloads from the enterprise to the cloud and back seamlessly, noted Muneer Taskar, head of Persistent's cloud computing practice.
"This is ideal for customers that want to either test out the cloud or want to use the cloud in a limited manner," he told the E-Commerce Times.
However, only a small subset of users would be interested in this functionality, Wettemann pointed out.

Who's the Most Reliable?

Both vendors promise reliability, but this is a no-contest question, according to Taskar. "It is too early in the game to be able to speak to Oracle's reliability, whereas Salesforce is a proven platform -- multiple times over."

CRM vs. Oracle DB

Then there is the matter of a CRM-focused approach versus an ERP, database-oriented one.
"When [you] look at Oracle, you have hundreds of different modules for all areas of the business. Salesforce.com is more CRM and custom-app focused," Wettemann observed.
Here Oracle is the hands-down winner, said Taskar -- that is, if you want an Oracle DB and allied enterprise services in the cloud.
"That makes sense for enterprises that already have Oracle products installed. Salesforce has focused on the social enterprise and has the framework built in for feeds, sharing, collaboration and APIs to enable consumption via external app. Oracle has yet to elaborate on social networking support."

Opposite Directions, Same Goal

Basically, Oracle and Salesforce are heading to the same destination, Taskar concluded, but they are coming from opposite directions -- with completely different features to boot.
"Salesforce.com has been wildly successful with its flagship CRM product," he said. "With that success it is safe to say that they understand the cloud, and particularly SaaS, better than anyone else. This is Salesforce.com's edge. What remains to be seen is whether they can capitalize on this edge and replicate the success they have had in CRM as enterprises move other pieces of their IT pie to the cloud."
Oracle, on the other hand, is taking its success in enterprise IT -- and in some cases, complete dominance -- and trying to replicate it in the cloud, continued Taskar.
"The technology Oracle is moving to the cloud is already proven," he maintained, "and more importantly, widely entrenched. Not having to learn, or do, anything new or proprietary is a powerful pro in enterprise IT decision making, and this will work in Oracle's favor."

Wipro Recognized as a Leader in the Magic Quadrant for Comprehensive Finance and Accounting BPO, Global by Independent Research Firm

BANGALORE, India, Jul 26, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Wipro BPO, the Business Process Outsourcing arm of Wipro Technologies, the Global Information Technology, Consulting, and Outsourcing Business of Wipro Limited WIT -0.32% , has been recognized by Gartner, Inc. in the Leaders quadrant in the report, "Magic Quadrant for Comprehensive Finance and Accounting (F&A) BPO, Global," authored by Cathy Tornbohm and published June 29, 2011.

Gartner positioned Wipro in the leaders quadrant based on the evaluation criteria of ability to execute and completeness of vision. The report evaluated a qualified group of 16 vendors in the F&A BPO market. As described in the report, "Leaders are performing well today, both with a clear vision of market direction and by actively building competencies to sustain their leadership position in the market. The comprehensive F&A BPO players in this quadrant generally share superior market understanding, have a global client base, an extensive network of well-distributed and highly populated global delivery centers catering for multiple languages, a good balance of transactional and high-end F&A delivery and innovative well communicated and marketed sales offerings."

According to the report, "Gartner defines comprehensive finance and accounting (F&A) processes as the outsourcing of three or more finance processes to a single provider." The report also said, "This Magic Quadrant offers a deep analysis of the competitive positioning for comprehensive F&A BPO services by showcasing the relative placing of the main players in the market according to a variety of criteria, and by offering detailed strengths and cautions for each of the included vendors."

Manish Dugar, Sr. Vice President and Global Head, Wipro BPO, said, "We believe that our position in the Leaders Quadrant is testimony to our ability in the seamless delivery of end-to-end Finance and Accounting (F&A) services from multiple global locations. We have been able to leverage our extensive technology capabilities, clearly shaping the vision for the next generation of F&A outsourcing. With the right expertise and blend of talent, tools and methodologies, Wipro BPO has been able to deliver complex programs and consolidate operations, for our customers, to achieve upfront financial benefits. We feel this recognition validates our strategy and the significant investments that we have made in our F&A practice to improve our pipeline and add measurable business value to our clients."

To read the complete report, please go to: http://www.wipro.com/resource-center/analyst-speak/pdf/MagicQuadrantforglobalF_ABPO.pdf

Wipro has 6000+ dedicated employees delivering end-to-end services across the full spectrum of finance and accounting functions, including procure-to-pay, order-to-cash and record-to-report to support all the functions of the CFO's office. It operates from 16 centers in 10 countries including Poland, Romania, Brazil, China, Mexico, U.S. and India (Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad and Mumbai). Vertical market strengths for F&A BPO include communications, financial services, retail and breweries.

Wipro BPO, the Business Process Outsourcing service line of Wipro Technologies, is one of the largest BPO service providers on a global delivery platform. Wipro BPO has the capabilities to provide onshore, near shore, offshore and hybrid delivery options with operations in more than 28 centers in 11 countries. The services portfolio spans industry specific solutions in Customer Contact center (technical and non-technical; voice and non-voice), Finance and Accounting outsourcing, Human Resource outsourcing, Supply chain management, Knowledge services including Data Management and reporting, Legal process outsourcing, and Sales and Marketing outsourcing.

About the Magic Quadrant

The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted June 2011 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Wipro Technologies

Wipro Technologies, the global IT business of Wipro Limited WIT -0.32% , is a leading Information Technology, Consulting and Outsourcing company, that delivers solutions to enable its clients to do business better. Wipro Technologies delivers winning business outcomes through its deep industry experience and a 360 degree view of "Business through Technology" -- helping clients create successful and adaptive businesses. A company recognized globally for its comprehensive portfolio of services, a practitioner's approach to delivering innovation and an organization wide commitment to sustainability, Wipro Technologies has 120,000 employees and clients across 54 countries. For more information, please visit www.wipro.com .

Forward-looking and Cautionary Statements

Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks, and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in our earnings, revenue and profits, our ability to generate and manage growth, intense competition in IT services, our ability to maintain our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which we make strategic investments, withdrawal of fiscal governmental incentives, political instability, war, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, unauthorized use of our intellectual property, and general economic conditions affecting our business and industry. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. These filings are available at www.sec.gov . We may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that may be made from time to time by us or on our behalf.

Mozilla building mobile OS to battle Chrome

Mozilla revealed preliminary plans today to take the Gecko engine that drives its Firefox browser and turn it into an open-source operating system that will eventually work on phones and tablets.

Called Boot to Gecko, it is known that the source code will be released to the public "in real-time," wrote Andreas Gal, a Mozilla researcher. Gecko is the rendering engine that powers Firefox and the e-mail client Thunderbird. By contrast, while Google's Androidmobile operating system is open source, the main development work on it does not become available until after Google has green-lit its publication--sometimes not until months afterward.

"We will do this work in the open, we will release the source in real-time, we will take all successful additions to an appropriate standards group, and we will track changes that come out of that process. We aren't trying to have these native-grade apps just run on Firefox, we're trying to have them run on the web," Gal said in a forum post. Mike Shaver, Mozilla's vice president of technical strategy, said that the Boot to Gecko apps won't use the Android SDK but instead run new and current Web app APIs

He also identified four areas for development. One is new Web APIs, which means building "prototype APIs for exposing device and OS capabilities to content." This is how the operating system would support current essential mobile features such as telephony, SMS, cameras, USB, Bluetooth, and near-field chips. A second area for development is to build a privilege model, which is a key security feature for ensuring that new features are "safely exposed to pages and applications," he said.

Boot to Gecko will include some low-level Android code for kernel and driver support so that it can run on Android devices. This does not exist yet, and porting it to a new system could prove to be extremely challenging. Then there is the final area of development--that of applications. The idea behind Boot to Gecko is to create a system where native Web apps can run just as well as the native apps for iOS do on that device.

Shaver added that the company is looking at Tegra 2 devices because they offer hardware acceleration of open audio and video formats.

For people who want to get a stronger idea of what Boot to Gecko will amount to, Gal noted that its "starting point" is a device running Firefox for Android as its homescreen, with some custom APIs thrown in. He also admitted in that post that there is an "ultimate goal" to the project, that of "breaking the stranglehold of proprietary technologies over the mobile device world."