Last year I started doing blog postings about Oracle itself.  I used them to share observations and bits of intelligence picked up along the way about the most enigmatic of the major IT vendors.  Many of you have helped me by quietly passing along your own thoughts.  Hopefully readers have found the postings useful as you manage your own relationship with Oracle. 

In July I will be making a presentation on this topic at the Quest Northeast event at Mohegan Sun.  The ideas I offer there will be shared afterward with those that cannot come to the event through this site.  Before then I will need all the help I can get since I currently have only a fraction of the information needed to do the topic justice. 

I am not an expert on Oracle Corporation and cannot become one by July.  The best I can do is to act as the collector and interpreter of bits of evidence about this unique entity – one that intentionally makes itself hard to understand.  Like everything else about it, Oracle’s low public profile reflects the personality of CEO Larry Ellison.   He and the company he founded only want attention focused on them when it is time to present a carefully crafted message.  The rest of the time they just want to be left alone. 

For much of its history Oracle’s role was to provide database management software to deeply technical experts who used it behind the scenes to help make other software work more effectively.  Its products were bought and used by technicians who could relate to Ellison as one of their own species.  In that era a high public profile would have been an unnecessary distraction. 

Oracle has evolved from the best-of-breed provider of one IT component to a company that aspires to offer nearly everything needed in an elegantly integrated suite of products.  As customers it is hard to buy into becoming completely dependent on Oracle without a deeper understanding of the company itself. 

I am trying to help others understand Oracle because no one else seems to be doing it, not because I feel highly qualified to do so.  This posting is a cry for help as I take on this overly ambitious task.  Public comments on this site will be greatly appreciated.  So will private input sent directly to me in confidence.  Many followers of this site work for Oracle – you are especially welcome to help me better understand your employer.  All such input will be assumed to be completely off the record. 

Thanks in advance for whatever help I get, please feel free to contact me at dandrews@andrewscg.com .  Those with questions about Oracle are also welcome to point my efforts in a certain direction.  I cannot possibly cover every aspect of the strange and wonderful entity that we are all tied to, but I will do what I can.

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