1 hour, 6 minutes actually. Thomas Kurian's presentation on Middleware.
Disciplined was the word that kept coming back to me.
He marched through the footprint of Oracle's middleware - from SOA to security and identity management to web enablement of legacy. Yes it was a monotone. Yes his voice showed little passion variation and his arms even less. He stood to attention like a good boy scout when he played a few videos which helped him make his points. Did not bother him that many in the audience people walked out every few minutes.
All that matters to him is Oracle is the "new leader in middleware". "We are in everyone of Gartner's MQ's in the category" "Used by 50,000+ companies"
I had requested time with Thomas for the Enterprise Irregulars. Oracle could not make that happen. I had one burning question - as a developer it must bother the heck out of you to see so many acquisitions. Does Oracle not trust its development capabilities? But since I knew we would not get to meet Thomas, I discussed his talk and Oracle in middleware with several at the conference.
One who goes to OOW every year says he never goes to Thomas's speech. Same every year, he said. But slightly longer because the definition of middleware keeps growing each year.
Another told me Thomas is still a McKinsey strategist, not a developer. He actually initiates many of the acquisitions. (I am glad I did not get to ask Thomas the question about acquisitions bothering him). He then pointed to a pattern. Release 1 of most Oracle components are developed, then replaced, by acquired components as the category matures. (Could that also happen with Fusion apps now with John Wookey leaving?)
Another marveled at how Oracle is selling middleware. In a deal where they had an outside, slim chance of winning, they went to the top executives and convinced them how their middleware would work better with their PeopleSoft and Siebel apps. They turned a tech conversation in to a business conversation.
I have a feeling Thomas' speech in 3 years will have grown to 1 hour, 36 minutes. So long as the financial performance keep improving, he can define middleware however he wants. And be as monotone as he wants. For as long as he wants.
