路透社采访拉里埃里森收购Sun公司的全文：第一部分

 路透社采访拉里埃里森在购置太阳微系统公司的全文：第一部分（ 2009年5月7日）
Transcript of an Interview with Larry Ellison by Reuters on the Acquisition of Sun Microsystems: Part I(May 7, 2009)
http://www.oracle.com/sun/lje-oracle-sun-faq.pdf

Transcript of an Interview with Larry Ellison by Reuters on the Acquisitionof Sun Microsystems: Part I
May 7, 2009

Why does Oracle, a company that prides itself on highmargins,want to get into the low-margin hardware business? Are you going to exit the hardware business?
No, we are definitely not going to exit the hardware business.While most hardware businesses are low-margin, companies like Apple and Cisco enjoy very high-margins because they do a good job of designing their hardware and software to work together. If a company designs both hardware and software, it can build much better systems than if they only design the software. That’s why Apple’s iPhone is so much better than Microsoft phones.


OK, Apple and Cisco have proven that they can do it, butwhat experience does Oracle have designing hardware and software to work together?
Oracle started designing hardware and software to work together a few years ago when we began our Exadata database machine development project. Some of our competitors, Teradata and Netezza for example, were delivering preconfigured hardware/software systems, while we were just delivering software. The combination of hardware and software has significant performance advantages for data warehousing applications. We had to respond with our own hardware/software combination, the Exadata database machine. Oracle’s Exadata database machine runs data warehousing applications much faster—at least
ten-times faster than Oracle software running on conventional hardware. All the hardware and software pieces, database to disk,are included. You just plug it in and go—no systems integration required.

Alright, Oracle’s done integrated hardware and software design with the Exadata database machine. But Exadata uses standard Intel chips. Are you going to discontinue the SPARC chip?
No. Once we own Sun we’re going to increase the investment in SPARC. We think designing our own chips is very, very important. Even Apple is designing its own chips these days.Right now, SPARC chips do some things better than Intel chips and vice-versa. For example, SPARC is much more energy efficient than Intel while delivering the same performance on a per socket basis. This is not just a green issue, it’s an economic issue. Today, database centers are paying as much for electricity to run their computers as they pay to buy their computers.SPARC machines are much less expensive to run than Intel
machines.

So is that your plan, to use SPARC to compete by lowering a data center’s electricity bills?
No, our primary reason for designing our own chips is to build computers with the very best performance, reliability and security available in the market. Some system features work much better if they are implemented in silicon rather than software. Once we own Sun, we’ll be able to plan and synchronize new features from silicon to software, just like IBM and the other big system suppliers. We want to work with Fujitsu to design advanced features into the SPARC microprocessor aimed at improving Oracle database performance. In my opinion, this will enable SPARC Solaris open-system mainframes and servers to challenge
IBM’s dominance in the data center. Sun was very successful for a very long time selling computer systems based on the SPARC chip and the Solaris operating system. Now, with the added power of integrated Oracle software, we think they can be again.

Your management team has no experience with delivering hardware. There is a lot of risk in going into an unfamiliar business.
Obviously, we want to hold on to Sun’s experienced team of first-rate hardware engineers. For years, Sun has led the industry in building and delivering innovative systems. For example,Sun was the first company to deliver systems built on a multicore processor—what Sun called the Niagara chip—and the
industry followed. Oracle has a good track record of retaining the engineering talent from acquired companies; Sun will be no different. In addition, over the last couple of years Oracle gained a lot of experience developing and delivering our first integrated hardware and software system, the Exadata database machine. We have lots of hardware experience inside of Oracle. Hundreds of Oracle’s engineers came from systems companies like IBM and HP. Even I started my Silicon Valley career working for a hardware company that worked with Fujitsu to design and build the first IBM compatible mainframe.


OK, so you have engineers who are experienced at designing hardware as well as software, but Oracle outsourced the manufacturing of the Exadata machine
to HP. You have no experience in manufacturing.
Just because we’re buying Sun does not mean Oracle is becoming a manufacturer. Sun outsources almost all of its manufacturing to companies like Flextronics and Fujitsu. With one tiny exception,Sun does no manufacturing; neither will we.


There has been a lot of speculation in the press that Oracle is going to sell some or all of Sun’s hardware businesses. From your previous answers it certainly seems like you are keeping the SPARC Solaris systems business. Are you keeping the disk storage and tape backup businesses?
Yes, definitely. We believe the best user experience is when all the pieces in the system are engineered to work together.Disk storage and tape backup are critical components in highperformance, high-reliability, high-security database systems.So, we plan to design and deliver those pieces too. Clearly many
Sun customers choose disk and tape systems from other vendors.That’s what open systems are all about: providing customers with a choice. But Oracle expects to continue competing in both the disk and tape storage businesses after we buy Sun.


Is Exadata moving to Sun SPARC Solaris?
Exadata is built by HP using Intel microprocessors. We have no plans for a SPARC Solaris version of Exadata. We have an excellent relationship with HP that we expect to continue. The Exadata database machine delivers record setting database performance at a lower cost than conventional hardware.Customers love the machine. It is the most successful product introduction in Oracle’s 30 year history. The Sun acquisition doesn’t reduce our commitment to Exadata at all.

路透社采访拉里埃里森收购Sun公司的全文：第一部分
2009年5月7日

问：甲骨文公司，一个以其高利润率标榜的公司，为什么想进入低利润的硬件企业？你要退出硬件业务？
答：不，我们绝对不会退出硬件业务。虽然大多数硬件企业是低利润的公司，但像苹果电脑和思科等享有非常高的利润，因为他们有一个良好的设计让硬件和软件一起工作。如果一个公司同时设计硬件和软件，它可以建立更多更好的系统，不仅是设计软件。这就是为什么苹果的iPhone如此明显优于微软手机的原因。

问：苹果和思科公司已经证明他们能做到这一点，但什么经验能让甲骨文的硬件设计和软件能一起工作？
答：甲骨文几年前，在我们开始Exadata数据库项目时，就开始设计让硬件和软件一起工作。我们的一些竞争对手， 比如Teradata和Netezza公司，提供预配置的硬件/软件系统，而我们只是提供软件。在数据仓库应用中，集成的硬件和软件有着显着的性能优势。作为回应，我们退出自己的Exadata数据库硬件/软件组合。甲骨文Exadata数据库在数据仓库应用程序将运行得更快，至少比常规硬件快10倍的运行速度。也包括所有的硬件和软件，数据库，光盘在内。您只需将其插入，无须系统集成。

问：甲骨文做集成的硬件和软件设计与Exadata数据库。但是Exadata使用的是标准的英特尔芯片。你要停止在Sparc芯片？
答：第一，一旦我们拥有了SUN,我们要增加在SPARC的投资。我们认为我们自己的芯片设计是非常，非常重要的。即使苹果这些天正在设计自己的芯片。现在， Sparc芯片在某些方面优于英特尔芯片，反之亦然。举例来说， Sparc比英特尔在每插槽提供相同的性能时有个更高的能源效率。这不仅是一个绿色的问题，这也是一个经济问题。今天，数据库中心支付高额电力费用来运行自己的计算机。运行SPARC的机器比英特尔更便宜。

问：所以，你的计划是，使用的SPARC的竞争力来降低数据中心的电费？
答：不，我们的首要原因是我们自己的芯片设计是建立在在市场上电脑的最佳性能，可靠性和安全上。有些功能在硅这个级别上执行比在软件上执行要好得多。一旦我们拥有了自己的太阳，我们就可以进行从硅到软件的新功能的同步规划，就像IBM和其他大系统供应商一样。我们希望与富士通合作，以先进的设计融入SPARC微处理器，旨在改善Oracle数据库的性能。在我看来，这将使SPARC的Solaris的开放系统主机和服务器，以挑战IBM在数据中心的优势。SUN曾很长一段时间非常成功的销售的计算机系统的基础上的SPARC芯片和Solaris操作系统。现在，随着加入功率集成Oracle软件，我们认为，他们可以再次成功。

问：您的管理团队没有任何硬件经验。进入不熟悉的业务有很多风险。
答：显然，我们要坚持以Sun公司的经验丰富的一流的硬件工程师团队。多年来， Sun公司在建设和提供创新系统方面引领业界。例如，Sun公司是第一家提供系统建立在多处理器是Sun公司的Niagara芯片要求。甲骨文公司已经有从收购的公司的工程技术人才的良好记录;太阳也一样。此外，在过去的几年里，甲骨文提升了丰富的经验，开发并提供我们的第一个综合硬件和软件系统， Exadata数据库机器。我们在硬件的Oracle有很多经验。数百Oracle的工程师来自系统的公司，如IBM和惠普公司。即使我开始硅谷工作的与富士通的设计和建立第一个IBM兼容的大型机的硬件公司职业生涯。

问：你已经有了有经验的硬件设计以及软件工程师，但Oracle将Exadata机外包制造业给惠普。您没有任何经验的制造。
答：不能只是因为我们收购了SUN就意味着甲骨文正在成为制造商。SUN几乎外包其所有的制造业，比如Flextronics公司和富士通。一个小小的例外，Sun公司没有任何制造;我们也不会。


问：有很多媒体的猜测说，甲骨文公司将出售部分或全部的Sun公司的硬件部。从你先前的答案是肯定的，好像你是保持的SPARC Solaris系统部。你是否保留磁盘存储和磁带备份的企业？
答：是的，当然。我们认为最好的用户体验是当所有的要素在系统的设计共同努力。磁盘存储和磁带备份是关键部件的高性能，高可靠性，高安全性的数据库系统。所以，我们计划设计和提供这些东西。显然，许多Sun的客户选择的磁盘和磁带系统的其他厂商。这就是开放系统：为客户提供一种选择。但是，甲骨文公司收购SUN后，预计将继续竞争两个磁盘和磁带存储业务后。

问：Exadata是移动的SPARC Sun公司的Solaris ？
答：Exadata是由惠普构建在英特尔微处理器上的。我们没有SPARC Solaris版本的Exadata计划 。我们和惠普有一个良好的关系，预计将继续下去。那个Exadata数据库比传统的硬件机器以较低的成本提供了创纪录的数据库表现。这是客户喜欢的机器。这是甲骨文公司推出的30年的历史最成功的产品。收购SUN不会减少我们Exadata所有的承诺。