How should customers respond to Oracle’s plans to discontinue support for software running on Intel’s Itanium platform? With moral outrage and financial sanctions, that’s how.
Enterprise information systems are not business relationships of finite duration for their customers. The relationship is more like a marriage. Enterprise systems are lifetime commitments for the businesses, governments and institutions involved.
And it’s not a traditional marriage, it’s a plural marriage. Corporate data and business process software are co-creations of independent software vendors, system integrators, in-house software developer and end users.
When it comes to the Global 5,000 businesses, the likes of IBM, HP, Oracle Microsoft, Unisys and CA are all in the same accounts with WiPro and Tata. And Google, Apple, Amazon and countless companies you’ve never heard of. Governments and institutions are in the same situation.
And now we have bad behavior and major marital discord on our hands. Again!
Some things never change
Even after three decades of progress on open standards, a few things remain true.
- Open systems are lot like broccoli. It’s good for you, but not everybody likes it and some people find it difficult to digest.
- It is in the financial interest of vendors to lock customers in.
- New technology comes in all the time, and choices continue to explode.
The result: as with supermarkets, so with enterprise vendors; choices abound. For every bunch of raw broccoli customers can take home and cook up, there is a bag of crispy chips and a box of yummy brownies they can snack on right away. Shoppers’ brains tell them they should consider antioxidants and fibre, but their stomachs tell them they’re in a hurry and need to eat now.
It has been very difficult for CIOs to keep their options open. Because of the complexity of enterprise systems, the prospect of one throat to choke is an overwhelming temptation.
Even though CIOs know that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, businesses, governments and institutions have not been vigilant about maintaining the option of a second source in critical areas of the enterprise infrastructure.
Thus, switching costs remain huge. The database area is where CIOs have allowed themselves to become most vulnerable.
And the database vendor grown most fat and happy has chosen now to act really dumb.
Oracle has unilaterally decided to stop all development on Intel’s 64-bit Itanium chip. Responsible vendors evolve processor architectures with plenty of notice, up to 10 years, to enable CIOs to make and execute their own plans when it is convenient for their businesses. This time, Oracle has chosen deliberately to trigger an earthquake under the feet of HP-UX and VMS customers using Oracle’s database and development environment.
And lest we forget, Oracle is not just a database vendor.
Oracle has also discontinued development for PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, Siebel, and every other product in the Oracle portfolio that runs on Itanium. So this is not just a man-made earthquake for the customers. It is a man-made tsunami as well. Thanks!
Déjà vu all over again
Back in the late 1980s, I was in my office at the Yankee Group peacefully working on a forecast for the industrial automation market. The phone rang. It was a conference call. The CIOs of three of the major auto makers were hatching a plan to escape from IBM’s clutches. Was I available as a hostage negotiator? That’s how I became the Open Systems Advisor.
We rounded up our friends at 50 multinational enterprises, flew to Brussels, and met with the X/Open vendors to get specific about a multi-vendor version of SAA.
After all their attempts to reason with IBM failed, customers had to take action and switch vendors.
In 1992, at the height of its fat-dumb-and-happy period, IBM management was astounded by a $5 billion loss, the largest in the history of business.
Lou Gerstner got the unenviable job of reforming IBM’s misguided ways.
Today, IBM has proven that leopards can change their spots. The New Blue has proven to itself that fair play actually works better than lock in.
Fool me once, shame on you
Jerking customers around on mission-critical software components is a serious issue with material consequences for businesses, institutions and governments. IMHO, to do so is to demonstrate an arrogant irresponsibility that has lost touch with reality.
Arbitrarily informing customers that you’re suddenly discontinuing development for Itanium systems is a cheap trick that erodes Oracle’s moral authority to lead.
Maybe Larry Ellison and Mark Hurd will learn a lesson from history. Maybe they will not have to personally experience the consequences of railroading their Itanium customers into a stockyard pen.
Perhaps they will come to their senses, man up to their kuleana and extend a little consideration.
Or perhaps they are just having us on. Joking around, like in the old days.
Perhaps @Oracle will tweet “April Fool! Gotcha!”
Fool me twice, shame on me
CIOs, you have a great opportunity. Reconfigurable IT infrastructure available by the shipping container is completely changing the economics of the data center operation.
CIOs, new technology, at new price points, are creating new possibilities. You have important new options in the IT-ownership model as cloud services become mission-critical.
Oracle’s behavior should be a warning to you. You must control your own destiny. You must:
- Maintain vendor discipline by maintaining viable second sources
- Guard your business DNA, and not allow it to become the chattel property of any one supplier
Open systems are your insurance policy. Open systems promote competition. Competition among your suppliers gives you business choices. Choices give you fair prices and reasonable business policies. Choices prevent anti-competitive vendor behavior like Oracle’s.
Now is the time to reconsider the meaning of portability and interoperability in the new world of IT sourcing options.
Alternatively, if you prefer the simplicity of a single-vendor solution, and consciously choose to be locked in, you would do well to consider the character of the vendor who holds the keys to your kingdom.
Meanwhile, CIOs, if you have to get tough with Larry and Mark, it is your kuleana to do what needs to be done.
There is no "second chance" for lost integrity.
