Oracle-Sun: Strategy set

Oracle on Tuesday began its mission to revitalize Sun Microsystems hours after it closed the acquisition of the hardware company. Using Oracle's acquisition of PeopleSoft--and the dozens of companies that followed--Charles Phillips, president of the company, said the company will invest in Sun, revitalize the brand and improve products and customer service.

The aim for Oracle: Take Sun, integrate hardware and software and recreate the gold standards of computing found in the 1960s. This vision gets at Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s T.J. Watson rant. Oracle wants to give you a complete environment that's very predictable.

Phillips also made another big point. Innovation going forward will focus on the interconnections between technologies not necessarily new developments. Phillips’ pitch was targeted at investors, analysts and most importantly, Sun customers. The message: Phillips said Oracle will invest in Sun and hire new engineers and sales support. As for R&D, Oracle will spend US$4.3 billion in fiscal 2011. "We spend on the products. In lean years, this (R&D) is the one line that goes up," he said.

Read more of "Oracle-Sun: Strategy set; Will buyers go for the integrated stack?" at ZDNet.com.