Oracle unveils Solaris 11, hardware package

Oracle Open World 2010: Hurd takes the stage as HP and Oracle settle lawsuit

Oracle added to its product line-up yesterday, announcing both a new hardware package and OS.

At the company's OpenWorld event in San Francisco, Oracle revealed that the next version of Oracle's Solaris Unix operating system - Solaris 11 - will be available in 2011. In the meantime Oracle will release Solaris 11 Express by the end of this year, to give customers access to some Solaris 11 technology.

Oracle's new president Mark Hurd also made an appearance at OpenWorld to unveil a new piece of high-end hardware.

The former HP CEO announced Oracle's Exadata Database Machine X2-8, a package of servers, storage and networking aimed at data warehousing or online transaction processing applications.

Hurd joined Oracle from HP in the last month, and yesterday both companies also revealed that they have settled the lawsuit that HP launched over Hurd joining Oracle.

The companies said that, while the terms of the settlement are confidential, Hurd will "adhere to his obligations to protect HP's confidential information" while fulfilling his responsibilities at Oracle.

"HP and Oracle have been important partners for more than 20 years and are committed to working together to provide exceptional products and service to our customers," Cathie Lesjak, CFO and interim CEO at HP, said in a statement.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison added in a statement: "Oracle and HP will continue to build and expand a partnership that has already lasted for over 25 years."

Oracle and HP have some 140,000 joint customers.