Oracle OpenWorld 2013: Cloud Meets Internet of Things for Partners

As part of Oracle OpenWorld 2013, the technology giant will host a PartnerNetwork Exchange (Sept. 22 – 26) in San Francisco. The big themes for channel partners will include Oracle’s cloud strategy, Engineered Systems — and the Internet of Things. More than 50 sessions are planned — plus a few surprises, including some social conversations with the Channel Maven. Here’s a preview — and implications for partners.

First, the big picture: Technology giants such as Oracle, Cisco Systems (CSCO), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and IBM (IBM) each are working hard to navigate economic challenges plus the accelerating shift to cloud and mobile computing. Cisco is trimming some staff, HP CEO Meg Whitman recently conceded that the company may not grow in 2014, and IBM recently furloughed its hardware team to cut costs. 

Against that challenging backdrop, Oracle wants to show momentum and progress with its Engineered Systems, while also updating partners on cloud partner programs and newer business opportunities.

Chief among them: The Internet of Things. “It’s no longer about devices tethered to humans,” said Lydia Smyers, group VP for Oracle’s worldwide alliances and channel programs and communications. “Think about the untethered world — the Internet of Things. It’s all about machine to machine communications that are intelligent and driving data capture. For customers this is an opportunity to optimize existing supply chains or look at new revenue stream opportunities.”

Smyers says there are systems integrators that are now stitching M2M solutions together, and resellers with experience in telco tapping into the opportunity as well.

Still, the Internet of Things is only one topic at a much bigger conference. And the conference arrives at a key time in the IT industry’s evolution. Frankly, Oracle deserves more credit than it receives for its cloud partner effort — which allows VARs and integrators to control end-customer billing and pricing. Oracle also is the defacto software platform for most of the world’s top cloud services providers.

The big question: Can Oracle convince partners and customers to keep their workloads on Oracle’s hardware and software — whether on-premises or in Oracle’s own data centers.  

The VAR Guy expects a deep-dive update during Oracle OpenWorld and PartnerNetwork Exchange.