Oracle Recruits Former SAP Cloud Head

The company that once had some pretty harsh things to say about cloud computing is really ramping up its cloud business now. It appears that Oracle has recruited another executive for its cloud division. This time, it’s Shawn Price, the former president of SAP‘s global cloud business.

Price ran SAP’s cloud business until May, when he found himself ousted during a strategic realignment. According to The Register, Price has turned up at SAP competitor Oracle as the new senior vice president of Product Strategy and Marketing for Cloud.

Maybe it’s just coincidence in timing, but considering the recent news that former Google vice president of Engineering Peter Magnusson has joined Oracle to head up its cloud efforts, it appears that Oracle has some major recruitment efforts going on for its cloud division.

It’s not really a surprise, of course. Oracle was a little late to the cloud game, but the company has been building up its cloud services portfolio over the last couple of years. And during OpenWorld this month, Oracle executives including CTO Larry Ellison and CEO Mark Hurd talked up its cloud business.

Oracle’s traditional software approach has been hurt by the growing interest in cloud, and Oracle still has a way to go to turn itself into a cloud powerhouse, but its cloud revenue is growing. The Register noted that Oracle’s cloud revenue totalled $477 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2015, an increase of 29 percent year-over-year.

As for Price, what he is capable of as a cloud executive at a major company is still an unknown. SAP’s cloud strategy has been a little fuzzy, and Price didn’t really get enough time to do any good at SAP. After all, he was hired and fired in five months.

Before taking on his cloud role at SAP, Price was president of its SuccessFactors business. Prior to joining SAP, he was president of software-as-a-service company Zuora, where he got his first taste of cloud leadership.