In a recent series of statements, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has announced his company’s ongoing development of an “autonomous database” that can provide services such as upgrades and patches without the input of human administrators. The database, when completed, would be a major boon to software security worldwide, though industry insiders contend that the announcements are in part meant to deflect from the company’s recent business and ethical woes.
Ellison, who Forbes magazine listed as one of the five richest men in the United States, has led the public charge for increased data security measures for the software behemoth, which is the world’s second largest software vendor with products that are used by 97% of Fortune 500 businesses.
The recent surge in security initiatives also comes as the company has engaged in recent years in extended litigation with Rimini Street. In the past few years, Oracle has been a party in a high profile lawsuit which has called into question the sensitive issues of intellectual property and data security.
Though Rimini Street lost its suit and lost on appeal, the question of whether third party vendors should be allowed to patch Oracle software, often in a way that leaves the greater ecosystem at risk, remains unanswered.
According to industry insiders, Oracle has struggled with losing business to cheaper third party vendors who provide support services at a fraction of the cost of a much larger corporation. While Oracle officials contend that this support is not effective over the long term, many have opted to avoid heavy fees anyway.
This all happens as competitors like Salesforce seek to emulate and slightly revise Oracle’s business mode as well, taking full responsibility for providing timely patches and system upgrades and providing their own cloud software service solutions.
