Software Licensing – the Public Cloud model

Managers in the Public Sector are wrestling with the wide range of options provided by the evolving Cloud services paradigm. Most are now familiar with the three Cloud service models (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS) and more than a few are testing the waters. The proliferation of Cloud services from a wide range of name brand vendors and the success stories from commercial companies provides a certain level of confidence that government agencies can realize similar economies in shifting to the Cloud for at least some IT services. Indeed, OMB, in its ‘Cloud First’ policy, has mandated serious consideration of the Cloud by agencies as the federal Data Center Consolidation initiative is implemented.

The 800-Pound Gorilla in the room named Oracle

Change has been the one constant for Oracle over the past five years.  Since 2005, Oracle has acquired over 60 companies that have added both new solutions and technical expertise to what was already considered to be one of the premier software development shops on the planet.  Some you’d heard of, like Peoplesoft, Siebel and BEA, others were less well known, but each brought new capabilities to the Oracle “stack” and h