Oracle-Sun and Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) will end the long-term reseller agreement HDS originally had with Sun on March 31. Announced by HDS via an email to its solution provider partners on March 2, the company wrote "With the acquisition of Sun Microsystems, Hitachi Data Systems and Oracle agree that the time is right to evolve this relationship into one reflecting the priorities of the new company."

HDS plans on "answering all questions and concerns with solid transition programs" and promises "details will be forthcoming on programs and processes that will help guide you and your customers, as we transition this business moving forward."

At the time of this article's writing, Oracle had not publicly addressed the topic.

Tim Smith of HDS Australia told SearchStorage ANZ's Simon Sharwood that Oracle and HDS "have sat down and looked at joint strategies" around how to arrange a transition for customers - at least for those living down under.

"We still expect to have a very close strategic relationship with Oracle, which we have had for years," Smith said. "The exact specifics are being negotiated and we are working with Oracle on structured transition plans."

Smith added that he does not expect disruption for customers, as HDS Australia already has relationships with many organizations who acquired its products from Sun, as they often acquired some HDS products from Sun and bought others directly from HDS.

Many see the Oracle-HDS split as another part of the on-going vendor consolidation push occurring in the market right now. Greg Knieriemen, vice president of marketing at Chi Corp. and HDS partner, is one.

"As you listen to (Oracle CEO) Larry Ellison lay out his vision of the future, it's based on a complete Oracle-Sun software-hardware stack," Knieriemen told ChannelWeb's Joseph F. Kovar. "So this shouldn't be a shock. This is the tone Oracle is setting. They want a vertical stack, where everything is theirs."

John Varel, CEO of FusionStorm, and partner to Oracle and Sun, said he is surprised the break didn't happen sooner.

"It was inevitable," he said. "It's a part of the consolidation in this industry. We're seeing a splitting of the righteous teaming of vendors as everybody wants to control everything. Look at HP and EDS, at Oracle and Sun, at Dell and Perot. It's a changing world, and it's disruptive."

Varel finds this current evolution within the channel quite exciting. From his point of view: "This means nothing but opportunity for partners with broad offerings."

Varel said it is easy to forget that customers still have alternatives, and that savvy solution providers still have the upper hand.

"We're holding higher margins on our product sales now than ever before because we bring customers broad solutions," he said. "Customers will go with the group, the manufacturers and solution providers combined, that provides them with the best ROI. We don't sit around asking customers, how much hardware did you buy last year? They don't care."

More Information

HDS Letter to Partners - posted on iKnerd blog

Oracle-Sun Ends HDS Storage Agreement - ChannelWeb article

HDS/Sun partnership ends - SearchStorage ANZ article [...read more...]

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