How best to make money as an Oracle partner is the question; by selling Oracle/Sun servers to Oracle software partners running on other than the Sun platform may be the answer, as rumor would have it from the Avnet Technology Solutions Partner Summit 2010 at the end of July. This is the suggestion in the interview on ChannelWeb with Oracle execs Tom Wagner, Jim Standard and Lydia Smyers. Scott Campbell is the reporter.

According to Standard, group VP of global alliances and channels, only approval from the executive suites stands between partners and the incentives they can expect from the newly devised program for Oracle channel partners.

VP of worldwide alliances and channels Smyers adds that partners can expect to profit from Oracle's practice of turning around sluggish companies and creating market opportunities for the rescued product lines.

Tom Wagner, group VP of North American hardware alliances and channels, characterized the VARs in attendance at the conference as a mix of both Sun and Oracle partners, including a fair number who represent both lines.

Smyers explained that training is underway in database, middleware, servers, storage, applications and industries to educate partners in the business opportunities available for cultivation. Standard added that partners are being encouraged to become specialists in a limited range of offerings rather than seeking to be expert in the entire line of 10,000 Oracle products.

Wagner conceded that some partners will cling to the Sun infrastructure business that they are familiar with in spite of the greater opportunities to be found in getting on board with Oracle, a true systems company.

Both Standard and Wagner stressed the value Oracle sees in R&D on the Sun/Oracle stack, and Wagner made the distinction between Sun's channel-centric sales model and the direct selling model Oracle employs. Even with this difference, however, there are opportunities for the channel partner who knows how to maximize sales, Wagner said. Smyers argued that embracing change is the key in this instance.

Once again, Standard pointed out the role of training in the three principal "marketing plays," as he termed them: database acceleration, CMT and middleware.

Asked how many of Sun's VARs have made the paradigm shift essential to their success, Wagner said those who continue to build their differentiation on price and fulfillment are behind the 8-ball; those operating higher up the stack are the ones who "get it."

Asked by reporter Campbell about the prospects for legacy Oracle software VARs selling to HP, IBM and others, Standard said they will be encouraged to realize the benefits of selling Sun solutions, which is where Oracle's focus will be. Some partners in the history of Oracle's acquisitions have come along eagerly; others came kicking and screaming.

Smyers noted that each acquisition has brought with it a different set of challenges but, through it all Oracle has had " ... the experience of integrating operations and folding products into our portfolio." One has the feeling it will be the same with VARs.

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