Oracle 2007 Annual Report Download - page 7

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Table of Contents
Software Business
New Software Licenses
New software licenses include the licensing of database and middleware software, which consists of Oracle
Databases and Oracle Fusion Middleware, as well as applications software. Our technology and business solutions
are based on an internet model comprised of interconnected databases, application servers, as well as mobile devices.
This architecture enables users to access business data and applications through a web browser interface, while
providing customers the most efficient and cost effective method of managing business information and applications.
In an internet model, database servers manage and protect the underlying business information, while application
servers run the business applications that automate a myriad of business functions. We have focused on concepts
such as global single instance application deployment that involve fewer, high quality databases of important
business information. Our architecture provides high quality business information and can be adapted to the specific
needs of any industry or application. Oracle technology operates on both single server and clustered server
configurations, which we refer to as “grid” software, and supports a choice of operating systems including Linux,
Windows and UNIX.
New software license revenues include fees earned from granting customers licenses to use our software products and
exclude revenues derived from software license updates and product support. The standard end user software license
agreement for our products provides for an initial fee to use the product in perpetuity based on a maximum number of
processors, named users or other metrics. We also have other types of software license agreements restricted by the
number of employees or the license term. New software license revenues represented 34%, 33% and 34% of total
revenues in fiscal 2008, 2007 and 2006, respectively.
Database and Middleware Software
Our database and middleware software provides a cost-effective, high-performance platform for running and
managing business applications for mid-size businesses and large global enterprises. With an increasing focus by
enterprises on reducing their total cost of information technology (IT) infrastructure, our software is designed to
accommodate demanding, non-stop business environments, using clusters of low cost servers and storage that can
incrementally scale as required. The ability to assign computing resources as required simplifies our customers’
computing capacity, planning and procurement in order to support all of their business applications. With an Oracle
grid infrastructure, our customers can lower their investment in IT hardware, reduce their risk of IT infrastructure
downtime and more easily cope with sudden increases in demand on their IT environments during high traffic
periods. New software license revenues from database and middleware products represented 68%, 71% and 73% of
our new software license revenues in fiscal 2008, 2007 and 2006, respectively.
Databases
As the world’s most popular database, Oracle Database enables the secure storage, retrieval and manipulation of all
forms of data, including business application and analytics data, and unstructured data in the form of XML files,
office documents, images, video and spatial data. Designed for enterprise grid computing, the Oracle Database is
available in four editions: Express Edition, Standard Edition One, Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition. All
editions are built using the same underlying code, which means that our database software can easily scale from
small, single processor servers to clusters of multi-processor servers.
Options to Oracle Database Enterprise Edition are available to meet specific requirements in the areas of performance
and scalability, high availability, data security and compliance, data warehousing, unstructured data integration and
systems management. Examples of these options include:
• Oracle Real Application Clusters, which consolidates a single, scalable and fault tolerant database that is shared
across interconnected clusters of servers;
• Oracle Partitioning, which breaks down large transaction processing and business intelligence database tables
into smaller segments for faster query performance and easier management of data throughout its lifecycle;
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Source: ORACLE CORP, 10-K, July 02, 2008 Powered by Morningstar® Document Research℠