Oracle 2015 Annual Report Download - page 24

Table of Contents
the related software licenses. We incur certain expenses associated with the infrastructures and marketing of our cloud offerings in advance of our ability to
recognize the revenues associated with these offerings.
We have also acquired a number of cloud computing companies, and the integration of these companies into our Oracle Cloud strategy may not be as efficient or
scalable as anticipated, which could adversely affect our ability to fully realize the benefits anticipated from these acquisitions.
Our success depends upon our ability to develop new products and services, integrate acquired products and services and enhance our existing products and
services. Rapid technological advances, changing delivery models and evolving standards in computer hardware and software development and communications
infrastructure, changing and increasingly sophisticated customer needs and frequent new product introductions and enhancements characterize the industries in
which we compete. If we are unable to develop new or sufficiently differentiated products and services, enhance and improve our product offerings and support
services in a timely manner or position and price our products and services to meet demand, customers may not purchase or subscribe to our software, hardware or
cloud offerings or renew software support, hardware support or cloud subscriptions contracts. Renewals of these contracts are important to the growth of our
business. In addition, we cannot provide any assurance that the standards on which we choose to develop new products will allow us to compete effectively for
business opportunities in emerging areas.
We have continued to refresh and release new offerings of our cloud and on-premise software and hardware products and services, including our Database
Multitenant, Database In-Memory, SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, DaaS and Oracle Engineered Systems offerings. Our business may be adversely affected if:
• we do not continue to develop and release these or other new or enhanced products and services within the anticipated time frames;
• there is a delay in market acceptance of a new, enhanced or acquired product line or service;
• there are changes in information technology (IT) trends that we do not adequately anticipate or address with our product development efforts;
• we do not timely optimize complementary product lines and services; or
• we fail to adequately integrate, support or enhance acquired product lines or services.
If our security measures for our products and services are compromised and as a result, our data, our customers’ data or our IT systems are accessed
improperly, made unavailable, or improperly modified, our products and services may be perceived as vulnerable, our brand and reputation could be damaged,
the IT services we provide to our customers could be disrupted, and customers may stop using our products and services, all of which could reduce our revenue
and earnings, increase our expenses and expose us to legal claims and regulatory actions. We are in the IT business, and our products and services, including
our Oracle Cloud offerings, store, retrieve, manipulate and manage our customers’ information and data, external data, as well as our own data. We have a
reputation for secure and reliable product offerings and related services and we have invested a great deal of time and resources in protecting the integrity and
security of our products, services and the internal and external data that we manage.
At times, we encounter attempts by third parties to identify and exploit product and service vulnerabilities, penetrate or bypass our security measures, and gain
unauthorized access to our or our customers’, partners’ and suppliers’ software, hardware and cloud offerings, networks and systems, any of which could lead to the
compromise of personal information or the confidential information or data of Oracle or our customers. Computer hackers and others may be able to develop and
deploy IT related viruses, worms, and other malicious software programs that could attack our products and services, exploit potential security vulnerabilities of our
products and services, create system disruptions and cause shutdowns or denials of service. This is also true for third-party data, products or services incorporated
into our own. Data may also be accessed or modified improperly as a result of customer, partner, employee or supplier error or malfeasance and third parties may
attempt to fraudulently induce customers, partners, employees or suppliers into disclosing sensitive information such as user names, passwords or other information
in order to gain access to our data, our customers’, suppliers’ or partners’ data or the IT systems of Oracle, its customers, suppliers or partners.
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