Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) is the second largest software vendor in the world, trailing only behind Microsoft, but steadily catching up. Last year, Oracle overtook the number two position, displacing IBM to third place. Oracle deals with enterprise software, as well as hardware, primarily due to the acquisition of Sun Microsystems in 2010. A majority of Fortune 500 companies use Oracle software to manage their data, and more can be expected after the release of their newest technology, MySQL Fabric.
How a Fortune 500 Company might manage their data
Today, the basic footprint of a Fortune 500 company that utilizes Oracle's products would look something like this: Oracle Exadata Database to store data, Oracle Fusion Middleware to seamlessly integrate the hardware and software, Oracle Enterprise Manager to manage the entire system, and multiple Oracle Database Administrators, or DBAs, to run it all.
Most databases today are written in SQL -- a database management language that allows developers to quickly populate the relational database.
A little more tech-talk
SQL is a fast and effective query language, but it creates problems for the DBA when there are many different types of data, which is where the data field seems to be heading. To neutralize the problems encountered with the rigid structure of SQL, developers created the NoSQL database, or Not Only SQL. This allows the database to handle unstructured data, a type of information that IDC predicts will "account for 90% of all data created in the next decade."
Why it matters
The basic footprint discussed above is Oracle's niche within the Information Technologies sector. The combination of hardware and software sales is crucial to its value as a company. Without one supporting the other, Oracle won't continue to grow as rapidly as it has in the past. The rise of NoSQL creates problems for Oracle as MongoDB, Cassandra, and Redis are already competing for a relatively small market share. Oracle also wants to keep customers using MySQL, which the company acquired in 2010 through Sun Microsystems.
NoSQL works fine, but the lack of speed and difficulty of management pose potential threats to these types of databases. MySQL Fabric is the solution to the many problems a NoSQL database encounters.
A beautiful marriage
Just last week, Oracle announced the best of both NoSQL and relational databases: MySQL Fabric. This project combines the functionality of a NoSQL database with the speed and structure of a relational database. As an investor, this means that Oracle will divert customers away from NoSQL databases, bringing more business to MySQL, in addition to the hardware sales associated with it. Oracle will also maintain its hold on relational databases, another asset that will continue to generate growth.
The crown and all its glory
The release of MySQL Fabric definitely has the potential to sustain Oracle's rapid revenue growth. Analysts estimate an 11.31% average annual growth rate over five years, and MySQL will help achieve it as unstructured data drives demand. As it has only been a few days since release, investors still have to see if Oracle comes out with a crown on its head yet again, but don't anticipate a coup within the big data monarchy anytime soon.
