Questions surround the future of Sun's Australian partners

Australian Sun partners have more questions than answers about their future under the vendor’s new owner, Oracle. But all agree Oracle’s plans to grow its global sales force and take 1700 Sun customers direct won’t have significant ramifications locally.

Managing director for Queensland-based integrator SureBridge IT, Rick Brown, said Sun had been communicating with partners since the acquisition was announced in April last year, but was unable to provide any real information on how its channel would be received within the Oracle fold.

SureBridge is a significant Sun partner but also works with Oracle in a limited capacity. Its customer base includes mid-market corporates and state government departments.

“They’re telling us a lot of nothing,” Brown said. “If this is a game of Texas Hold ‘Em, we’ve got a big pot in front of us and nobody knows what anyone has in their hands.

What will happen to Sun's technology partner alliances, such as its storage arrangement with Hitachi Data Systems (HDS), has also been called into question. But despite this, Brown was not overly concerned by Oracle’s plan to take Sun’s top 1700 enterprise accounts direct and 2000 additional direct sales staff as the international decision was unlikely to affect Australian relationships.

“We are not overly concerned simply because Sun’s sales force has been diminishing here in the last 18 months to two years. For Oracle to increase its sales force to cover what has already gone, then add value on top, will be a difficult job in the current market. Oracle will have an uphill battle,” he said.

“It doesn’t mean we will drop our guard though – in fact, we will lift it and continue using our key differentiator to stay successful, which is service.”

According to Brown, any negative decisions made by Oracle around Sun resellers could also see partners switch allegiance to alternative server and infrastructure suppliers. While Sun was a solid vendor partner, he claimed Oracle hadn’t delivered enough channel value and often went direct over partners’ heads.

“Oracle may get burnt for going over resellers, as we can always come in with someone like HP,” Brown said. “I don’t know if it’s a good thing, or if the cultures will mix. If they don’t, it will be one hell of a fight.”

Express Data vendor manager, David Peach, said questions about the long-term integration of the two vendors’ channel programs were rife. In the meantime, however, it was business as usual across the distributor’s Sun sales and support team.

“We have talked to both Oracle and the Sun team about their x86 server plans, and these are in line with our strategy locally with Sun today... it is pleasing that they are still committed to the x86 platform,” Peach said. “What the channel looks like in a year’s time is up in the air.”

He was confident Oracle would see value in Sun’s solid Australian partner ecosystem and that its strengths would feed into the integrated local structure.

Both Alphawest and Dimension Data declined to comment on the Oracle/Sun acquisition or channel strategy.

An Oracle spokesperson said the company was not yet in a position to comment on local policy.

Brisbane-based integrator, Server Central, has been a Sun shop since launching in 2003. Managing director, Andrew George, was also waiting to gain clarification around channel commitment, but dismissed Oracle’s direct tendencies as a major threat. The reseller focuses on infrastructure and datacentre solutions for organisations with 50-1000 seats.

“We’ll see how the local guys work together and how effective it is. Taking customers direct doesn’t affect resellers in Australia as most are big customers overseas. I’m just glad Sun is still there – whether it’s Oracle/Sun, or Sun is a division, it doesn’t worry me as long as we have access to the technology,” George said.

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