Another SAP in the face for Oracle: Alphabet soups up financial software by moving off Big Red systems

Google owner Alphabet has switched from Oracle to SAP for its main financial software in a move that has dented Big Red's share price. The timing of the news, which first appeared on CNBC, is also likely to raise eyebrows, coming as it does on the heels of Google's victory over Oracle in the long-running Java code dispute. …

[Anonymous Coward]

"Alphabet and Google's core financial systems will move to SAP in May,"

May of which year?

[Blackjack]

Re: "Alphabet and Google's core financial systems will move to SAP in May,"

Yeah is not so easy to move, may be the reason it took three years.

[Anonymous Coward]

Google versus Oracle

"Do no all evil" versus "done all evil"!

[steelpillow]

Hot news

Alarmed at the prospect of mass redundancies, Oracle's legal team have persuaded Larry to make a play for Xinuos, current proprietor of the SCO/UNIX gravy train.

[Will Godfrey]

Re: Hot news

The only gravy train I've heard of that apparently runs in reverse.

[steelpillow]

Re: Hot news

@Will Godfrey Not for the career lawyers it doesn't.

[Charlie Clark]

Out of the frying pan…

The move is likely to be in response to the tetchy relationship between the two tech giants in their respective markets.

Both Oracle and SAP are known for customer unfriendly lockin contracts and a deaf ear when it comes to requests for support until the wallet is opened wide enough. As a result, switching systems is an expensive decision usually taken only when the pain has become unbearable. Or the new vendor is offering a big enough sweetener.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Out of the frying pan…

Into the volcano .....

[Anonymous Coward]

Sweetener

How long before SAP offers its customers a chance to migrate from AWS to Google Cloud Platform?

Big Red looks littler every year.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Sweetener

Aren't Oracle revenues at an all time high?

[katrinab]

I kind-of assumed they would do their own in-house thing. They certainly have the technical expertise to do it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Technical Expertise

I have been involved in a few of these - it seems the expertise that really counts, and is often in rather short supply is the relevant business (accounting / ERM / ERP / transformation etc.) expertise rather than the technical skills.

[rcxb]

Cloud competitors

Oracle has been reluctant to authorise its databases and applications in the Google Cloud Platform, currently third in the market ahead of Oracle.

Strange that, as Google Cloud should be Oracle's favourite.

AWS sells their own databases in their cloud and had a long public spat with Oracle about the fact that they weren't eating their own dog-food, until they were, and eliminated their Oracle DBs.

Azure from Microsoft is rather a direct competitor, with their SQL Server product being one of the more popular SQL DBs out there. If you want SQL in the Azure cloud, you'll be getting MS-SQL, not Oracle.

Google seems neutral, by comparison. Until Oracle decided a massive lawsuit would be a good idea.

I guess Oracle will get a bigger slice of a small and ever shrinking pie as a result, but I would think growing the pie would have been the better answer, long-term.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Cloud competitors

Google stole Java for Android from Oracle. Oracle sued them for $8 billion. Probably put a few wrinkles in the relationship.

[Anonymous Coward]

Zero surprise here. Oracle and Google have been in a decade long Java/Android lawsuit. SAP runs on Google Cloud whereas Oracle does not.

[Denarius]

significance ?

not ego driven tit for tat, but that corporate arterial sclerosis will do to Google what anti-trust has not.

[hoola]

Re: significance ?

I can only assume that Google simply don't want to take the development hit of creating their own solution. They must believe that if they made it available as a service there would be no money in it for them.