Manufacturing and services - update on Oracle

In some earlier postings, I used the example of Oracle's acquisition of Sun to highlight how products and services are fused together. That acquisition has now been finalized and is back in the news as Oracle unveils its strategy. As the Wall Street Journal reports Oracle's Ellison Sets New Course:

With the acquisition, Mr. Ellison, who built his fortune selling computer software and shunning hardware, says Oracle's mission will change significantly. He said he plans to transform Oracle into a company that is as serious about server systems--the big back-office computers used for processing corporate data--as it is about business software.

Key is putting together all the pieces. According to the New York Times:

The company plans to offer customers databases, business software, servers, storage systems and networking equipment from one place. In addition, Oracle will do the hard engineering work to make sure all this technology works well together, Mr. Ellison said.

That is a good description of the value-added of fusing product and service.