Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2014/01/08/oracle_buys_corente/

Oracle swallows Corente, hopes to kick rivals in software networking bits

Larry Ellison's firm joins the SDN crowd

By Gavin Clarke

Posted in Systems, 8th January 2014 08:27 GMT

Oracle is buying software defined networking specialist Corente, upping the stakes in telecoms and cloud.

Corente makes software to manage and provision applications and services regardless of IP network, transport type, access, security or provider over a wide area.

Financial terms of the deal, announced on Tuesday, were not revealed. Oracle said simply the deal would close in “early” 2014.

Oracle promised it will deliver “a complete portfolio” for cloud deployments using Corente.

The idea is to combine Oracle’s systems with Corente’s SDN to virtualise the enterprise data centre and local- and wide-area networks, to speed up deployment and improve management and security for clouds.

That will mean spanning its Solaris and Linux operating systems, virtual machines, its Exadata systems, servers, storage systems and networking hardware.

Edward Screven, Oracle’s chief corporate architect, said in a canned statement that the new deployments would allow enterprises to “easily and securely deliver applications and cloud services to their globally distributed locations."

Founded in 2007, Corente's customers include UK telco BT.

The deal takes Oracle into closer competition with those selling products to build clouds and those providing public cloud services.

The idea is Corente provides the elastic management while Oracle’s servers, running Infiniband, provide fast and scalable throughput.

Oracle's not just piling onto the SDN bandwagon with its latest acquisitions: it is also going up against makers of telecoms equipment.

Last year Ellison's firm bought VoIP infrastructure and software specialist Acme Packet and signalling software company Tekelec.

Both Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks have bought into SDN. Cisco in November announced its Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI), which uses software to manage traffic on networks built using its routers and switches.

All of them are trying to box off and contain virtualisation giant VMware with its NSX proprietary software control layer.

Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison said on the purchase of Acme in early 2013 that it was his goal was to "be the primary technology provider in the telecommunications industry".

Oracle will achieve that via engineering and acquisitions, he said. ®