Oracle CEO Larry Ellison Debuts In-Memory Database To Kick Off OpenWorld

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison was all positivity for a day as he kicked off his company's annual OpenWorld conference with anticipated remarks debuting Oracle's new in-memory database product it's counting on to turn around tepid revenue growth.

The tech billionaire, third richest American on the Forbes 400, tipped his cap to his team currently battling in the America's Cup and then made his pitch for why In-Memory Database Technology can right the ship for his firm's slowing growth. Oracle Team USA won both its races Sunday but must win four in a row to keep its title--and Oracle might face as tough a challenge in growing that revenue, which came in at just 2% for the quarter. On its earnings call last week, president Mark Hurd said the company is counting on the in-data option, which Ellison also previewed in writing for the earnings release.

Ellison gave a demo of its new capability Sunday, showing off his new product against Oracle's also critical 12c database system offfering, which it began selling on July 1. In-Memory, Ellison told the crowd at his industry conference's opening keynote, will be up to 100 times faster.

At its most basic, in-memory data is easier to access when checking it for a specific query or data set compared to disk storage (which at its most meager constituted the floppy disks and compact disks common even in personal use). Data in Oracle's new system will move data automatically between three tiers: disk, flash and dynamic random-access memory, or DRAM. Customers will supposedly not notice any complications when opting for in-memory.

The name of the game for Oracle is real-time analytics and faster data processing, especially as companies increasingly look to perform analysis on massive quantities of data without knowing a specific question.

Oracle continues to update and look to make money of its multi-billion dollar acquisition of Sun Microsystems in Jan. 2010, with hardware systems products revenues last quarter of $669 million, compared to new software subscription revenues of $1.7 billion and ongoing license revenues of $4.4 billion.

The company also announced a new data machine and database backup product.

While Ellison didn't come out and say it, the company's big news to kick off its consumer conference is a challenge to SAP, which has its own in-memory option already, SAP HANA. The data offering is an increasingly critical part of all branches of SAP's business, and the company said in July it expects direct revenue from HANA of between $1 billion and $1.1 billion.

Ellison's known for his sharp words for competitors, but it was SAP left firing shots, issuing a response to Ellison's presentation that Oracle is still "missing the mark."

But Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff was impressed, tweeting:

Tonight's @oracleopenworld keynote proves that @oracle and @larryellison remain the absolute leader in database technology.

— Marc Benioff (@Benioff) September 23, 2013 

Ellison did, however, mention IBM, claiming the company's M6-32 data machine is cheaper and faster than IBM's current top offering.

As many as 60,000 people are expected to filter through OracleWorld today through Thurs., so more news will likely come out of San Francisco's Moscone Center in the next several days. The city's mayor kicked off the event, but local news is worried about the increased traffic.

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