Kevin Closson's Blog: Platforms, Databases and Storage

…there is, in fact, a new Partner Program…

This is just a quick blog entry to point folks to what I think is a very important Oracle press release.

On October 12, Oracle announced the creation of  the Oracle Exadata Partner Program. While at Open World this week I spoke with a few of my friends that have very successful Oracle consultancies. As usual they asked me how they might get into an appropriate program whereby they can help customers chose when Exadata will fit their requirements. I think this program souns like a great start.

I captured the following list from the press release:

• Following the announcement of Oracle® Exadata V2 last month, Oracle today announced the Oracle Exadata Partner Program.
• This new program will allow Oracle partners to resell Sun Oracle Database Machines and Sun Oracle Exadata Storage Servers, and also provides partners with enablement resources to help build value added services for Oracle’s customers.
• Resellers must be enrolled in the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) and hold a valid Full Use Distribution Agreement to resell Oracle Exadata products.
• Solution Providers and Systems Integrators are encouraged to build Oracle Exadata expertise and implementation services around Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing, VLDB and OLTP environments as well as vertical industry expertise in the retail, financial services, communications, healthcare and public sector segments.
• ISVs are invited to review the industry leading performance, scalability and reliability of Oracle Exadata V2 as the platform for their own Oracle based solutions.
• As part of the new OPN Specialized Program, Oracle is developing the Oracle Exadata Knowledge Zone with Guided Learning Paths and partner centric training materials that are scheduled to become available in the coming weeks.
• An Oracle Exadata Specialization is also expected to be available shortly after OPN Specialized systems’ projected go-live date of December 1. (See accompanying announcement)
• Oracle Exadata V2, developed by Sun and Oracle, is the world’s fastest database machine capable of both data warehousing and online transaction processing (OLTP) applications.
• The Oracle Exadata Partner Program will roll out over the next several months. Details and information are available on the OPN portal.