甲骨文和SAP推特上演骂战

    甲骨文（Oracle）的云计算已经酝酿了快7年，而拉里•埃利森加入推特差不多也花了这么长时间。这位心直口快的首席执行官上周三发布了自己的首条推文，不出所料，他用了近140个单词（每条推文的字数上限是140个单词）来攻击对手SAP：“甲骨文如今在云端有100多个企业级应用，而SAP直到2020年都只有SuccessFactors这一款应用。”

    到周三晚间，埃里森已有22,000名粉丝（他仅仅发了一条推文）。不过，在当天早些时候正式发布甲骨文云战略时，埃里森可是大放厥词。他不仅竭力贬低SAP，而且还对新兴云计算公司Salesforce、Workday等冷嘲热讽。在新闻稿中，埃里森把甲骨文云计算称为“地球上最全面的云计算”，而其它云计算公司则“仅能应付小众场景。”Salesforce首席执行官马克•贝尼奥夫在推特上拥有34,550名粉丝，他对埃里森的言论予以猛烈回击，“小心这条虚假微博”（贝尼奥夫此前曾称甲骨文云计算是“虚假云计算”）。

    与此同时，SAP发布了一条官方声明来回击埃里森。

    “像往常一样，你应该能看到，甲骨文批评最多的竞争对手恰恰是其最害怕的。而这一次，拉里森自己都前途未卜。云计算业务的盈利与否取决于其规模大小，SAP的SuccessFactors业务拥有1700万用户，我们是世界上最大的云应用程序供应商。”

    甲骨文新的云计算业务非常庞大——该公司表示将提供100个应用程序，从核心企业资源规划程序到HR部门使用的人力资源管理程序都有涉及。甲骨文云计算还将提供平台服务、社交监控工具等其它产品。

    当然，规模（和无礼的推文消息）显然用处不大。SAP和甲骨文采取了不同的方式，这两家技术巨头近来都进行了大量的收购，以增加自身提供的云产品。然而，它们的大部分收入仍然来自于运行在企业本地的软件（on-premise software），而非基于云端的软件，而且它们尚待证明自己能转型成云计算服务巨头。

    就甲骨文而言，它将自身大部分软件针对云端进行了改写，这是一场豪赌。而且，要使客户接受并使用这一套新产品，可能成本高昂，而且旷日持久。但有一点是确定的：假如埃里森继续写推文，推特圈肯定会热闹不少。

    译者：项航

    Oracle's cloud is almost seven years in the making—about the same amount of time it took for Larry Ellison to join Twitter. The outspoken CEO issued his first Tweet on Wednesday and, true to form, he used up much of his 140 characters to knock rival SAP: "Oracle's got 100+ enterprise applications live in the #cloudtoday, SAP's got nothin' but SuccessFactors until 2020."

    As of Wednesday evening, Ellison had nearly 22,000 followers (and just one Tweet). But there was plenty more trash talking as he officially unveiled Oracle's (ORCL) cloud strategy earlier in the day. Ellison didn't just slam SAP (SAP), he also went after younger cloud companies like Salesforce (CRM) and Workday. In a release, he called the Oracle Cloud the "most comprehensive cloud on the planet Earth" and said other cloud vendors "only have niche assets." Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, who has 34,550 followers on Twitter, responded to Ellison's claims with his own jab: "Beware of the false Tweet" (Benioff had previously referred to Oracle's cloud as the "false cloud").

    Meanwhile, SAP issued a statement in response to Ellison:

    "As usual, you can tell who Oracle is most worried about by the competitors they criticize most. In this case, Larry's crystal ball is cloudy. Building a profitable cloud business depends on scale—with 17 million users, SAP's SuccessFactors business has the largest user base of any cloud apps provider."

    Oracle's new cloud is large—the company says it will include about 100 applications, from core enterprise resource planning apps to human capital management, the kind of software used by HR departments. The Oracle Cloud will also offer platform services and social monitoring tools, among other products.

    Of course size (and snarky Tweets) can only go so far. SAP and Oracle have taken different approaches, but both enterprise tech giants have spent billions of dollars bulking up their cloud offerings with a slew of recent acquisitions. And yet, they still make the majority of their revenue from sales of on-premise, not cloud-based, software, and have yet to prove they can transform themselves into major cloud computing players.

    In Oracle's case, it's taken a bold bet by rewriting much of its software for the cloud. Then again, getting customers up and running on the new suite of products will likely be costly and time-consuming. One thing's for sure: Assuming Ellison keeps Tweeting, the Twittersphere just got a whole lot more interesting.