(Image via CrunchBase)

Think about the term “data warehouse”: it conjures up images of days long gone by when IT organizations were primarily concerned with packing up all their digital  stuff into standard-sized boxes and stashing them in giant, remote facilities to which only a privileged few had access.

Unless you were one of those privileged few, then getting access to that warehoused stuff was a highly non-trivial pursuit. And unless you had friends in very high places, the thought of actually being able to tinker with those hermetically sealed digital assets was a silly fantasy. If the IT gods had actually wanted people to have access to all that high-potential stuff, then they wouldn’t have created warehouses to store it in, right?

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison (Getty Images North America via @daylife)

In the past decade, Oracle has acquired about 90 companies. And out of all of those deals, Larry Ellison recently cited the 2009 acquisition of Sun Microsystems as “the most strategic and profitable acquisition Oracle has ever made.”

By contrast, some media folks and analysts continue to refer to the Sun acquisition as a flop, a bomb, a whiff.

They come to that conclusion presumably because revenue from the sale of Sun hardware has declined since the acquisition, and they lock on to that opinion in spite of the fact that Oracle executives at the time of the deal said they were going to eliminate unprofitable hardware products, low-value hardware products, and no-future hardware products in spite of the inevitable revenue impacts.

But what those naysayers always seem to overlook—for reasons that I’ve never been able to fathom, even long before I joined Oracle in May of 2012—is that Ellison from the very beginning said he was going to keep all of Sun’s great products and technologies and pump even more money into them because they would provide the raw materials for Oracle to create greater value for customers by transforming itself from the world’s largest enterprise-software company into the creator of the world’s fastest and most-powerful business systems. continue »

Thinking RFID (Photo credit: @boetter)

What should strategic CIOs focus on in 2013?

That’s a profoundly important question for businesses operating in a highly volatile global economy in which customers have become far more demanding and fickle than ever before, in which traditional business models are being stressed more than ever before, in which distribution and marketing channels are being scrambled like never before, and in which technology has become inseparable from business processes, customer engagement, and consumption, and much more.

As a result, the coming year will see intense CIO involvement in optimizing customer experiences, exploiting analytics, transforming Big Data to Big Opportunities, accelerating all facets of enterprise execution, mainstreaming social capabilities, and enabling co-creation of value with customers. continue »

At this holiday time of year, I hope you’ll indulge this personal story of a woman whose family  couldn’t afford to send her to college but who was far smarter—and wiser—than most; who was 5’3” and all of 112 pounds and loved to laugh and entertain but whose iron-and-steel moral authority struck cold-hearted fear into her six knuckleheaded sons and one thoroughly independent daughter; and who attacked each day gleefully and fearlessly until called to her eternal rest on November 23.

Rita Claire Wiesen Evans, music lover and intellectual powerhouse, card-shark and world traveler, Pittsburgh Steelers fan and loving wife and mother, died recently at her home surrounded by her children and their spouses.

I ask your indulgence in stepping outside the realm of business and technology because over her 95 years on this Earth, Rita Evans accumulated, generated, and shared great wisdom—and wisdom is an asset that should be shared again and again. In that spirit, and as we enter the family-centered holiday season, it’s my great privilege to share with you 10 things my mom told me. continue »

The look of champions (Getty Images via @daylife)

The San Francisco Giants swept the Detroit Tigers in the 2012 World Series with a blend of brilliant pitching, steady defense, timely hitting, and bold, don’t-panic leadership.

And one more key ingredient: world-class IT that not only helps spotlight great talent, drive insightful game-time decision-making, and create dynamic fan experiences for the 3.3 million paying customers who attended Giants’ games in 2012. continue »