As we have stated before on The Virtualization Practice, Oracle has woken up to the cloud in a very large way. Acquisitions such as Ravello Systems, StackEngine, and Datalogix have the potential to turn this leviathan into a dominant cloud player.
Oracle has started to move from a position of catch-up, though acquisitions, into an active development phase. Recently, CEO Safra Catz met with India’s Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, to announce a series of investments and continued expansion into India. As one of these investments, Oracle opened an incubation center, the Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator, on April 8 in Bengaluru. The center was inaugurated by President of Product Development Thomas Kurian. The company has already stated that several more centers will be launched later in Chennai, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Noida, Pune, Trivandrum, and Vijayawada. Oracle’s Sanket Atal, group vice president of development, will lead the initiative.
“India is at an exciting phase of growth, innovation and development,” Kurian stated prior to the launch. “Through the Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator and the growing popularity of cloud as an alternate computing model, we want to be the catalyst for new business ideas. We are committed to furthering the government of India’s ‘Startup India’ initiative. It matches our agenda of fostering entrepreneurship and promoting innovation by creating the right ecosystem for growth and development.”
Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator
Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator is an incubation unit for Startups. For obvious reasons, Oracle India will lead the initiative for the company. The non-cynical aim of the Accelerator is to help speed up a startup’s development through a combination of technical and business mentoring. The initiative will target midsize firms, including MSMEs (micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises) and startups, in the highly vibrant and dynamic sector of the Indian economy that contributes more than 37% of India’s GDP. The cynical will say that Oracle will not have first dabs on some seriously innovative technology.
Kurian added, “We chose Bengaluru for our first centre, given that Bengaluru is the second best funded startup hub in the world, outside of the USA.”
The Startup Cloud Accelerator is open to early-stage technology and technology-enabled startups that are building innovative solutions.
The service could potentially have an massive impact on the Indian startup sector.
Prospective startup applicants will be reviewed through a rigorous qualification process. Startups have until May 5, 2016, to apply online at www.oracle.com/in/startup/. Those selected startups will enjoy the benefits of a six-month acceleration process facilitated by access to technical and business experts from the industry and Oracle.
This is a seriously canny move for the company. Once it has opened all it centers, it will have access to some of the most innovative startups in India. Also, it has six months to review, decide on whether to invest, and even acquire those startups to secure that technology.