Sun partners burnt at Oracle OpenWorld

Oracle OpenWorld 2009 did  not open well for Sun partners who are already reaching for anti-anxiety meds as the Sun Microsystems acquisition finalizes.

They were invited to  an introductory meeting Sunday at 8 a.m.–no one’s finest hour.  Insult to injury, those  who hauled themselves over to Moscone at that time found no meeting. It had been moved to 10 a.m.  according to an email message that may or may not have gone out Saturday night, but clearly did not reach its intended targets.

The content from the meeting when it happened, didn’t bowl over a long-time Sun software partner. He was glad to hear that Exadata 2.0, the Sun-based database machine, can go through the channel. PowerPoint slides mentioned 25% margins, with an additional 10% for sales logged before May 2009. Yes, that’s right, if you sold Sun Exadata boxes six months before they were available  you get another ten points. Oracle is apparently so big now it can screw with the space-time continuum.

It could be a rough week.