On the database front, we’ll be looking for any hints about when Oracle Database 12c will be released. The next version of the Oracle Database has been in beta version for a while now. Earlier this year Ellison said that Oracle Database 12c might be released in December or January. Then a statement Sept. 4 regarding Oracle’s support for Intel Itanium-based platforms said that “version 12c of the Oracle database” is “due out in early 2013.” At the same time, there are rumblings that, at the very least, details about 12c could be released at Oracle OpenWorld, which starts Sept. 30. On a side note, if you’re beta testing 12c, email me at mfontecchio@techtarget.com. If you’re not, email me anyway and give me your wish list for 12c.

On the applications front, we will hopefully hear some details on the uptake of Fusion Applications. The next generation of Oracle applications has been generally available for almost a year now, and so Oracle is expected to talk about how successful they have been.

Finally on the hardware side, we will likely hear more about Oracle’s integrated systems. Oracle executives said at the last earnings call that hardware will start to become a “growth story” in this fiscal year, so we’ll see how that has done. We’ll expect some possible talk about the Oracle Database Appliance, which was geared toward medium-sized businesses looking for an integrated database device. There may also be some hints or details about Oracle’s future hardware plans, whether that be the next generation of Exadata or some other new integrated hardware platform.

The results were not terribly surprising. To name a few: Virtualization efforts are being hampered by up front budget constraints and organizational issues. Organizations who are embracing virtualization are more likely to expand it into database environments. More than 80% of respondents had increased the number of database instances at their companies.

There were some interesting nuggets though. The research was sponsored by VMware, which obviously sees an opportunity while Oracle straightens out is virtualization road map, combining Oracle VM with the Sun family of server virtualization products. In fact the initial press release cited Oracle as the sponsor of the research, an error that has since been corrected. Perhaps a Freudian typo by the IOUG?

 Despite its sponsor, the survey did note that some respondents lament the resistance from some software vendors to support software on virtual servers. Oracle’s existing policy remains.

“Right now there’s a lot of different choices out there and approaches to virtualization,” Ian Abramson, president of the IOUG told me in an interview last week. “It comes down to standardization. At the end of the day it’s all going to work out as these models mature, you’ll see these things work out.”

Undoubtedly, many attendees at this week’s Collaborate show are hoping those answers arrive here in Las Vegas.

According to the survey, UNIX is also seeing some defections. While it is still a strong architecture choice, many organizations are moving to commodity platforms, the survey found. Half of organizations in the survey run Oracle database instances on x86 architecture or plan to do so shortly.

Oracle’s own interest in selling x86 servers has not been significant, according to George Weiss, an analyst with Gartner. He spoke with a client a few weeks ago on the very topic.

“I was with one this morning that was asking if Sun would want to bid and meet practices of HP and Dell in x86 servers and they were getting a lukewarm interest in it,” Weiss said.” If there’s a Solaris x86 Server business Oracle is interested in promoting, they need to begin to think about strategies to take business from HPs IBMs and Dells.”

Likewise, Weiss had little optimism for Solaris.

“[Oracle is] not interested in wide open business operating systems that compete with Linux like Solaris,” he said. “There are questions about whether Solaris x86 business is one where there’s a high degree of focus.”

Meanwhile, as Oracle customers wait for clarity and guidance on the Oracle-Sun future, many shops continue to have to do more with less.

According to the survey, some Oracle shops have taken a budgetary hit: 28% said they have cut staffing and/or support and 19% have cut back on database growth, software or tool purchases; 38% said they downsized at least part of their operations over the past year, either people or systems.

So while many Oracle shops are still struggling to do more with less, and see virtualization as one solution, they’re still finding resistance in their own companies and awaiting guidance from Oracle. Hopefully the user community can provide some answers and advice here at Collaborate.

That’s because there was very little said.

It now seems that Oracle and Sun customers, anxious for information on just what Oracle’s plans are for its newly acquired Sun product line, are going to have to find it for themselves.

Don’t count on Oracle to shout from the rooftops that it’s raising prices and changing policies.

A few revelations trickled out last week, when Oracle made some changes to its hardware systems support policies. Oracle intends to enforce an “all or nothing support policy.”

Days later, word leaked that downloads of Solaris 10 are no longer free, they are now a 90-day download. Ben Rockwood had this to say in his Cuddletech blog:

So long as OpenSolaris remains free this isn’t the end of the world… but now all eyes turn to OpenSolaris’s fate. The end of the month is here and OpenSolaris 2010.03 is nowhere in sight and those I’ve asked on the inside are unable to say.

This might be a good time to catch up on non-Sun/Oracle distros such as Nexenta, Schillix, and Belenix.

Some changes were, of course, expected and most industry observers knew that Oracle would bring more discipline to Sun’s licensing practices, an area in which the company was notoriously lax. By most accounts, the “all or nothing” support policy was focused on smaller businesses paying for support on just a few servers but using the patches and updates across the company.

The problem with the “all or nothing” policy, according to Altimeter Group’s Ray Wang, a particularly vocal critic of the support policies for enterprise software, is that they need to have different tiers of support.

Besides, Oracle marketing being what it is, one should also expect a bigger spotlight on announcements like support for Sun product lines than licensing changes. I spoke with Jonathan Eunice, founder and principal IT advisor for Illuminata about the Oracle-Sun changes.

“It’s a big complicated acquisition and some of the parts are aspirational.  ‘Yes we’ll invest more in processor development than Sun did,’ that looks good in a press release and you can announce it,” he said. “‘We’re going to charge you more for maintenance is not lofty.’ Though it’s certainly reasonable from a Wall Street perspective or an investor perspective.”

Just how all the Oracle-Sun products and procedures are going to shake out will still take some time and Eunice predicts it will be at least another quarter before we have a sense of the full extent of the roadmap.

Oracle customers, familiar with how the company handles database and applications licensing, can expect a similar approach to third party support for hardware. Oracle already has two lawsuits pending against companies that offered third party support and maintenance for applications, now defunct TomorrowNow and more recently Rimini Street.

While support for hardware is a different business, expect some strong-arming and tighter conditions from Oracle, Eunice said.

In the meantime, be on the lookout for any notices or emails from Oracle and watch the price lists.

“Real Oracle watchers check every week,” Wang said.