Oracle: Past, Present and Future

The Beginnings.

When CEO Lawrence J. Ellison and a few associates formed Oracle in 1977, they were out to prove wrong the prevailing theory that relationship databases could not be commercially viable.

Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates found Software Development Laboratories. Inspired by a research paper written in 1970 by an IBM researcher titled " A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks", the three decide to build a new type of database called a relational database system. Their orginal project is for the government and is titled Oracle. The founders believe that Oracle, meaning source of wisdom, would be an appropriate name for their project and receive permission from the CIA to use it.

What's in a name?

In 1978, Software Development Laboratories moved from their office in Santa Clara to a new one on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, the heart of Silicon Valley. In an attempt to explain what their company does, they changed their name to Relational Software Inc., or RSI. The newly-christened company shipped its first commercial SQL-based database, V2, in 1979 (V1 was never officially released). In 1982 RSI changed its name to Oracle Systems Corporation, which later become Oracle Corporation.

Tapping the Internet.

In 1983, Oracle decided to make RDBMS portable, and introduced V3 - the first portable database to run on PCs, mini computers and mainframes. Today, Oracle targets high-end workstations and mini computers as the server platforms on which to run its database systems. Along with few others, Oracle has long been a champion of network computers. It now boasts that is was the world's first software company to develop and deploy 100 percent Internet-enabled enterprise software across its entire product line: database, server, enterprise business applications, applications development and decision support tools. In fact, CEO Ellison has said, "If the Internet turns out not to be the future of computing, we're toast. But if it is, we're golden."

A phenomenal success story.

Today, as proof of their success, they've parlayed an initial $2,000 investment in the company into an annual revenue exceeding $10.1 billion. Based in Redwood shores, California, it has more that 43,000 employees worldwide and does business in over 150 countries. Oracle (ORCL) is publicly traded on the NASDAQ.