We believe that this will be great achievement as considerable time of IT directors and Chief Technology officers is consumed in keeping the datacenters running at optimum levels and hence more important tasks like meeting business users information requirements are impacted. If datacenters are running at optimum levels , they will be able to spend more time on producing critical information for organization and hence making them more competitive.

By Jessica Hodgson Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones)--Oracle Corp. (ORCL) Chief Executive Larry Ellison appears to be rethinking "cloud computing," saying his company was creeping into the space just nine months after he mocked the business model.

Many software companies are embracing cloud computing, Cloud computing – a broad term for a shift towards paying for technology on a subscription basis, storing information on large servers and accessing the data via the Internet. But just last September, the outspoken Oracle CEO described the trend as “gibberish” and expressed skepticism as to whether companies could make a profit from cloud computing.

On Tuesday, Ellison appeared to change his tune. During a call following Oracle’s fourth-quarter results, Ellison said the company’s Fusion products – software that aims to tie together technology from many of the Redwood City, Calif.-based company’s acquisitions – would be “on-demand ready,” suggesting they would be available on a pay-as-you-go basis. He added that a portion of Oracle’s revenue from Fusion products could come from subscriptions in the future, rather than from one-off sales. Licenses to most Oracle products have a one-time fee, but can be augmented with maintenance and support, which would be charged separately.

The comment immediately provoked interest from analysts, one of whom asked if Oracle was now getting into cloud computing. Ellison admitted the company was getting “a little bit” into the space.

Ellison’s remark underscores the recognition that cloud computing will likely play an increasingly important role in corporate computing. Companies like Salesforce.com Inc. (CRM) and Netsuite Inc. (N) have begun offering software that they host on their own servers and which customers access via the Internet. Similarly, online retailer Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), is allowing companies to pay for computing power on a per usage basis. Those products challenge incumbent software makers, many of which, like Oracle, have been testing the water with some online products.

Oracle’s chief executive indicated that he viewed such companies as potential competition to his own software giant. In particular, he referenced Salesforce.com, the largest company that makes only on-demand software.

“We think we can be very competitive against Salesforce.com,” Ellison said. “Virtually every time we compete with them on large deals and with large customers we win and in some cases replace them.”

Ellison said Oracle had spotted a significant gap in the market for on-demand products that Salesforce.com didn’t currently address. That’s the market for software hosted and stored at a data center owned by a customer but operated by a software firm, such as Oracle.

“We think this is the interesting model, and that’s the model Salesforce.com doesn’t offer,” Ellison said.

Last September, Ellison told investors that cloud computing, along with other related trends, such as software as a service, were over-hyped and ill-defined buzzwords embraced by companies mainly to market products. He said the computer industry was almost as fashion-driven as the women’s clothing industry.

“We’ll make cloud computing announcements because if orange is the new pink we will make orange clouds,” he said, mocking spin from some of his competitors.

San Francisco-based Salesforce.com, whose CEO Marc Benioff is a former Oracle executive, has positioned its products as a cost-effective alternative to those of Oracle and other large software companies. Salesforce.com’s annual revenues, of $1 billion, are dwarfed by Oracle’s $23.5 billion, but the company has shown strong revenue growth rates since it was founded at the beginning of the decade. 

-By Jessica Hodgson, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-439-6455; jessica.hodgson@dowjones.com

We uploaded a Excel data file to Fusion table and was uploaded, however for more functionalities we are researching on what can be done with fusion tables. We will write more in coming posts.