1. CHAPTER 1 : INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS AND BUSINESS ETHICS
Ethics is a word for a philosophy that encompasses proper conduct and good living. It is
significantly broader than the common conception of ethics as the analyzing of right and wrong.
A central aspect of ethics is "the good life", the life worth living or that is simply satisfying,
which is held by many philosophers to be more important than moral conduct.
Business ethics is a form of applied ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical
problems that arise in a business environment.
In the increasingly conscience-focused marketplaces of the 21st century, the demand for more
ethical business processes and actions (known as ethicism) is increasing. Simultaneously,
pressure is applied on industry to improve business ethics through new public initiatives and
laws (e.g. higher UK road tax for higher-emission vehicles). Businesses can often attain short-
term gains by acting in an unethical fashion; however, such antics tend to undermine the
economy over time, a fact which only Barack Obama has seemed to notice.
Business ethics can be both a normative and a descriptive discipline. As a corporate practice and
a career specialization, the field is primarily normative. In academia descriptive approaches are
also taken. The range and quantity of business ethical issues reflects the degree to which business
is perceived to be at odds with non-economic social values. Historically, interest in business
ethics accelerated dramatically during the 1980s and 1990s, both within major corporations and
within academia. For example, today most major corporate websites lay emphasis on
commitment to promoting non-economic social values under a variety of headings (e.g. ethics
codes, social responsibility charters .
Let us have a look into 7 broad categories that make up a company’s Ethics Quotient:
1) Corporate citizenship and responsibility
2) Corporate governance
3) Innovation that contributes to public well being
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2. 4) Industry leadership
5) Executive leadership and tone from the top
6) Integrity track record and reputation
7) Internal systems and ethics/compliance program
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3. CHAPTER 2: INTRODUCTION TO ORACLE
Oracle Corporation was formed in 1977 in California, USA. Oracle Corporation
(NASDAQ: ORCL) specializes in developing and marketing enterprise software products —
particularly database management systems. Through organic growth and a number of high-
profile acquisitions, Oracle enlarged its share of the software market. By 2007 Oracle ranked
third on the list of largest software companies in the world, after Microsoft and IBM.
Subsequently it became larger than IBM after its acquisition of Hyperion and BEA.
The corporation has arguably become best-known due to association with its flagship Oracle
database. The company also builds tools for database development, middle-tier software,
enterprise resource planning software (ERP), customer relationship management software
(CRM) and supply chain management (SCM) software.
The founder and CEO of Oracle Corporation, Larry Ellison, has served as Oracle's CEO
throughout the company's history. Ellison also served as the Chairman of the Board until his
replacement by Jeffrey O. Henley in 2004. Ellison retains his role as CEO.
Ellison took inspiration from the 1970 paper written by Edgar F. Codd on relational database
systems named "A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks". He had heard about
the IBM System R database from an article in the IBM Research Journal provided by Ed Oates
(a future co-founder of Oracle Corporation). System R also derived from Codd's theories, and
Ellison wanted to make his Oracle product compatible with System R, but IBM stopped this by
keeping the error codes for their DBMS secret. Ellison co-founded Oracle Corporation in 1977
under the name Software Development Laboratories (SDL). In 1979 SDL changed its name to
Relational Software, Inc. (RSI). In 1982, RSI renamed itself as Oracle Systems to align itself
more closely with its flagship product Oracle Database. At this stage Robert Miner served as the
company's senior programmer.
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4. Business
General
Oracle is the world’s largest enterprise software company. It develops, manufacture, market,
distribute and service database and middleware software as well as applications software
designed to help its customers manage and grow their business operations. Its goal is to offer
customers scalable, reliable, secure and integrated software systems that provide transactional
efficiencies, adapt to an organization’s unique needs and allow better ways to access and manage
information at a lower total cost of ownership. It seek to be an industry leader in each of the
specific product categories in which it competes and to expand into new and emerging markets.
In fiscal 2007, it focused on strengthening our competitive position and enhancing our existing
portfolio of products and services as well as acquiring and integrating businesses.
An active acquisition program is an important element of its corporate strategy. In the last three
fiscal years, it have invested over $25 billion, in the aggregate, to acquire a number of
companies, products, services and technologies, including the acquisition of PeopleSoft, Inc.,
Siebel Systems, Inc. and Hyperion Solutions Corporation. Typically, the significant majority of
its integration activities related to an acquisition are substantially complete in the United States
within three to six months after the closing of the acquisition.
The acquisition program supports our long-term strategic direction, strengthens our competitive
position, expands its customer base and provides greater scale to accelerate innovation, grow our
earnings and increase stockholder value. It expect to continue to acquire companies, products,
services and technologies.
Software and Services
Oracle is organized into two businesses, software and services, which are further divided into
five operating segments. Its software business is comprised of two operating segments: (1) new
software licenses and (2) software license updates and product support. Its services business is
comprised of three operating segments: (1) consulting, (2) On Demand and (3) education. Its
software and services businesses represented 79% and 21% of our total revenues, respectively, in
fiscal 2007 and 80% and 20% of our total revenues, respectively, in both fiscal 2006 and fiscal
2005.
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5. SOFTWARE BUSINESS
New Software Licenses
New software licenses include the licensing of database and middleware software, which
consists of Oracle Database and Oracle Fusion Middleware, as well as applications software. Its
technology and business solutions are based on an internet model comprised of interconnected
database servers, application servers, web servers and computers as well as mobile devices
running web browsers. This architecture enables users to access business data and applications
through a universally adopted web browser interface, while providing enterprises the most
efficient and cost effective method of managing business information and applications. In an
internet model, database servers manage and protect the underlying business information, while
application servers run the business applications that automate a myriad of business functions.
We have focused on concepts such as global single instance application deployment that involve
fewer, high quality databases of important business information, rather than dozens or hundreds
of disparate databases that are difficult to synchronize and coordinate.
Database
As the world’s most popular database, Oracle’s relational database enables the secure storage,
manipulation and retrieval of all forms of data including structured data that resides in business
applications, XML data, analytics data, spatial data and other unstructured data such as
documents, spreadsheets and images. Designed for enterprise grid computing, the Oracle
Database is available in four editions: Express Edition, Standard Edition One, Standard Edition
and Enterprise Edition.
Enterprise Manager
Oracle Enterprise Manager is designed to deliver top-down applications management. Our
customers use Oracle Enterprise Manager to monitor and manage their applications and
underlying software infrastructure, including both Oracle and non-Oracle infrastructure products.
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6. Secure Enterprise Search
Oracle Secure Enterprise Search provides an internet-like search experience to users searching
secure content inside the enterprise. Oracle Secure Enterprise Search indexes and searches
public, private and shared content across internal and external web sites, databases, file servers,
document repositories, enterprise content management systems, applications and portals. Oracle
Secure Enterprise Search has built-in functionality that permits users to see only search results
leading to information for which they have authorized access.
Middleware
Oracle Fusion Middleware is a broad product family that forms a reliable and scalable
foundation on which customers can build, deploy and integrate business applications and
automate their business processes, using Oracle Fusion Middleware, our customers increase their
capacity to adapt to business changes rapidly, reduce their risks related to security and
compliance, increase user productivity, and drive better business decisions.
Application Server
The foundation of Oracle Fusion Middleware is Oracle Application Server. Designed for grid
computing, Oracle Application Server incorporates clustering and caching technology, which
increases application reliability, performance, security and scalability. Oracle Application Server
also provides a complete integration platform that is designed to simplify and accelerate
business, application and data integration projects.
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7. Awards for Oracle's Commitment
2006 : Oracle Ireland wins Irish ICT Excellence Award—Best ICT Company to Work For
2005 : Oracle América voted Company of the Year 2005 by Computing Magazine
Oracle Voted African Employer of the Year 2005
Oracle Commendation from the City of Pleasanton
Oracle Education Foundation's ThinkQuest Named Best Internet Site For Kids
Oracle Ranks #2 in The Top 20 Best Workplaces for Commuters from the FORTUNE 500
Companies
2004 : Oracle Named One of Top Corporate Philanthropists by Business Week; Ranks in the Top
Ten for In-Kind Donations
2003 : Belmont Community Special Recognition Award
Redwood City Fire Department Praises Oracle for its Community Spirit and Contributions—
Presentation Ceremony Planned
2002 : Belmont Community Special Recognition Award
Points of Light Foundation Award Honoree
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8. CHAPTER 3 : A SUMMARY OF ORACLE BUSINESS VALUES
Certain core values are essential to Oracle’s business:
INTEGRITY
Oracle employees demonstrate honesty and sound ethical behavior in all business transactions
and personal integrity in all dealings with others.
MUTUAL RESPECT
Oracle employees consistently treat individuals with respect and dignity.
TEAMWORK
Oracle employees work together as a team for the collective interests of Oracle.
COMMUNICATION
Oracle employees share information widely and effectively with each other, except when
confidentiality is required.
INNOVATION
Oracle employees seek innovative and creative approaches to problem solving.
CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
Oracle employees consistently treat customer satisfaction as a top priority.
QUALITY
Oracle employees make excellence and quality a part of day-to-day work processes and seek
continuous improvement in all that they do.
FAIRNESS
Oracle employees are committed to dealing fairly with customers, suppliers, and one another.
COMPLIANCE
Oracle employees comply with all laws and regulations that govern Oracle’s business.
BUSINESS CONDUCT
Oracle employees observe the standards that have been established by Oracle and act ethically in
their approach to business decisions.
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9. CHAPTER 4 : ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS OF ORACLE:
Oracle is committed to maintaining its facilities and operating its business in ways that minimize
its impact on the environment. Through a combination of green-minded business practices and
employee involvement, Oracle strives to implement environmental best practices, and the
company’s efforts play a significant role in Oracle’s overall corporate citizenship initiatives. As
an office-based business, Oracle focuses on the following:
• Improving energy use performance
• Reducing global greenhouse gas emissions
• Adopting eco-friendly procurement procedures
• Reducing water consumption
• Transportation
• Recycling
ORACLE’S APPROACH
Global Environment Forum: Oracle Global Real Estate and Facilities leads an ongoing Global
Environment Forum to implement environmental best practices throughout the company’s
facilities. The forum reviews the company’s energy and environmental practices, discerns best
practices, sets guidelines and goals, and monitors progress.
Business Practices Changes: Oracle has made changes to its business practices in areas such as
procurement, product delivery, recycling, and transportation, and is taking a more eco-friendly
approach to running its large marketing events.
EPA Climate Leaders: Oracle was the first software company to voluntarily participate in the
United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Climate Leaders Program in 2004.
Oracle will achieve its reduction goals almost entirely through more efficient energy use such as:
• Global replacement of incandescent lamps with compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and light-
emitting diodes (LEDs) in all Oracle-owned buildings.
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10. • Upgrades to heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, and energy
management and control systems.
• Energy efficient design and operation of data centers, including development of a
benchmarking index for energy performance and the use of an innovative heat containment
system.
• Compressors upgraded with advanced variable-speed technology • Energy management system
upgraded from pneumatic to direct digital controls.
• Advanced controls schemes for elimination/ reduction of overlapping cooling and heating, and
energy-efficient operation.
• Manual override of motion sensors during unoccupied hours.
U.S. EPA Green Power Partnership Program: Oracle’s Austin Data Center joined the EPA’s
Green Power Partnership Program in 2004. This program requires participating companies to
purchase a minimum percentage of their power from clean and renewable sources (e.g., sun,
wind). Oracle’s green power purchase exceeds the minimum EPA requirement.
ISO 14001 Certification: Oracle’s European and South African operations are certified to the
ISO 14001 environmental standard in 14 countries. These operations have defined common
objectives, set localized targets, and launched various initiatives including
• Saving 37,400 liters of water by operating a new waterless valet scheme.
• Promoting hybrid vehicles as company car options.
• Actively assessing vendors’ environmental policy as part of the procurement process.
• Using hydroelectric power when possible.
• Aggressively recycling paper goods.
• Offering environmental awareness training to all employees.
• Purchasing energy from sustainable resources.
Climate Savers Computing Initiative: As a member of Climate Savers, Oracle has committed
to improve energy efficiency by purchasing initiative-compliant, high-efficiency computers and
servers, and enabling their power management capabilities.
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11. Oracle’s Green Business Practices
Supply Chain and Suppliers: In addition to becoming more conscious about its own impact on
the environment, Oracle also considers if its key suppliers are doing the same. Examples of how
Oracle works with its suppliers include the following:
• Included environmental selection criteria within its Managed Supplier Partner program. Oracle
evaluates tier 1, 2, and 3 suppliers, in part, on their environmentally friendly policies and
practices.
• Changed PC procurement to ensure suppliers preinstall power-saving enablers on every PC
delivered to Oracle.
• Implemented dual-sided printing, thereby reducing paper consumption. • Extended the use of
remanufactured toner cartridges.
Products and Packaging: Oracle has reduced the environmental impact of internal
manufacturing and distribution operations by consolidating warehouse facilities and moving to
electronic delivery of software and documentation. After moving to electronic distribution in
1998, Oracle has reduced the amount of printed documentation it ships by
more than 96 percent.
Recycling: Almost since its founding, Oracle has had a formal program to recycle waste by-
products found in most office environments: batteries, bottles, cans, cardboard, CDs, computers,
paper, toner cartridges, and more.
Examples of Oracle’s efforts in this area include the following:
• Approximately 71 tons of paper, cardboard, cans, bottles, and plastic are recycled each year at
its headquarters in California.
• Oracle builds global partnerships with leading IT hardware recycling companies to retire all
Oracle IT hardware and technology assets in an environmentally friendly manner. Oracle has set
a high global standard, using the U.S. and Singapore environmental laws as a basis, regardless of
whether other countries have lower standards. Oracle also works with its partners to donate
refurbished computers, where feasible, to nonprofit organizations.
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12. Transportation Alternatives: Oracle is committed to decreasing the number of cars on the road
and has established alternative commuter programs. Oracle has been consistently recognized as
one of the “Best Workplaces for Commuters” by the EPA. Oracle sponsors shuttles to and from
local train stations, and provides bicycle lockers, priority carpool parking, OraBikes for local
use, vanpool programs, and discounted public-transit tickets for employees.
Marketing Events: Oracle Marketing has made its large global conferences more eco-friendly
by, for example, using recycled carpeting, making materials available online, encouraging use of
Nalgene water bottles, printing all items on recycled paper, and increasing the use of hybrid
vehicles for customer and executive transportation.
ORACLE and ENERGY MANAGEMENT
Oracle must extend energy-saving efforts to all regions so that the same energy-performance
criteria apply to all Oracle facilities. Oracle is working to decrease its environmental impact by
reducing the amount of energy it uses to heat, cool, light, and maintain its corporate offices. In
addition to adopting simple conservation measures such as turning off monitors overnight,
reducing lighting in hallways and stairwells, and replacing incandescent lighting with fluorescent
lights, Oracle also incorporates cutting-edge energy saving features in the design and
construction of new facilities. Using Renewable Power Oracle recognizes the importance of using
renewable sources of energy. As part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA)
Green Power Partnership Program, Oracle pledged to purchase power from renewable sources
such as wind, solar, and geothermal for its Austin, Texas, data center. Because Oracle committed
to purchasing more than 10 percent of its power for the data center from renewable sources—far
more than the minimum 3 percent required to be a certified Green Power partner—the EPA has
honored it with membership in the Green Power Leadership Club. The Austin data center was
designed to include modern energy-saving features such as an airflow management system that
adjusts airflow according to the number of servers running. This allows center managers to use
the minimum amount of power necessary for maintaining suitable conditions for the equipment.
Rising to the Challenge Because energy management is a global issue, Oracle’s conservation
efforts extend across all regions. During the California energy crisis of 2000–2001, for example,
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13. Oracle implemented stringent conservation and efficiency measures. As a result, the company
was able to cut energy usage at its Redwood Shores headquarters by 10.5 percent in 2001—and
has continued to achieve savings of 9.3 percent, 11.5 percent, and 12.4 percent in 2002, 2003,
and 2004, respectively.
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14. CHAPTER 5 : ORACLE ON SOCIETY
Oracle has a long history of employee volunteerism, charitable giving, respect for the
environment, and a strong commitment to improving education. But we have never taken the
step of recording our efforts for the benefit of our employees, shareholders, customers, and
policy makers around the world—that is, until now. Programs such as ThinkQuest, is a global
competition for students to create educational Web sites and thereby build understanding across
cultures, and Oracle Academy, which works in partnership with secondary schools to educate
students, are just two examples of our creative efforts.
Oracle Volunteers: provides opportunities for Oracle employees to actively address social
needs and make a measurable, positive impact in the community. Oracle volunteers lend their
time and talents to not only serve underserved populations, but also to enrich the quality of life in
the communities where we live and work. Volunteers teach basic safety and life skills lessons to
the blind, protect native habitats for endangered wildlife, tutor and mentor disadvantaged youth,
provide companionship for lonely and isolated elders, and build playgrounds and housing for
low-income families to revitalize neighborhoods in transition. Oracle Volunteers engages
employees in a variety of volunteer opportunities throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and
worldwide. This year, Oracle employees at the company’s headquarters participated in over 85
projects, logging over 3,400 volunteer hours to support Bay Area organizations. During Oracle
Global Volunteer Days, a company-wide service initiative to further Oracle’s commitment to
social responsibility, more than 2,400 volunteers in 28 countries contributed more than 14,700
volunteer hours to benefit local communities around the world.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Oracle offers a complete set of CRM applications that manage all of the business processes and
associated systems that touch a customer, including: billing and delivery; sales solutions that
provide a single repository for customer and supply chain information; and service solutions that
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15. increase customer satisfaction by providing visibility into customer billing and order
information.
Oracle Volunteers Rebuild a School Devastated by the Tsunami
As the world watched in horror during the days following the tsunami in South Asia on
December 26, 2004, people everywhere thought: “What can I do to help?” For Oracle employees
living and working near the devastated areas, as well as those living half way around the world,
the answer was simple enough. With Oracle’s help, the employees organized funds and relief
efforts within hours of a disaster that had left more than a million people homeless.
The donations helped fund initial relief efforts by specially trained disaster relief workers
focused on providing critical aid to survivors. In addition to monetary contributions, Oracle
employees in the Asia Pacific region were able to volunteer to help rebuild some of the more
devastated areas. One in particular is the Ban Bang Bane School in Thailand. The school was
severely damaged, and Oracle staff in Thailand visited the Ranong Province to help rebuild the
school. Fifty-five volunteers worked for several days to rebuild the school, which opened to 120
children and 20 teachers and staff in the new school year. “We are glad that Oracle selected Ban
Bang Bane School to repair after the tsunami,” says Manut Chansakul, principal. In March 2005,
Oracle rebuilt two teacher housing units on school grounds. Most of the teachers are from other
provinces, and traveling to and from the school is difficult. “Before the living quarters were
rebuilt, teachers had to travel 15 kilometers between the school and town each day,” Chansakul
says. “They are very appreciative and grateful to the Oracle volunteers who dedicated their
time and efforts to help us out following the disaster.” Volunteers’ efforts in March made it
possible for the school to open for the second semester in May 2005. “Oracle Thailand
employees were pleased we had the opportunity to help reconstruct the school,” says Khun
Natasak Rodjanapiches, managing director for Oracle in Thailand. “This effort will help ensure a
brighter future for these students,” he said.
Oracle sponsors five brilliant Romanian PhD students
Funding from Oracle Romania is enabling five outstanding students at the University Politehnica
of Bucharest to complete PhD research projects into aspects of Grid computing technology. The
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16. research projects not only highlight Romania's advanced IT skills, but will also help to establish
Bucharest as a centre of R&D excellence in the area of large-scale computing for the academic,
scientific and enterprise sectors.
Founded 180 years ago, the University Politehnica of Bucharest (UPB) is the most important
technical university in Romania. It has 14 engineering, biotechnical and chemistry faculties and
more than 30 research centers.
Historically, local and international companies operating in Romania have not sought to forge
partnerships with the country's academic and research sector. In 2006 Oracle bridged this divide
by becoming one of the first companies to offer sponsored PhD grants for five brilliant UPB
students. The partnership was made possible due to the strength of the collaboration between
Oracle and the University, and because of the talent showed by the young Romanian researchers.
Under the terms of the collaboration, Oracle will fund grants for the next three years to enable
five promising young Romanian researchers at the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer
Science to complete their PhD research projects. The five researchers represent Romania's
technological and academic elite, and will be key assets for the future of the country as an EU
Member State.
The research topics for each PhD were agreed by Oracle and UPB. Each will focus on a different
aspect of Grid technology and related issues. Building on UPB's existing extensive experience in
the areas of scientific and academic Grids, students will investigate deeper Grid systems
optimization and resource monitoring in their R&D environment. At the same time they will
develop more experience with Enterprise Grids, which differ from scientific and academic grids
in terms of their drivers, focus and implementation.
In the medium and long term, the Oracle-UPB collaboration aims to address the gap between the
two Grid approaches and exploit areas of convergence for mutual benefit.
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17. CHAPTER 6 : ORACLE FOR EMPLOYEES
In an increasingly global economy, it is not surprising that a company that serves customers
around the world would need staff to support those customers—wherever they are. Oracle uses
resources to develop and deliver quality products and services to the global market. Oracle
employs people around the world in global development, sales, and services in order to meet the
needs of our customers. Using a geographically dispersed workforce allows Oracle and other
global companies to continue to drive innovation, improve the economic status of workers
around the world, and build the global economy. Additionally, customers running Oracle-based
enterprise systems require access to technical support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a
year—often delivered in the customer’s native language. Employing a global workforce allows
Oracle to address these demands and ensure that our clients receive the level of attention they
require to keep their mission critical computing systems online. The number of employees by
region and the revenue generated in those regions remain in balance. Oracle seeks to build an
inclusive workforce and work environment. It make every effort to attract, invest in, and develop
the talents of a diverse group of people who reflect the society and community in which we live.
We welcome and support people of all races, ethnicities, cultures, and religions, and seek to
foster teamwork and effective partnerships among our employees. Oracle seeks to build an
inclusive workforce and work environment. We make every effort to attract, invest in, and
develop the talents of a diverse group of people who reflect the society and community in which
we live.
ORACLE ’S GLOBAL WORKFORCE
Oracle at Work
Oracle provides an official Code of Ethics and Business Conduct to its employees worldwide for
their guidance in addressing the legal and ethical issues they encounter when conducting Oracle
business. Although employment by Oracle is subject to terms and conditions established by local
organizations, employees are required to abide by the standards set forth in this Code. These
standards cannot anticipate every situation that may pose an ethical or moral issue, but Oracle
expects each employee to exercise sound judgment when evaluating an issue of conduct. When
in doubt, employees are encouraged to seek counseling prior to taking any action that may
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18. compromise either personal ethical standards or those of Oracle. To support employees in the
pursuit of superior business ethics and conduct. Oracle has designed global courses, based on
the Code, which new employees are required to take within the first 30 days of employment.
Both the Code and the courses have been translated into many languages. These courses include
the following:
• Ethics and Business Conduct – A required online self-study course that provides employees
with information to aid them in understanding and abiding by the Code. It is offered in eight
languages.
• Ethics and Business Conduct- Supplemental – A required course for employees involved with
government and higher education.
The standards set forth in the Oracle Code of Ethics and Business Conduct are governed
by the following business values:
Integrity — Oracle employees demonstrate honesty and sound ethical behavior in all business
transactions and personal integrity in all dealings with others.
Mutual Respect — Oracle employees consistently treat individuals with respect and dignity.
Teamwork — Oracle employees work together as a team for the collective interests of Oracle.
Communication — Oracle employees share information widely and effectively with one another,
except when confidentiality is required.
Innovation — Oracle employees seek innovative and creative approaches to problem solving.
Customer Satisfaction — Oracle employees consistently treat customer satisfaction as a top
priority.
Quality — Oracle employees make excellence and qualities a part of their day-to-day work
processes and seek continuous improvement in all that they do.
Fairness — Oracle employees are committed to dealing fairly with customers, suppliers, and one
another.
Compliance — Oracle employees comply with all laws and regulations that govern Oracle’s
business.
Business Conduct — Oracle employees observe the standards that have been established by
Oracle and act ethically in their approach to business decisions.
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19. CHAPTER 7: RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT AT ORACLE
It is innovation that drives Oracle's success. Oracle was one of the first companies to make its
business applications available through the internet—an idea that is now pervasive. With the
release of Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle has begun debuting new products and functionality
that reflect the company's goal: connecting all levels of enterprise technology to help customers
access the knowledge they need to respond to market conditions with speed and agility. Today,
Oracle Real Application Clusters, Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle Grid Computing, support for
enterprise Linux, and Oracle Fusion all fuel a commitment to innovation and results that has
defined Oracle for thirty years.
What's in store for tomorrow? We will strive to become No. 1 in middleware and No. 1 in
applications, just as we've done in database. Our goal is to continue to innovate and to lead the
industry—while always making sure that we're focused on solving the problems of the customers
who rely on our software.
Today, Oracle is the largest business software company in the world, with more than 320,000
customers—including 98 of the Fortune 100—and supports these customer in more than 145
countries.
Oracle spends 1.8 billion on research & development in 2006
Oracle spent nearly two billion dollars in 2006, ranking Oracle #6 in the top IT spenders on
research and development, ahead of Google.
This demonstrates Oracle's commitment to hang-on in the competitive relational database market
and to expand their presence in the ERP space, some money being spend on "project fusion" to
integrate their diverse family of acquired ERP products like Peoplesoft and J. D. Edwards.
The highly anticipated Oracle 11g software promises to be revolutionary, building the foundation
for a self tuning database and accommodating the new movement toward massive database
consolidation onto large monolithic servers. Oracle 11g also has features for predictive
modeling, using historical workload data to predict future performance trends.
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20. RANK COMPANY BUSINESS R&D SPENDING IN 2006 (millions)
1 MICROSOFT Software $6,584
2 IBM Computers $6,107
3 INTEL CORP Semiconductors $5,873
4 HEWLETT PACKARD Computers $3,591
5 TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INC Semiconductors $2,195
6 SUN MICROSYSTEMS INC Computers $2,046
7 ORACLE CORP Software $1,872
8 SAP Software $1,781
9 GOOGLE INC Software $1,228
10 ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES Semiconductors $1,205
$7,000
$6,000
$5,000
$4,000
$3,000
$2,000
$1,000
$0
Oracle Playing Key Role in EC-Funded Data Privacy Research
Funded by the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for Research and
Technological Development (FP7), the PRECIOSA research project aims to demonstrate that
data privacy is possible even in Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), specifically Co-operative
Systems. In line with its commitment to supporting innovation in Europe, Oracle is playing a key
role in its development
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21. Oracle and CERN Celebrate 25 Years of Partnership and Innovation
Oracle has been collaborating with the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) for
the past 25 years. A celebratory event held in February looked back at the past successes arising
from the partnership, and looked forward to new challenges that can be addressed through
continued successful co-operation between academia, industry, governments and the scientific
community.
For 25 years of its 30-year history, Oracle has been providing technological support, expertise
and advice to CERN, the world's largest particle physics laboratory and the birthplace of the
World Wide Web.
In that time, Oracle has furnished CERN with solutions to its massive processing power and
database needs and CERN has provided Oracle with a challenging environment in which to
innovate and push its technologies to the limit. The main event to celebrate this continuing
partnership, "From R&D to Innovation: Future Business Opportunities", was held on 6th
February 2008 inside the CERN Globe of Innovation.
Inspired by the benefits and breakthroughs that long-term collaboration has generated for both
Oracle and CERN, the event brought together around 50 senior leaders from public policy,
academia, research, and industry to discuss how open collaboration between all these sectors can
accelerate innovation and shape the technologies, markets and societies of the future.
Introducing the event, CERN's Chief Information Officer, Wolfgang von Rueden, outlined the
importance that collaboration with industry, and with Oracle in particular, has had for CERN:
“In summer 2008,” he said, “CERN’s Large Hadron Collider [the world’s largest particle
accelerator and collider, expected to help us better understand the origins of the universe] will go
into operation. Oracle's expertise in data management technologies and its track record of
innovation in computing have been invaluable to CERN and its collaborating institutes around
the world. Oracle’s solutions help to support the deployment and operation of the immense
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22. processing power, scalability, and system reliability needed to collect, distribute, and analyze the
huge volumes of data that will be produced by LHC experiments.”
CHAPTER 8 : ORACLE’S CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
In today’s digital age, where information is the new currency, the protection of personal data and
assurance of identity on the internet are important elements of corporate policy. These
protections need to be deployed in the policies and practices of the company as well as in the
technologies that support them. Oracle has implemented corporate privacy polices and practices
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23. to protect the personal information of its customers and employees. As part of the company’s
international policy advocacy, we are active participants in intergovernmental initiatives to
improve the state of privacy protection and develop workable policy solutions and best practices.
There is an emerging understanding that workable solutions need to provide effective privacy
protections to consumers and citizens while enabling the necessary and responsible information
flows that are the basis of today’s digital economy. They are working with other industry
participants as well as governments and nongovernmental organizations to develop solutions
that help us reach both of these objectives. Oracle technology also plays a role in privacy
protection. Privacy, by its very nature, is subjective. A doctor will have more personal
information that will be used, and possibly shared with other medical practitioners, than will an
auto mechanic. The nature of the job and the information processes associated with that job
dictate what is reasonable and necessary. In light of this need for tailoring technology to support
a variety of business practices and information preferences, Oracle provides tools that our
customers can configure to help support their own privacy policies and practices. Because both
privacy and security are focused on access control and protection of systems and information,
technology solutions for each are closely related and often depend upon similar technological
functions. Thus, many of Oracle’s privacy tools and functions are derived from some of the
security functionality that has been designed into the products. Although security and privacy
tools share similar technological roots, they are separate priorities that must be considered when
configuring software functions, permissions, and roles. In order to help our customers address
these issues, Oracle has begun to develop guidance documents to help customers understand
which parts of our technology may have privacy applications. We highlight considerations in
configuration and application, but we leave it to customers to make the final decisions, because
those decisions must be rooted in intimate knowledge of business priorities and practices.
CHAPTER 9 : CONTROVERSIES
"Can't break it, can't break in"
Oracle Corporation markets many of its products using the slogan "Can't break it, can't break in",
or "Unbreakable". This signifies the increasing demands on information safety. Oracle
Corporation also stresses the reliability of networked databases and network access to databases
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24. as major selling points. However, two weeks after its introduction in 2002, David Litchfield,
Alexander Kornbrust, Cesar Cerrudo and others demonstrated a whole suite of successful attacks
against Oracle products. Commentators criticized the slogan as unrealistic, and as an invitation to
crackers. But Oracle Corporation's chief security officer Mary Ann Davidson portrayed the
criticism as unfair. Rather than representing a literal claim of Oracle's products' impregnability,
she saw the campaign in the context of fourteen independent security evaluations that Oracle
Corporation's database server passed.
Relationship with John Ashcroft
In 2004, then- United States Attorney General John Ashcroft sued Oracle Corporation to prevent
a contract acquisition. Then, in 2005, Oracle hired Ashcroft's recently-founded lobbying firm,
The Ashcroft Group, LLC. Oracle, with Ashcroft's lobbying, then went on to acquire the
contract, a multi-billion dollar intelligence application.
Trashgate
In 2000 Oracle gained attention from the computer industry and the press after hiring private
investigators to dig through the trash of organizations involved in a antitrust trial involving
Microsoft. The Chairman of Oracle Corporation, Larry Ellison, staunchly defended his
company's hiring of an East Coast detective agency to investigate groups that supported rival
Microsoft Corporation during its antitrust trial, calling the snooping a "public service". The
investigation reportedly included a $1,200 offer to janitors at the Association for Competitive
Technology to look through Microsoft's trash. Asked how he'd feel if others were looking into
Oracle's business activities, Ellison said: "We will ship our garbage to Redmond, and they can go
through it. We believe in full disclosure."
CONCLUSION
Oracle is the world’s largest enterprise software company. It develops, manufacture, market,
distribute and service database and middleware software as well as applications software
designed to help its customers manage and grow their business operations. Its goal is to offer
customers scalable, reliable, secure and integrated software systems that provide transactional
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25. efficiencies, adapt to an organization’s unique needs and allow better ways to access and manage
information at a lower total cost of ownership.
Oracle provides an official Code of Ethics and Business Conduct to its employees worldwide for
their guidance in addressing the legal and ethical issues they encounter when conducting Oracle
business.
To support employees in the pursuit of superior business ethics and conduct. Oracle has
designed global courses, based on the Code, which new employees are required to take within
the first 30 days of employment.
Oracle Corporation also stresses the reliability of networked databases and network access to
databases as major selling points.
Thus , despite some controversies involving Oracle the increasing involvement of Oracle in
ethical practices like the employee volunteerism , green minded business policies , societiel
involvement and corporate governance are very good examples of its ethical business practices
for the betterment of society as a whole.
Oracle want to continually involve in innovative practices so as to improve the operations of the
firms , who are its clients . That’s why the 98 companies out of Fortune top hundred use the
database software supplied by Oracle.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. www.oracle.com
2. www.ethisphere.com
3. www.dba-oracle.com/oracle_news/news_oracle_research_development_2006.htm
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26. 4. www.sify.com/news/internet/fullstory.php?id=13349698
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