(1) For the blockchain service, see
blockchain oracle.
(2) (Oracle Corporation, Austin, TX) The world's largest database and enterprise software vendor co-founded in 1977 by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates as Software Development Laboratories (SDL). In 1979, SDL was renamed Relational Software, Inc. (RSI) and then Oracle in 1983. Ellison is currently Chairman of the board and CTO. In 1989, Oracle moved from Santa Clara, California, its first location, to Redwood City, and then Austin, Texas in 2020.
The Oracle Database has been Oracle's flagship product, which was the first DBMS to incorporate the SQL query language. It became very popular due to its robustness and huge variety of platforms that it ran on.
In the mid-1990s, Oracle was a major promoter of the network computer, forming subsidiary Network Computer, Inc. to define the platform. Although the network computer did not take off, the same principles are embodied in today's ubiquitous cloud-based architectures. See
network computer and
Liberate.
After the turn of the century, the company greatly enhanced its offerings by acquiring world class software companies such as PeopleSoft in 2005, Siebel Systems in 2006 and BEA Systems in 2008. Two years later, Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems to become a computer systems company. The acquisition included ownership of Java SE, which Sun developed in the 1990s.
Oracle's cloud computing, which increasingly focuses on AI, began in the early 2010s. Oracle Cloud has had significant growth to become a major part of its offerings (see
Oracle Cloud). See
Oracle Database,
Oracle Exadata,
Oracle Fusion,
Sun,
Java,
PeopleSoft and
Siebel software.