Oracle releases monster "private cloud" box

Key risks

Linked gallery: Photos: Oracle OpenWorld 2010

IBRS analyst Kevin McIsaac said Exalogic was "the other shoe to drop" after Oracle's success with Exadata as a pre-tuned database machine.

But he did note some risks in Oracle's strategy - the first being the culture of many of today's IT departments.

Buying vertically integrated stacks presented a "very different approach to the way organisations procure systems today - via components," he said.

"The resistence to buying integrated systems is high. Internal IT departments that effectively work as systems integrators could see this as a threat."

McIsaac felt that vertically integrated stacks will win out in the long-run.

"Why would I want to select VMware for virtualisation, for example, HP for servers, EMC for storage, Cisco for networks and spend a lot of time and brainpower bolting it together?"

At the senior level, McIsaac said, CIOs will also be concerned at the prospect of being too locked in to Oracle.

"Sometimes, that is just used as an excuse not to change," McIsaac said. "You're always getting locked in somewhere. At least in this case, you could still move your apps to another platform if you felt the need."

McIsaac said lock-in should always be viewed in terms of whether "great value" being provided as a trade-off.

"In this case there is a lower cost of ongoing maintenance. Personally I think its a really good trade off."