As cloud-based software becomes more and more ubiquitous, the fate of legacy-styled software suites grows increasingly uncertain. John Furrier (@furrier), Peter Burris (@plburris) and Rob Hof (@robhof), cohosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, sat down to discuss the future of business software behemoth Oracle Corp. during its OpenWorld conference in San Francisco.

“The stickiest thing, good or bad, is the application,” said Burris. “As Oracle goes forward, there’s no doubt they’re going to start talking about how Amazon is trying to lock people into its platform and its businesses.”

The creation of new workloads

At this stage in the game, Amazon is Oracle’s biggest competitor, with the key item on the table being new workloads.

“If new workloads go to the cloud, and they go to Amazon, it will create a huge impact on existing workloads,” said Furrier. There’s no question that cloud-based software is the path to the future, and it seems that there are many who are questioning Oracle’s commitment to cloud, he added.

Is Oracle the cloud’s BlackBerry?

It’s this uncertain engagement with a cloud-based model that could prove to be hugely detrimental to Oracle in the future. Furrier compared Oracle to BlackBerry, the phone that lost out to Apple’s iPhone.

BlackBerry’s most telling shortcoming was that it held onto an older modus operandi rather than swiftly adopting groundbreaking and disruptive technology. Can the same be said for Oracle? Burris and Furrier noted the shortcomings of the comparison. But this much is certain: Oracle seems to currently be on the defense, according to theCUBE hosts.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of Oracle OpenWorld.

(* Disclosure: Oracle and other companies sponsor some OpenWorld segments on SiliconANGLE Media’s theCUBE. Neither Oracle nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo by SiliconANGLE