Better late than never appears to be the mantra at Oracle Corp., at least when it comes to embracing the latest hot technologies.

The database giant, which was famously late to embrace cloud computing and is still playing catchup, is now said to be creating a “new startup organization” focused on emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, the cloud, the Internet of Things and virtual reality.

Oracle hasn’t confirmed its plans, but job postings from the company first spotted by Bloomberg hint at the creation of a “Solution Engineering” organization that will be based in two locations – Reston, Virginia, and Denver, Colorado.

Oracle is seeking to hire two directors for these “Solution Engineering Centers,” which it describes as a “physical hub of solution engineers.” The company is also trying to hire solution engineers to work at the same sites.

While the company hasn’t commented on the rumors, the job postings provide a few clues about the focus of the new organization. The director’s position will be “measured on key metrics around revenue, pipeline, new innovations, talent development and customer success,” according to the posting.

Meanwhile, Oracle is looking for solution engineers with experience in building on third-party cloud computing platforms like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. The postings note that the new organization’s mission is to “build and engineer cutting-edge solutions for our customers around cloud computing, big data analytics, mobile computing, internet of things, cybersecurity.”

Holger Mueller, an analyst at Constellation Research, said Oracle has a long history of so-called “tiger teams” to move new innovative approaches outside the lines of the traditional development organization. For instance, he said, the Oracle second-generation cloud infrastructure was originally referred to as a skunkworks project.

“The labeling of solution engineering though points more into a direction of pre-sales and consulting,” he told SiliconANGLE. “And Oracle will have to look at new ways to sell its AI applications. Moreover, those applications require different implementation skills and knowhow, so knowledge of popular cloud platforms doesn’t come as a surprise to me either.”

It’s worth pointing out that both of these companies are streets ahead of Oracle in fields like AI, IoT and cloud. As such, it appears that Oracle giant is once again playing catch up after failing to spot these trends when they first emerged, analysts said.

“This appears to be an incubation strategy for future technologies, but does look like they’re following companies like Microsoft, Google and Amazon,” said Patrick Moorhead, president and principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. “It’s important for Oracle to embrace AI, VR and cloud, as these are all phenomenons that they were late to.”

However, Moorhead stressed that Oracle can’t just focus on catching up with its competitors, but needs to “find a way to get ahead of something and define it on their own terms, not Microsoft’s, Google’s or Amazon’s.”

The job postings didn’t shed any light on how Oracle intends to integrate AI and VR into its products and services, but the company has already begun making some inroads into these technologies.

During its Oracle OpenWorld event last September, the company announced tools for building AI-powered chat bots that can integrate with its products. It also said it was planning to invest in something called Adaptive Intelligent Applications, which are AI-powered apps that “offer individualized recommended actions and streamline the tasks of business users such as human resource or finance professionals.”

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