Is Oracle 11g not yet as successful as we may have been led to believe?

According to Pythian Group CEO Paul Vallee, the answer is yes. Vallee claims his research shows that Oracle 11g is being adopted at slower rates than earlier Oracle databases - and Oracle Corp. will neither comment nor provide numbers showing otherwise.

Pythian Group is an enterprise database management service that manages 718 production databases for 56 Oracle customers. Vallee says that only 3 out of the 718 databases are running 11g (which was released last July).

As I wrote last month, IDC reported that Oracle has increased its database market share. IDC analyst Carl Olofson said Oracle told him that 10% of users expressed intent to upgrade to 11g. According to Olofson, “that would be an unusually high adoption rate for the first year.”

In the Network World article, Vallee says that, based on his numbers from Pythian, “he can say with 95% confidence that no more than 3.66% of Oracle databases are running 11g. With 50% confidence, he says it’s unlikely that even 1% use 11g.” Vallee calls Pythian “a robust sample” of Oracle customers, sufficient for use in statistical studies. 

Vallee acknowledged that it might be unrealistic for Oracle to know exactly how many customers are using 11g, but the number of support requests they receive for help with 11g would be a good indication.

However, Oracle declined a request by Network World to provide any support numbers. They also declined to comment on Vallee’s claims, “instead providing links to a few documents, none of which show how many Oracle customers have adopted 11g.”

There’s nothing unusual about a slow adoption rate for a new release - so why would Oracle be reluctant to admit one? (If Vallee’s findings are valid).  And, while it may be true that “organizations worldwide adopt Oracle 11g,” just how many organizations is it,  

Know who was just ranked No. 1 on Forbes’ list of top-paid CEOs in technology companies in 2007, with a one-year net compensation of almost $193 million?

Here’s a hint: it’s not Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who was knocked down to No. 11 after holding the top spot in 2006.

So, who took Jobs’ place? That would be Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who also ranked No. 1 on Forbes’ list of overall best-paid CEOs (a list on which Jobs ranked No. 120).

The rankings were based on “the overall compensation for the past year for executives, factoring in salary, cash bonuses, vested stock grants, stock gains and exercised stock options.” Nabeel Gareeb of MEMC Electronic Materials and John Chambers of Cisco Systems rounded out the top three of tech CEOs.

It’s interesting to take a look at what the blogosphere has been saying about Ellison’s “victory.” Silicon Valley reporter Sarah Lacy says that “he may not deserve how much he’s making, but he deserves to be one of the most highly paid CEOs in the Valley.”

She goes on to list Ellison’s accomplishments, including that he both “gets where technology is going” and “gets where technology business is going.”

And to all the Ellison loathers out there, Lacy (who seems to question why she isn’t one herself) had this to say: “But shareholders are not electing him president or best friend. They’re paying him to be a good CEO, and he may be one of the only ones worth what he’s being paid.”

CNET News.com blogger Charlie Cooper has a different take on things. He says that a CEO’s success should be measured by their company’s stock performance, and given Oracle’s stock performance over the last 10 years, Ellison is not worth $193 million (even though many readers leave comments criticizing the data he presents).

What do you think is the best way to measure the worth of a tech CEO? Does Ellison (or anyone, for that matter) deserve to make $193 million in a year? Or, do you think such rankings don’t even matter at all?

I recently wrote about a post by Infoworld blogger Sean McCown, who argued that the real difference between Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle is the accessible community that Microsoft has built for its users.

But would a newly released tool from the Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG) change McCown’s mind about a supposed lack of community resources for Oracle users?

On April 16, OAUG announced the launch of its Knowledge Factory– “a centralized, dynamic platform for user-submitted content that provides a comprehensive knowledge-sharing resource for the organization’s members,” according to the press release.

The web-based forum is completely community-driven and allows its members to discuss and exchange advice on Oracle-related topics, search a library of articles and submit their own articles, as well. Some of the Knowledge Factory’s other features include a blog and discussion area, enhanced member profiles and an OAUG Conference Paper Database.

We have a similar community-driven forum here at TechTarget called the IT Knowledge Exchange (ITKE). It’s a place where you and your peers can ask and answer questions, get advice and read blogs written by other industry experts. You can also browse information by topic; for example, check out the Oracle-related tags found here.

Where do you go for Oracle information and advice from peers? (If you go anywhere at all?) Do you find community-driven environments like the OAUG’s Knowledge Factory useful? And, if you have used this forum already, what have your experiences been like?