larry ellison

SAN FRANCISCO — Never one to shy away from superlatives, Oracle CTO Larry Ellison pitched his firm as the company best positioned to tackle ongoing concerns about cloud security.

He used yesterday's OpenWorld keynote to portray Oracle as uniquely positioned to be trusted with companies that want to go all-in on cloud services.

Ellison’s address was his second during the four-day event at Moscone Center here. The emphasis on security was a continuation of initial comments that kicked off OpenWorld on Sunday.

Ellison lamented the substantial number of digital break-ins that have taken inside companies and government, particularly recent breaches that targeted the CIA.

“There should be no on and off switch with security features,” he said.

Hardwired Security

That is the promise behind the new SPARC M7 processors and T7 servers. Oracle pledges the hardware uses a unique, hardwired security setup known as “software in silicon.” All key data is encrypted, and security features are automatically enabled.

“We have to rethink how we deliver technology, especially as vast amounts of data are moved to the cloud,” he said. “If we’re going to move all of this data to the cloud, we have to make sure this data is secure.

oracle cloud
Ellison again argued that Oracle was the most competitive in the cloud space, with software, platform and infrastructure ready to meet any company’s needs.

The effort to transition to a cloud-enabled world hasn’t been easy, with some elements of Oracle’s platform taking up to ten years to re-engineer for the cloud, according to Ellison.

If you want even more Ellison, check out the full keynote on demand.

After the on-stage pitches, much of the attention shifted to fun and entertainment. Oracle arranged for some attendees to check out the opening game of the Golden State Warriors, who play at Oracle Arena. And everyone registered for the conference gets a ticket to a concert on Treasure Island today, which features Elton John and Beck.