Oracle Corporation; American multinational computer Technology Corporation has announced on 8th October 2019 that it would be hiring 2,000 people for its cloud business. It is 1.5% of its overall workforce of 1,39,000 employees.
Why Oracle laid off massive jobs recently?
Recently the company has laid off hundreds of its employees after reevaluating its product focus and skill set gaps. The company claimed that it desires to deliver the best cloud products to its customers around the world, so they are firing under-performing employees.
Oracle’s reasons for hiring 2,000 new employees
Right now, 8,000 jobs are enlisted on the company’s website. There could be many factors behind this decision. Today, we will highlight several good strategic reasons why Oracle may have made this announcement. Let’s explore!
After a massive lay off now, oracle is giving a signal to the world that it is excelling and continuing to invest in the healthy cloud business. Larry Ellison; Oracle’s Chairman and Chief Technology Officer, told investors last month that oracle is growing its cloud “as fast as we can other than building data centers that are empty.” Now, his statement is making the reason obvious behind hiring 2,000 people. It means that the company is focused on increasing its cloud force to handle customer demand instead of building data centers first and then signing in new clients later.
During the interview, oracle’s ex-employee shed light on some interesting recent events and their effects on the company
In 2018, Thomas Kurian, Oracle’s longtime head of engineering, left Oracle and joined Google cloud. As a result, Don Johnson, vice president of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure product development started to consolidate disparate business groups. With time Johnson’s position became stronger in the company. Mr. Ellison also included his name on the list of people who may be elected as co-CEO.
Two teams were working under Mr. Kurian. Both the teams tried to show that they are the best. However, Seattle’s team, who created the Oracle Gen 2 cloud, won this war. And, the other team was targeted for lay off due to poor performance. Oracle hired the employees in Seattle.
Afterward, in the supervision of Mr. Johnson, Seattle’s team did not perform up to expectations and faced layoffs too.
Indeed, Oracle’s cloud is far behind Amazon’s cloud and other major competitors. Now the company has decided to choose locations for its new data centers that are near its most strategic customers. For this purpose, they need to hire employees worldwide in those specific locations rather than larger groups in Seattle.
Will Oracle be able to compete in future?
For now, it is good for Oracle to keep focused on its current customers. But what about the future? Oracle needs to keep an eye on it.
To exceed the company must invest more in R&D, next-generation cloud technologies like machine learning and artificial intelligence. Oracle must keep following the new trends, too; otherwise, its clients will be snatched by AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud teams shortly.
Featured image: Screengrab from Oracle OpenWorld 2018
