Oracle to buy cloud company Taleo for $1.9 bn

NEW YORK, USA: Oracle Corp agreed to buy Taleo Corp, a maker of web-based software for recruiting employees, for about $1.9 billion, as innovation giants battle for the top spot in the fast-growing cloud computing market.

The latest big investment in cloud computing

It is the latest big investment in cloud computing by Oracle, the world's No. 2 maker of business management software, and a quick response to larger rival SAP AG's pending plan to buy SuccessFactors Inc for $3.4 billion.As well Read: Oracle to beef up cloud offer with RightNow buy

Cloud computing refers to providing software, storage, computing power and other services to clients from remote data centers over the Web. Demand for cloud-based software is rising rapidly because the approach allows companies to start using new programs faster and at lower costs than traditional products that are installed at a customer's own data center.

Revenue from cloud-based enterprise software is expected to be $17.32 billion in 2013, 5.7 percent of total enterprise software revenue, up from $5.31 billion in 2009, according to data from Gartner.

Last year, Oracle launched Web-based versions of several of its new line of business management software programs known as Fusion Apps, which analysts say are after all in the early stages of winning market acceptance.

The acquisitions

Despite the acquisitions, it is early days for Oracle and SAP when it comes to cloud computing, as many corporate research buyers remain skeptical that their home-brewed cloud products will hold up against products from Salesforce.com.

As we witness the growing market in the area of Cloud Computing, no doubt in then and there five to eight years most of the applications will be on the cloud. Together, Cloud has made it possible for an enterprise to reduce their investments on hardware and as well has made the work of a developer easier. Check out this special to know more about the growth of Cloud Computing arena and how cloud is contributing to software development.

Storage-as-a-service, will this be an instant success or will it take its own time to be a mainstream research, needs to probed. Read More