Oracle and the Gartner Magic Quadrant

Gartner's Magic Quadrant is to technology providers what the Michelin Guide is to restaurants. It's trusted for its rigorous and impartial approach – and for technology providers, achieving "Leader" status is akin to winning a Michelin star.

Are you scouting for a new cloud provider? Or database management system? Or real-time transportation visibility platform? Not only is there a good chance you'll find a Magic Quadrant to match, but you can also be 100% sure that that Quadrant will provide an unbiased overview of the technological landscape in question.

Countless technology providers have received the Magic Quadrant treatment. But how do Oracle and its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) platform fare under Gartner's scrutinising lens?

We'll find out soon enough. But first, let's swot up on how Magic Quadrants work – and why they're useful.

How does the Magic Quadrant work?

As any sysadmin or VHS repair technician will tell you, technology is complicated.

It's complicated when you zoom in – on the silicon and code that make up our hardware and software. And it's complicated when you zoom out and try to quantify the costs, capabilities and other variables that must be assessed when choosing a technology provider.

In an ideal world, there would be some way to visually represent all these variables to allow for fast and informed decision-making. This ideal is perhaps impossible to achieve – but with its Magic Quadrant research methodology, Gartner comes closest.

Each Magic Quadrant consists of two axes that chart "Completeness of vision" and "Ability to execute". Technology providers are plotted onto this grid based on their competitiveness within these categories.

Taken as a whole, a Magic Quadrant provides a bird's-eye view of a technology space and the players within it. Customers can tell at a glance how a provider compares to its competitors in terms of innovation and performance.

And, to make things even clearer, each player falls under one of four categories within the Quadrant. These are (descriptions from Gartner):

• 
  Leaders: execute well against their current vision and are well-positioned for tomorrow
• Visionaries: understand where the market is going or have a vision for changing market rules but do not yet execute well
• Niche players: focus successfully on a small segment or are unfocused and do not out-innovate or outperform others
• Challengers: execute well today or may dominate a large segment but do not demonstrate an understanding of market direction

How does Oracle perform within Gartner's Magic Quadrants?

Gartner currently lists more than 120 Magic Quadrants on its website. These cover topics as diverse as 5G infrastructure, customer relationship management and robotics.

To say that competition is fierce would be an understatement – yet Oracle performs well, achieving "Leader" status in no less than 17 Quadrants.

If you're familiar with Oracle, this will probably come as no surprise. In 2020, Oracle Corporation was the third-largest technology company in the world by revenue – and its software and services are used by more than 70 million people worldwide. Even when set against behemoths like Google and Amazon, Oracle has the resources and momentum to put up a good fight.

Still, 17 "Leader" gongs is impressive. And the breadth of this success is partly down to Oracle's recent efforts to differentiate itself in the cloud computing space. While OCI was once mostly harnessed by users of other Oracle products, the past few years have seen the tech firm attract new customers by launching new products and services that cater to a broad range of use cases.

And, of course, Oracle's traditional strongholds in the worlds of database and enterprise resource planning are still represented. Let's take a look at the full list.

Magic Quadrants where Oracle achieves "Leader" status

• Strategic Cloud Platform Services (December 2023)
• Cloud Database Management Systems (December 2023)
• Data Integration Tools (November 2023)
• Warehouse Management Systems (April 2023)
• Financial Planning Software (October 2023)
• Integration Platform as a Service (January 2024)
• Distributed Hybrid Infrastructure (August 2023)
• Configure, Price and Quote Applications (November 2023)
• CRM Customer Engagement Center (August 2023)
• Sales Force Automation Platforms (March 2023)
• B2B Marketing Automation Platforms (September 2023)
• Financial Close and Consolidation Solutions (November 2023)
• Cloud ERP for Product-Centric Enterprises (August 2023)
• Cloud ERP for Service-Centric Enterprises (February 2023)
• Supply Chain Planning Solutions (February 2023)
• Transportation Management Systems (January 2024)
• Cloud HCM Suites for 1,000+ Employee Enterprises (January 2024)

A closer look at one Magic Quadrant: Strategic Cloud Platform Services

Here at Ascend, we keep a trained eye on the tech world at large. But, broadly speaking, the most important Magic Quadrant for our customers is the one called "Strategic Cloud Platform Services".

These are your hyperscalers. The big players. Cloud behemoths with acres of data centres and servers from here to eternity.

Or, as Gartner defines it, "Standardised, automated, public cloud offerings integrating infrastructure services (e.g. computing, network and storage), platform services (e.g. managed application and data services) and transformation services (e.g. programs/resources that help customers adopt cloud-oriented IT delivery models)".

Oracle is not only an established leader but, with OCI, is also behind one of the fastest-growing cloud platforms in the space. As Gartner notes, the company has successfully expanded beyond its core base of Oracle software users thanks to its competitive pricing, solid multi-cloud support and accelerated provision of new features and technologies.

OCI's database management, data integration and Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) capabilities are singled out for praise – as is its flexible and distributed cloud, which offers particular value for organisations with strict data sovereignty requirements.

Gartner notes a handful of negatives, too, including the sense that Oracle's generative AI strategy is "less mature" than those of its peers. However, to quote the report, "Oracle continues an impressive year-over-year pace of feature introductions that has brought it into direct comparison with the market leaders in terms of hyperscale cloud capabilities".

With such a pace of innovation, we're sure a solid generative AI service is on the cards – and we can't wait to see what comes next.

Ascend is a team of cloud transformation specialists and a proud part of the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN). Are you considering an Oracle cloud migration? Let us guide your strategy and accelerate your ambition. Get in touch today for a free consultation.