Below statements are views & predictions distilled from public data put out by analysts during 2019-20:

• RDBMSs may not be hot or sexy like NoSQL but for your important data there is no substitute.
• ERP may not be hot or sexy like digital marketing, but companies still must do accounting, ship goods, provide services and run payroll.
• Application Servers many not be hot or sexy like Kubernetes or Dockers but they will be the mainstay for corporate applications.
• New languages will come up but Java will still be mainstay for large firms.
• Linux will be the main operating system for enterprise systems
• Healthcare will become more important & newer molecules need to undergo clinical trials
• A pandemic is a once in-a-lifetime event, but hotels will continue to be built
• The oil industry will see difficulties but newer projects will be set up
• Banks will continue to get larger
• Telecoms might consolidate but they will be the mainstay of communications
• Physical retail industries will continue to grow despite a growth in online trade

Putting the above into numbers to get a clearer view:

• There is more than 90% chance that customers will migrate to an ERP platform from the same vendor when they move to the cloud.
• Java is the most popular programming language since the late 90s. There’s a saying that when companies scale, they become Java shops. Python seems to be advancing but Java & C remain the most critical for enterprises.
• Linux has higher than 68% market share in the server market wherein Oracle is largest player after Red Hat
• Healthcare clinical trial software market is expected to grow from $1Bn in 2017 to $2.5Bn by 2025. Oracle owns the top two products in this segment
• Oracle had close to 35% market share in the hotel property management, restaurant POS and Hotel kitchen management segment
• Oracle’s Primavera has a market share of 20% in the Heavy Engineering, EPC, Oil & Gas & Utility industries for Project Management
• There is not a single bank in the world that does not use the Oracle database for the entire or substantial portion of their core banking operations.
• Nearly 80% of any telecom IT infrastructure uses Oracle as its back-end data repository.

It is quite clear even if there is no growth in any of the above product or industry categories, Oracle will continue to be a large player for the foreseeable future.

Oracle might be disliked for some of their, both true & perceived, practices in the marketplace, but their customers will need to continue working with them.

Customers will need to understand Oracle better so that they can save money for their companies. Licensing issues will still be important as Oracle continues to rely on their installed base or core businesses to ensure growing revenues.