Oracle reports its earnings tomorrow and one thing everyone will be listening for is progress with Oracle's cloud.
The cloud has been the subject of a lot of Ellison's smack talk in recent months and many billions of dollars in acquisitions, including one last week, Nimbula.
Nimbula makes cloud management software but it's bigger claim to fame is that it was founded by Chris Pinkham, one of the people who created Amazon's cloud. Nimbula's cofounder, Willem van Biljon, also helped build the Amazon cloud.
Although both companies announced the acquisition, the two were strangely tight-lipped about any other details. We asked Pinkham to confirm that he was now working at Oracle and he wasn't even allowed to comment on that.
Presumably he is, because Oracle greatly needs his expertise. In January, Oracle announced plans to try and compete with Amazon with a clever scheme that involves customers renting Oracle hardware loaded with its software.
But Oracle can't really launch a true Amazon competitor. That's because, despite Oracle's biggest ever R&D effort, a six-year project called Fusion, its apps still don't work on a traditional cloud infrastructure. They can't be shared, a concept called multitenancy. And sharing is one way to make cloud computing cheaper.
Pinkham and van Biljon could presumably help with that, if they're are actually working for Oracle.
Sources say that other Nimbula execs are moving to Oracle, such as Reza Malekzadeh, vice president of sales, who came to Nimbula from VMware.
Malekzadeh joked on Twitter that "The America's Cup tickets were too good to say no to!" and that he's now trying to get an invite to see the world class sailing race from Ellison's yacht.
Are you an insider with information about Oracle and Nimbula to share? We want to hear it. We are discreet. @Julie188 on Twitter or jbort@businessinsider.com.
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