Oracle created the Oracle Database and was originally called Software Development Laboratories.
Software Development Laboratories was founded in 1977 by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner, and Ed Oates. The company later changed its name to Relational Software, Inc., and then to Oracle Systems Corporation before adopting Oracle Corporation. Its early database work was influenced by research on relational database systems at IBM.
Oracle’s database products became central to enterprise computing because they allowed organizations to store, manage, and query structured data. Over time, Oracle expanded into business applications, servers, consulting, and cloud infrastructure. It also acquired major software companies, including Sun Microsystems and PeopleSoft.
The company name is often confused with the name of its best-known product. Oracle is the corporation; Oracle Database is one of its product families. The firm’s market capitalization reflects its entire business, including cloud services and enterprise applications, rather than database licenses alone.