Oracle is the company founded by Larry Ellison and partners in 1977 that became a leading enterprise database provider.
Ellison, Bob Miner, and Ed Oates founded Software Development Laboratories in 1977. The company changed its name to Relational Software, Inc. and later adopted the name Oracle. Its flagship database product was influenced by research into relational database systems and became widely used by businesses and government organizations.
Oracle expanded beyond database software into enterprise applications, middleware, hardware, cloud infrastructure, and services. Its acquisitions included PeopleSoft, Sun Microsystems, and NetSuite, broadening its role in corporate technology. Cloud computing has become an important part of its modern strategy.
Oracle is frequently confused with the Oracle database product itself. Oracle Corporation is the publicly traded company; Oracle Database is one of its major software offerings. The company’s long history makes it one of the older technology giants still prominent in market-cap rankings.