"Compliance is driving requirements for data online and that means additional storage requirements [and] customers are looking at ways to apply grid computing for storage," he said. "We're seeing more customers build multitier data clusters and Oracle has the software to drive that."

Among 11g's new features is data partitioning capabilities to move data, "auditvault" functionality for central storage of all audit information, and automated "phone home" incident response.

"Change itself can be a pain if you're changing storage or moving from SMP to clusters," Townsend said. "11g is about change assurance to prove performance has improved from one release to another."

On the recent announcement of Unbreakable Linux, which puts Oracle in competition with Linux distributors Red Hat and Novell, Townsend said customers are looking at Oracle now the company has a lot of business applications, and they see value in having "a small number of throats to choke" for the database, middleware, and now operating system.

"I don't think we will have to go out there and market the hell out of it - although I'm sure we will," he said.