Oracle buys Ksplice

published 22 July 2011

Software giant Oracle has splashed the cash on three-year-old Linux update tech firm Ksplice.

Terms of the deal went undisclosed, but Oracle said the acquisition would "increase the security, reliability and availability of Oracle Linux by enabling customers to apply security updates, diagnostics patches and critical bug fixes without rebooting."

Larry Ellison's firm said the deal would make Oracle the only enterprise Linux provider able to offer zero downtime updates.

"Customers are also expected to be able to introduce and remove diagnostic patches without business disruption and make Oracle Linux easier to manage and more secure," Oracle said in a note to customers.

Oracle expects to make the Ksplice technology a standard feature of Oracle Linux Premier Support.

"System administrators are forced to choose between known best practices and added operational costs when administering Linux updates," said Jeff Arnold, chief executive (CEO) Ksplice.

"Ksplice's technology will be able to take Oracle's kernel updates and transform them into zero downtime updates that provide always-accessible systems with no reboot necessary. This results in improved system availability and security as well as reduced operational costs for the customer."

The Ksplice service was only made available in 2010, but in that time it gained 700 business customers.

Tom Brewster is currently an associate editor at Forbes and an award-winning journalist who covers cyber security, surveillance, and privacy. Starting his career at ITPro as a staff writer and working up to a senior staff writer role, Tom has been covering the tech industry for more than ten years and is considered one of the leading journalists in his specialism.

He is a proud alum of the University of Sheffield where he secured an undergraduate degree in English Literature before undertaking a certification from General Assembly in web development.