Waiting for the layoffs this Thursday (3/21). Knew it was coming eventually, but not this quick. I decided to ride it out because I'm lazy and I like getting paid to do jack. Already have interviews lined up with TC higher than what I was getting, so it's not a persona bummer for me.
Anyway, once TK left, it was over. Everyone here already knew this, but to those not in the know, Don Johnson's empire building is officially the only cloud game in Oracle town. Let's not mince words. He's ambitious and anything that threatens his Seattle Empire is going down. If you are in OCI-C, you're done for (no news there). If you are not in Seattle, prepare for a slow burn. Non Seattle people are getting the sh--ty and/or dying products.
Despite Oracle s---ing at cloud because of timing, pricing, lack of transparency, terrible marketing, no connection to the startup / developer community and just overall being hated by the average developer and customer, Don Johnson somehow convinced Safra that it was a pure technical problem that could be solved by handing over the keys to him. Whatever skills manipulative skills he possesses, I want that. He convinced Safra that paying tons of random 24-35 white brogrammer types, some of who are just waiting on the sidelines, $300K could make Oracle a cloud competitor. TK saw the stupidity of this and left.
It doesn't help that Larry, often times, just thinks that you can create a copycat product, slap the Oracle name, and customers will clamor for a sub-par product. Especially if a competitor is beating him (especially Microsoft). He wasted hundreds of millions on Beehive and Enterprise Manager and he's doing it now. Larry will not let a pet project die quickly.
For those applying to Oracle Cloud, unless it's Oracle OCI, in Seattle, don't bother. You will be eliminated. The likes of TK, who prefers sellable products and the Bay Area, are gone. If you are in Seattle OCI, I'd give it about another 3 years before Larry and Safra realize how they messed up and threw money after bad. Because, let's face it, Oracle will not compete in IaaS or PaaS. They will cannibalize their on-premises for SaaS and claim a cloud victory to please the analysts. That's it. If you want some resume building and easy money, fit the demographic stereotype that Don clamors for, and can handle the rain - absorb all the money you can and take that layoff package for riches.
Oracle will finally realize that even the most expensive lipstick in the world still makes a pig a pig. Seattleites , exploit this brief gold rush for as much as you can while training for your next job at Amazon. SF Bar Area folks, polish up those resumes and start applying now. The market is super hot.