ORACLE has had enough of selling storage software and wants to get into the hardware business.

For the first time in its 31-year history the company has decided that it wants to be more than a business software company. But face it, you are not going to score at parties saying you are into storage.

Chief Executive Larry Ellison said that Oracle's sales team will peddle a " database machine" and a smaller storage product, both made by HP.

The kit is designed to help companies fetch information stored on Oracle's database software more quickly while taking up less space in data centres.

It has taken three years to develop the database machine will sell for $650,000 and store up to 168 terabytes. For some reason Ellison thought it was relevant to point out that the database is 1,400 times larger than Apple's largest Ipod. We doubt that anyone is going to shell out $650,000 to store their music collection or plug their earphones into a server as even a blade server is not exactly portable.

Analysts think that the Oracle-HP partnership conceivably could also siphon sales from storage providers like EMC and IBM. µ