Oracle has announced that it will grow Sun's hardware business after the pending acquisition closes and focus the server and storage businesses on the two companies' common enterprise customers.

Many analysts wondered if Oracle would kill off Sun's hardware business which it really didn't need had had little expertise in running. According to a report to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Oracle wants to develop software-optimised hardware that integrates all of the enterprise components: hardware, database, middleware and applications.

Oracle said that its Oracle Fusion Middleware is built on top of Sun's Java language and that continued investment will be made in the software. Oracle added its database's uses the Sun Solaris operating system and that after the acquisition, Oracle can "optimise" its database for some of the better bits of Solaris.

It also does not plan to gut Sun's payroll and claims that Sun employees "will be integral" in the execution of its plans to grow the enterprise systems business.