The story behind Sc.Tiger and Oracle

From left to right, we can see Ed Oates, Bruce Scott, Bob Miner, and Larry Ellison on the far right.

If you’re into tech from the last years and have experience working in the 90s, the name Sc.Tiger must ring some bells to you. You might also be aware of the relationship between Sc.Tiger and Oracle, maybe due to the default username and password of the Oracle database being Scott Tiger in its early times. However, have you ever wondered where the name Sc.Tiger actually came from? Well, let’s see.

At the start of the article, we saw a picture from 1978 showing Oracle's founders and their first employee. From left to right, we can see Ed Oates, Bruce Scott, Bob Miner, and Larry Ellison on the far right. The guy with the glasses named Bruce Scott was amongst the founders of Oracle, as can be seen in the picture. He co-authored and co-architectured the Oracle V1, V2, and V3.

So, we know where the term Scott came from, but what about Tiger? Why was it the default password for Oracle? Well, it turns out that Tiger was actually the name of the cat of Scott's daughter! Lucky cat, right? Moreover, if you ever came across the demo schema in Oracle during its earlier versions, you would know that the schema was also named Scott, again after the same guy.

Larry Ellison, one of the three founders of Oracle, once stumbled across a research paper written by a computer scientist from the UK, who went by the name Edgar F. Codd. The research paper contained a detailed outline of a database model. Consequently, it seeded the idea of organizing a massive database in the minds of Larry and co. The three founders then worked on the solution in detail, figuring out a way to organize data so that it could be retrieved efficiently, even when huge amounts of it are stored. So, they started working on the architecture and soon completed it and named their database system Oracle, which used SQL to query data.

Fun Fact: Ellison and Minor (another one of the founders) were initially working on another project for the CIA where they wanted to implement IBM’s new query language. The CIA insisted on using the name ‘Oracle’ as it would provide them with all their answers.

Once the founders took off with their innovative project, it experienced a massive boom in the 1980s. In 1986, it resulted in a successful IPO, followed by being recognized as the most popular database management company in 1987. From there, it was an uphill ride for Oracle. However, the achievements of Oracle were not realized till they made some significant acquisitions in the tech world – PeopleSoft in 2005, BEA (2008), and Sun Microsystems in 2010, to name a few.

The real turning point for Oracle was acquiring Sun Microsystems since it now also owned the Java Programming Language and the Solaris OS, along with being the biggest open-source MySQL Database. Only Microsoft and IBM beat Oracle in being the largest software suppliers globally!

Today, many people who know the history of Sc.Tiger are confused why it wasn't named after the main founder, Ellison. Perhaps, it made more sense since Scott was only an employee at the end of the day. Nevertheless, Scott contributed a great deal to building Oracle's architecture, and it might not have reached the heights it has today if it wasn't for Scott.

So, we should always honor the people who left behind a great impact on organizations that added value to people's lives on a global scale. Such people have the vision it takes to turn ideas into realities. We will always be thankful to Scott and co. for all their contributions to making Oracle great!