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If you have been involved with tech in recent years and also have experience working in the 1990s, the name ScTiger may already sound familiar. You may also know about the connection between ScTiger and Oracle, perhaps because in the early days the default Oracle database username and password were Scott and Tiger. But have you ever wondered where the name ScTiger actually comes from? Let’s take a closer look.

Some background on ScTiger

At the beginning of this article, we saw a photo from 1978 showing the founders of Oracle and their first employee. From left to right, we see Ed Oates, Bruce Scott, Bob Miner and, on the far right, Larry Ellison. The man wearing glasses, Bruce Scott, was one of Oracle’s founders, as shown in the photo. He was also co-author and co-architect of Oracle V1, V2 and V3.

So we know where the name Scott comes from, but what about Tiger? Why was that the default Oracle password? It turns out that Tiger was actually the name of Scott’s daughter’s cat. A lucky cat indeed. And if you ever worked with the demo schema in earlier Oracle versions, you may remember that the schema was also called Scott, once again named after the same person.

A brief history of Oracle

Larry Ellison, one of Oracle’s three founders, once came across a research paper written by British computer scientist Edgar F. Codd. The paper outlined a detailed database model. It gave Larry and his co-founders the idea to organize a large-scale database system. The three founders then worked out the solution in detail, looking for a way to organize data so it could be retrieved efficiently, even when stored in very large volumes. They began developing the architecture and soon completed it, naming their database system Oracle, which used SQL to query data.

A fun fact: Ellison and Miner, another one of the founders, were originally working on a separate project for the CIA in which they wanted to implement IBM’s new query language. The CIA insisted on using the name Oracle, because it would provide them with all the answers.

Once the founders got started with their innovative project, Oracle grew rapidly during the 1980s. In 1986, this resulted in a successful public offering, followed by recognition as the most popular database management company in 1987. From that point on, Oracle continued to grow. Its success accelerated even further through several major acquisitions in the tech industry, including PeopleSoft in 2005, BEA in 2008 and Sun Microsystems in 2010, to name a few.

The real turning point for Oracle was the acquisition of Sun Microsystems, because it gave the company ownership of the Java programming language and the Solaris operating system, along with the widely used open-source MySQL database. At that point, only Microsoft and IBM ranked above Oracle among the world’s largest software vendors.

Closing words

Today, many people know the history behind ScTiger, but some wonder why it was not named after the most prominent founder, Ellison. Perhaps that would have seemed more logical, especially since Scott eventually became known more as an early employee figure in the story. Even so, Scott made a major contribution to the foundation of Oracle, and without him, the company might never have reached the level of success it enjoys today.

We should always honor the people who have made a meaningful impact on organizations that have created value on a global scale. These are the people with the vision needed to turn ideas into reality. We will always be grateful to Scott and his colleagues for everything they contributed to making Oracle what it became.