Microsoft, Oracle Expand Cloud Partnership

ORACLE CLOUDWORLD LONDON — Microsoft and Oracle are expanding their partnership in the cloud. Oracle Database@Azure will debut in Europe, after Microsoft Azure East U.S. launched in December 2023.

Oracle Database@Azure gives customers access to Oracle database services running on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and deployed in Microsoft Azure data centers. Bringing Oracle Database@Azure to Europe will enable customers in the region to locally employ Oracle database services running on OCI hardware deployed in Azure data centers. In this case, customers can now place orders for Oracle Database@Azure in the Microsoft Azure Germany West Central region in Frankfurt.

Oracle Database@Azure: Opportunity for Partners

"The cloud is not a set of walled gardens," said Doug Smith, SVP, head of strategic partnerships and global partner ecosystem, Oracle. "Customers want to have the benefits of all of these technologies. We see that, we hear that message from our customers and we believe we're uniquely in a position to deliver on that."

Smith was speaking with Channel Futures at Oracle Cloud World in London on Thursday. He described the expansion of Oracle Database@Azure as a great opportunity for partners.

"A number of our services partners are both Microsoft Azure partners as well as Oracle OCI partners. It's a great opportunity. If you're an SI, by definition, as a software integrator, this is a lot of what you do. Now we've provided a platform for when you have a customer who wants to enjoy the benefits of having your Oracle data available, in a very low-latency way in the cloud."

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To meet the growing customer demand this year, the service will further run in the Australia East, Brazil South, Canada Central, France Central, Central India, Italy North, Japan East, Southeast Asia, Sweden Central, United Kingdom South, Central United States, South Central United States and United Arab Emirates North cloud regions.

Rivals Under Friendly Fire

Elsewhere, the partnership with Microsoft didn't stop Oracle's EVP, corporate operations, Doug Kehring, taking discreet aim at the firm's tech rivals.

"I like to remind everyone that all we do is enterprise technology. We don't build gaming systems. We don't do consumer advertising. And we certainly don't write term papers for your kids," he told attendees at Oracle Cloud World. "Rather, we're deeply focused on delivering the most extensive end-to-end set of technologies to help any organization, within any industry, automate their business so that you can accelerate your revenue."

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Nevertheless, Smith indicated that there could be partnerships with more "frenemies" on the horizon.

"Our aspiration is to do more of those relationships," he said. "We really believe we're uniquely positioned to enable that. Our cloud technology is architected in a way that you can put OCI in Azure, but you can't necessarily put other clouds within OCI. So it's a unique and differentiated opportunity we have that really meets many customer needs."

Overcoming Workload Migration Challenges

"Enterprises that use offerings from multiple vendors are having a hard time moving their workloads to the cloud," said Holger Mueller, VP and principal analyst, Constellation Research.

"Effectively, CxOs need to pick the better offering and then live with the integration cost and risk going forward. The Microsoft and Oracle partnership is an innovative departure from this challenge, by allowing enterprises to even deliver their Oracle services through Azure's console. It is no surprise that Microsoft and Oracle are now doubling down on the customer momentum and expanding their partnership with more locations."

This article originally appeared on Channel Futures.