Oracle Outlines Distributed Cloud Vision at CloudWorld 2022

At the Oracle CloudWorld 2022 event this week the pervasive theme was that the era of enterprises relying on a single cloud provider is long gone as multicloud is now the norm.

In a keynote, Oracle founder and CTO Larry Ellison spoke about the perils of cloud lock-in and detailed his company's vision, which it is calling the distributed cloud. The basic idea behind the distributed cloud is that organizations can run services across multiple clouds, in a number of different ways. The distributed cloud vision includes Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) as well as a new service announced at CloudWorld called Oracle Alloy, which enables operators to run their own customized cloud offering.

"There should be an internet of clouds," Ellison said about the distributed cloud during his keynote. "The cloud should be interconnected, and you can mix and match services from multiple clouds with customers choosing the service that best meets their needs."

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What Is the Distributed Cloud?

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is at the center of Oracle's distributed cloud vision, and it's a public cloud that continues to grow.

OCI has more than 40 regions around the world, with many more coming soon, Clay Magouyrk, executive vice president of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, said in a keynote at CloudWorld. The distributed cloud vision isn't just about building out more OCI regions — it's about extending the reach of Oracle services as well as enabling OCI users to benefit from services in other cloud provider platforms.

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"For us to enable all workloads and enable all customers to really get the advantages of the cloud, we have to change how the cloud is delivered, operated, and consumed," he said.

Access to the cloud isn't just about geography; it's also about level of control and the specific proximity to existing applications or other workloads, Magouyrk said. He noted that access to just one cloud isn't enough.

"We have to make it possible that people can use multiple clouds together," Magouyrk said.

Oracle Alloy Brings New Metal to Distributed Cloud

Also at CloudWorld, Oracle announced Alloy, a service that will become a key part of the distributed cloud vision.

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With Oracle Alloy, an organization or a network operator can run their own cloud and offer both Oracle and their own unique set of cloud services. Alloy will allow operators to create their own branded experiences and pricing for cloud services.

"Oracle Alloy is our platform that enables other people to become cloud operators themselves," Magouyrk said. "The reason we call it an Alloy is it's all about bringing the best that we have to offer at Oracle and combine that with the best that our cloud operator or localized operators and partners will have such that together we actually have a platform that has more strength than either of the two individually."

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