Microsoft, Oracle expand cloud partnership

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Oracle and Microsoft have expanded their partnership to announce Oracle Database@Azure, which gives customers direct access to Oracle database services running on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and deployed in Microsoft Azure data centres.

Oracle Database@Azure delivers all the performance, scale and workload availability advantages of Oracle Database on OCI with the security, flexibility, and services of Microsoft Azure, including artificial intelligence (AI) services like Azure OpenAI. This combination provides customers with more flexibility regarding where they run their workloads. It also provides a streamlined environment that simplifies cloud purchasing and management between Oracle Database and Azure services.

Multi-cloud made for customers

The service delivers a fully integrated experience for deploying, managing, and using Oracle database instances within Azure. It enables organisations to drive breakthroughs in the cloud using their existing skills to leverage Oracle and Microsoft’s capabilities directly within the Azure portal.

The service is designed to eliminate customers’ challenges in adopting multi-cloud architectures, including disjointed management, siloed tools and a complex purchasing process.

As a result of this expanded partnership, customers will have the choice to deploy their Azure services with their fully managed Oracle Database services all within a single data centre. Both entities have also developed a joint support model to provide rapid response and resolution for mission-critical workloads.

Additionally, both organisations have significantly simplified the purchasing and contracting process. Customers will be able to purchase Oracle Database@Azure through Azure Marketplace, leveraging their existing Azure agreements. They will also be able to use their existing Oracle Database licence benefits including Bring Your Own Licence and the Oracle Support Rewards programme.

“We have a real opportunity to help organisations bring their mission-critical applications to the cloud so they can transform every part of their business with this next generation of AI,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO, Microsoft.

“Our expanded partnership with Oracle will make Microsoft Azure the only other cloud provider to run Oracle’s database services and help our customers unlock a new wave of cloud-powered innovation.”

“Most customers already use multiple clouds,” said Larry Ellison, Oracle chairman and CTO.

“Microsoft and Oracle have been working together to make it easy for those customers to seamlessly connect Azure Services with the very latest Oracle Database technology. By collocating Oracle Exadata hardware in Azure data centres, customers will experience the best possible database and network performance. We are proud to partner with Microsoft to deliver this best-in-class capability to customers.”

Oracle will operate and manage these OCI services directly within Microsoft’s data centres globally, beginning with regions in North America and Europe.

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