Microsoft and Oracle to Interconnect Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud

What does this joint 5^th June agreement from Microsoft and Oracle mean for our customers, Cloud Transformation partners and other Cloud Providers?

Oracle and Microsoft have made a joint announcement on the interconnection between Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud.

The main highlights of the announcement customers should be aware of are:

• Direct inter-connectivity between Oracle Cloud and Azure, starting in the US.
• Unified Identity and Access management, via a unified SSO experience.
• Supported deployment of custom and Oracle applications, typically referred to as Oracle Applications Unlimited, such as JD Edwards, PeopleSoft and E-Business Suite in a multi-cloud configuration. Namely Database in Oracle Cloud and non-database components in Azure.
• A collaborative support model for customers leveraging these new capabilities.

What are the implications of the announcement?

It means lots of new and interesting opportunities for customers who have a mix of enterprise applications, custom builds and Applications Unlimited (JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, E-Business Suite, Siebel) and a desire to migrate to Cloud with minimum disruption to the technical footprint underpinning the applications. With this option, you can maintain the power of Oracle database (mandatory for Applications Unlimited) while taking advantage of the digital and platform innovations in Microsoft Azure.

Does it enhance what could previously be achieved using Infrastructure-as-a-Service from Microsoft Azure or Oracle Infrastructure-as-a-Service/Platform-as-a-Service from Oracle?

No, not really but it does bring just ‘a little’ more clarity on support/certification position.  However, despite what other articles written on this topic have claimed, it does not amend the licence rules for licencing Oracle software on Cloud environments such as AWS or Azure in any way. But another point of detail, which customers will need to be mindful of is the implications for the data ingress and egress charges, between the cloud providers.

For Version 1 as a multi-cloud implementer and partner to Oracle, Microsoft and AWS,  it underscores what we are seeing, and supporting enthusiastically, which is a trend over the last 12-18 months toward multi-cloud, using the best options from all cloud providers to get the best business outcomes for your Cloud transformation. This allows us to potentially offer even more choice and more value to customers in particular scenarios. Could it simplify and form a risk mitigation for your migration to cloud, yes absolutely. However, with many of these announcements, the speed at which the capability arrives in European datacentres will be one to keep an eye on, and also to truly assess the ‘seamless’ nature of support.

Finally, what does this mean for other hyper-scale cloud providers such as AWS and Google?

Certainly, there is an element of the traditional behemoths providing an option to maintain the status quo while transferring to a cloud model. This will definitely resonate with many customers in the enterprise space who choose not to transform or are unable to transform their database estate as part of their cloud migrations. However as the trend and direction for many customers – particularly in a non-Applications Unlimited world –  is more aligned to re-architecting for cloud, where this is an option, then the relevance or impact on AWS and Google is more limited. The announcement does underpin for Cloud providers like AWS and Google the importance and theme of hybrid-cloud in the enterprise space and of keeping and working closely with your enemy.

About Version 1

Version 1 is a leader in Digital and Cloud services with specialist expertise in migrating, running and transforming complex enterprise applications in Public Cloud. With enhanced partnerships with leading Cloud vendors – Oracle, Microsoft and AWS – Version 1 can look beyond specific requirements to underlying customer issues and identify integrated multi-cloud solutions that leverage the entire technology stack. We have developed unique methodologies for migrating Enterprise workloads to Cloud which are highly beneficial to organisations seeking a rapid and agile approach to migrating workloads to Cloud.