Oracle infrastructure now also on AWS and GCP

Following Azure, Oracle's database hardware and software is now also directly available on Amazon AWS and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). The new collaborations mean that many of the partners' functions are also available to each other. For example, the Oracle DB runs in Google and Google's Gemini AI runs in Oracle or the Oracle DB can be managed via the AWS console.

For Oracle CTO Larry Ellison, this marks the somewhat belated start of the multi-cloud era. "Now that we are in the middle of the cloud era, we are entering a new phase where services on different clouds need to work together seamlessly; the clouds are becoming more open and are no longer walled gardens," he said in his keynote. AWS CEO Matt Garman added: "AWS is the most popular cloud and many customers want to run some of their mission-critical workloads on Oracle Database. But until now, this has only been possible at the expense of performance and administration."

Seamlessly connected

Oracle Database@AWS allows access to the Autonomous Database on dedicated infrastructure and the Exadata Database Service within AWS. The new infrastructure provides a low-latency network connection between the Oracle databases and all AWS applications. This should allow the data in the Oracle Database to be seamlessly connected to applications running on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) or AWS' analytics services. This also includes the new AI and ML services, including Amazon Bedrock.

The situation is similar with the new Oracle Database@Google. Here too, the Exadata Database Service, the Autonomous Database and the Database Zero Data Loss Autonomous Recovery Service can be used in several GCP data centers, including the Frankfurt data center. Administratively, the switch from OCI to AWS or GCP is simple, as customers can use their existing Oracle licenses (Bring Your Own License, BYOL). Discount programs such as Oracle Support Rewards (OSR) will also remain in place.

Oracle Database@Azure, which was launched a year ago, has been expanded. 15 regions have now been added, including Brazil South, Central India, USA Central, USA East 2, Italy North, Japan East, Northern Europe, USA South Central, Southeast Asia, Spain Central, Sweden Central, United Arab Emirates North, Western Europe, USA West 2 and USA West 3.

Supercluster with 2.4 Zettaflops

Oracle's cloud currently consists of 162 data centers worldwide. A supercluster with up to 131,072 Nvidia Blackwell GPUs is being planned. This should achieve a peak performance of 2.4 AI Zettaflops. The maximum equipped version of the OCI supercluster would then have more than three times as many GPUs as the Frontier supercomputer, the most powerful system in the world, and more than six times as many as other hyperscalers. And they are working on a new data center with over one gigawatt. "We are planning a new data center, and we already have construction permits for three small modular nuclear reactors for the power supply," said Ellison in a call with financial analysts.

Despite these considerable infrastructure projects, the new collaborations are not without risk for Oracle, as the new partners are former arch-rivals and major cloud heavyweights. A look at the market shares makes this clear. According to the Synergy Group, the cloud market shares in the second quarter of 2024 were as follows AWS 32 percent, Azure 23 percent, GCP 12 percent, Alibaba 3.6 percent, Salesforce 2.5 percent – only then comes OCI with 2.4 percent.

(mma)