Yesterday Microsoft and Oracle announced a cloud based enterprise partnership that they said will help customers embrace cloud computing by providing greater choice and flexibility.
From CRN’s Rick Whiting
Oracle (NSDQ:ORCL) will certify and support its software products running on Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT)’s Windows Azure cloud platform and Hyper-V virtualization technology under an alliance unveiled by the two companies Monday.
Oracle is also providing license mobility for customers who want to run Oracle software on Windows Azure, the companies said, and Microsoft will offer fully licensed and supported Java for Windows Azure.
The alliance, detailed in a conference call featuring Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Oracle President Mark Hurd, was portrayed as necessary to meet the cloud computing needs of the two companies’ enterprise customers.
“Everything in the enterprise is different. Different sets of technical needs, investments, scale, timing,” Ballmer said, adding that the alliance was necessitated by the growing adoption of hybrid cloud systems.
“Most important to our enterprise customers is that we will work together, Microsoft and Oracle, to provide best-in-class, end-to-end support to customers running mission-critical Oracle applications and software on Microsoft’s enterprise-grade cloud computing and virtualization platforms,” Ballmer said.
“At Oracle, we certainly see the IT industry as very dynamic,” Hurd said on the call. “Customers want more flexibility and choice to be able to adapt to a rapid changing business landscape.”
Much has been made of Microsoft & Oracle’s competitive history for example this headline from the Wall Street Journal ‘Frenemies’ Microsoft and Oracle to Collaborate in the Cloud but however you view the news it validates that Cloud, long a CIO top priority, is here to stay. In April, Microsoft shared that Azure had become a $1 billion business and that Azure subscriptions had risen 48 percent in the prior 6 months, signalling an acceleration in Cloud and Azure adoption. With this announcement, Oracle customers have a clear choice and path to move to the cloud.
