In this article, we will explore what makes OCI Dedicated Region and Oracle Cloud VMware Solution (OCVS) a unique and powerful combination, cover their core features, how they address key IT challenges, and why CIOs should consider this pairing as a strategic investment for a future-proof IT environment.
What is OCI Dedicated Region?
OCI Dedicated Region is Oracle’s fully managed public cloud region that is deployed directly in a customer’s data center. It provides all of Oracle’s public cloud services (including Oracle Autonomous Database, and AI/ML capabilities) while meeting strict data residency, latency, and regulatory requirements. This allows organizations to enjoy the benefits of a public cloud while retaining physical control over data and infrastructure:
Data Residency and Compliance: By deploying cloud services in a customer’s data center, OCI Dedicated Region ensures data remains within the organization’s control, meeting data residency and compliance requirements critical in industries like finance, healthcare, and government.
Operational Consistency: Organizations get access to the same tools, APIs, and SLAs as Oracle’s public cloud, which ensures a consistent operational experience across on-premises and cloud environments.
Scalability and Flexibility: OCI Dedicated Region provides elastic scaling for workloads without the need for substantial capital expenditure on hardware.
Cost-Effective: By consolidating on-premises and cloud infrastructure, OCI Dedicated Region reduces operational complexity and costs associated with data center management, disaster recovery, and infrastructure procurement.
What is Oracle Cloud VMware Solution?
For many enterprises, VMware is a cornerstone of their infrastructure, powering mission-critical applications and handling sensitive workloads. Migrating these workloads to the cloud has the potential to unlock new efficiencies, but it also brings challenges related to compatibility, risk, and cost.
Oracle Cloud VMware Solution (OCVS) is an answer to these challenges, enabling organizations to extend or migrate VMware environments to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) without re-architecting applications:
Minimal Disruption: Since OCVS is a VMware-certified solution, applications continue running as they did on-premises, ensuring continuity.
Reduced Risk: By leveraging familiar VMware tools and processes, the learning curve is minimized, reducing operational risk.
Lower Migration Costs: Avoiding re-architecting means lower costs and faster time-to-value.
Enhanced Security: OCVS inherits OCI’s strong security posture, ensuring that data is safeguarded at every layer, from infrastructure to application.
Reduced Hardware Spending: Since OCVS runs on OCI, there’s no need to invest in new data center hardware.
Disaster Recovery: Allowing enterprises to establish OCI as a disaster recovery site, reducing capital costs on duplicate infrastructure.
The Synergy Between OCI Dedicated Region and OCVS
Using OCVS as a part of an OCI Dedicated Region and brings a unique set of advantages to private clouds. Together, they provide a solution that addresses the pressing demands for data sovereignty, cloud flexibility, and seamless application modernization.
OCI Dedicated Region and OCVS enable operational consistency across cloud and on-premises environments. Teams familiar with Oracle’s public cloud or VMware’s suite of tools can manage both environments with ease. This consistency allows CIOs to retain talent by providing a familiar technology landscape and reduces the need for retraining, thereby improving productivity.
Additionally, this combination allows the creation of a hybrid cloud architecture that seamlessly integrates on-premises infrastructure with cloud resources. OCI Dedicated Region provides a cloud environment within the customer’s data center, while OCVS allows existing VMware workloads to shift to this region without disruptions.
Conclusion
OCI Dedicated Region and Oracle Cloud VMware Solution together offer a powerful, flexible, and compliant infrastructure that empowers CIOs to meet the complex demands of modern enterprise IT. By combining the control of on-premises with the agility/flexibility of the cloud, this combined solution helps organizations achieve operational excellence, reduce risk, and accelerate digital transformation.
For decision-makers looking to strike a balance between legacy infrastructure and future-oriented cloud solutions, OCI Dedicated Region and OCVS represent a strategic investment that brings immediate and long-term value to the enterprise. This combination is not just about technology – it is about enabling business growth, operational resilience, and competitive advantage in a digital-first world.
Private clouds and IT infrastructures deployed in on-premises data centers are going through the next evolution. We see vendors and solutions shifting from siloed private clouds more towards a platform approach. A platform that does not consist of different solutions (products) and components anymore but rather something that provides the right foundation, a feature set and interfaces that let you expose and consume services like IaaS, PaaS, DBaaS, DRaaS etc.
If we talk about a platform, we usually mean something that is unified and that is not just “integrated” or stitched together. Integrated would imply that we still have different products (could also be from the same vendor), and this is becoming less popular now. Except this is your way to attract talent by using a best-of-breed approach. Do not forget: It increases your technical debt and hence the complexity massively.
This article highlights a private cloud platform that brings true public cloud characteristics to private clouds. As a matter of fact, it brings the public cloud to your on-premises data center: OCI Dedicated Region
The Cloud Paradox
We could start an endless discussion about technical debt, the so-called public cloud sprawl, and the wish for cloud repatriation. Many people believe that “the” public cloud has failed to deliver its promise. Organizations and decision-makers are still figuring out the optimal way for their business to operate in a multi-cloud world.
In my opinion, the challenge today is that you have so many more topics to consider than ever before. New technologies, new vendors, new solutions, new regulations, and in general so many new possibilities for how to deliver a solution.
IT organizations have invested a lot of money, time, and resources over the past few years to familiarize themselves with these possibilities: hybrid cloud, multi-cloud, application modernization, security, data management, and artificial intelligence.
The public cloud has not failed – it is just failing forward, which means it is still maturing as well!
Other (private) cloud and virtualization companies grew by developing homegrown products and by acquiring different companies to close some feature gaps, which then led to heavy integration efforts. Since the private cloud and the related vendors are also still evolving/maturing, but also still trying to fix the technical debt that they have delivered to their customers and partners, there seems not to be a single private cloud vendor in the market that can provide a true unified platform for on-premises data centers.
Interoperability, Portability, Data Gravity
In 2010, different companies and researchers have been looking for ways to make the private and public clouds more interoperable. The idea was a so-called “intercloud” that would allow organizations to move applications securely and freely between clouds at an acceptable cost. While this cost problem has not been solved yet, the following illustration from 2023 (perhaps not accurate, please verify) should give you an idea where we stand:
Constantly moving applications and their data between clouds is not something that CIOs and application owners want. Do not forget: We are still figuring out how to move applications to the right cloud based on the right reasons.
Thought: AI/ML-based workload mobility and cost optimization could become a reality though but that is still far away.
That brings us to interoperability. The idea almost 15 years ago was based on standardized protocols and common standards that would allow VM/application mobility, which then can be seen as cloud interoperability.
So, how are cloud providers trying to solve this challenge? By providing their proprietary solutions in other clouds.
While these hybrid or hybrid multi-cloud solutions bring advantages and solve some of the problems, depending on an organization’s strategy and partnerships, we face the next obstacle called data gravity.
The larger a dataset or database is the more difficult it is to move, which incentivizes organizations to bring computing resources and applications closer to the data, rather than moving the data to where the processing is done. That is why organizations are using different database solutions and DBaaS offerings in their private and public cloud(s).
Distributed Cloud Architecture
Oracle’s distributed cloud architecture enables customers to run their workloads in geographically diverse locations while maintaining a consistent operational model across different environments:
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). Oracle has built OCI to deliver high-performance computing and enterprise-grade cloud services with global availability across its various regions.
Hybrid Cloud and Interoperability. Oracle’s hybrid cloud capabilities, such as Exadata Cloud@Customer and OCI Dedicated Region, enable organizations to run Oracle Cloud services in their own data center. These services give customers the full benefits of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure while maintaining data within their data centers, which is ideal for industries with strict data residency or security policies.
These offerings address the mobility, interoperability, egress costs, and data gravity challenges mentioned above. In my opinion, there is no other vendor yet who achieved the same level of partnerships and integrations that brings us closer to cloud interoperability.
This is the Gartner Magic Quadrant (MQ) for Distributed Hybrid Infrastructure from August 2023:
I do not know when the next MQ for Distributed Hybrid Infrastructure comes out (Update: the 2024 Gartner MQ for DHI came out on October 10), but I guess that Oracle will even be positioned better then, because of the Oracle CloudWorld 2024 announcements and the future release of OCI Dedicated Region 25. If you missed the Dedicated Region 25 announcement, have a look at this interview:
Let us park OCI Dedicated Region for a minute and talk about data centers quickly.
Monolithic Data Centers for Modern Applications
As many of us know, the word “monolithic” describes something very large, and difficult to change. Something inflexible.
It is very interesting to see that so many organizations talk about modern applications, but are still managing and maintaining what one could call a “monolithic” data center. I had customers discussing a modern infrastructure for their modern (or to be modernized) applications. With “modern” they were referring to a modern infrastructure which means “public cloud” for them.
So, it still surprises me that almost nobody talks about monolithic infrastructures or monolithic private clouds. Perhaps this has something to do with the mostly (still) monolithic applications, which implies that these workloads are running on a “legacy” or monolithic infrastructure.
So, what happens to the applications that have to stay in your data center, because you cannot or do not want to migrate them to the public cloud?
Some of those apps are for sure still important to the business, need to be lifecycled and patched, and some of them need to be modernized for you to stay competitive with the market.
What about a modern private cloud?
If your goal is to put modern applications on a modern platform, what are the reasons for stopping you and not investing in a more modern platform that can not only host your modern apps, but also legacy apps, and anything that might come in the future?
Where do you deploy your AI-based workloads and data services if such applications/workloads and their data have to stay in your private cloud?
All segments of the cloud market are expected to see growth in 2024. Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) is forecast to experience the highest end-user spending growth at 25.6%, followed by platform-as-a-service (PaaS) at 20.6%…
Why do I mention this?
Because some people think that virtual machines and IaaS are legacy, and then come to the false conclusion that an on-premises cloud is obsolete. If that would be true, why does Gartner regularly forecast the highest spending growth with IaaS? And wouldn’t it mean that the modern public cloud is hosting a huge number of legacy workloads, and hence become obsolete as well?
I do not think so. 😀
The Next Generation
One of the main challenges with existing private clouds is the operating model. Imagine how organizations have built data centers in the past. You started to virtualize compute, then networking, and then storage. A little bit later you had to figure out how you automate, deploy, integrate, and maintain these components without forgetting security in the end.
A few years later, you had to start thinking about container orchestration and go through the same process again: how to build, run, connect, and secure container-based workloads.
Why? Because people believe that on-premises data centers will disappear, applications must be cloud-native, containerized, and therefore be orchestrated with Kubernetes. That’s the very short and extremely simplified version of 20 years of virtualization history.
So, suddenly, you are stuck in both worlds, the monolithic data center and the modern public cloud, with different people (engineering, architecture, operations), processes, and technologies. Different integrations (ecosystem), strategic partnerships and operating models for different clouds.
What are the options at this point? Well, there are not so many:
Stretch the private cloud to the public cloud (e.g., VMware Cloud Foundation, Nutanix)
Stretch the public cloud to your data center (AWS Outposts, Azure Stack, OCI Dedicated Region or Oracle’s Cloud@Customer offerings)
Leave all as it is and try to abstract the underlying infrastructure, but build a control plane on top for everything (Azure Arc, Google Anthos, VMware Tanzu)
The (existing) private cloud will always be seen as the legacy and outdated private cloud, if nobody changes the processes and the capabilities that the data center platform can deliver.
Note: But that might be okay depending on an organization’s size and requirements
What am I trying to say here? It is not only the operating model that has to change but also how the private cloud services are consumed by developers and operators. Some of the key features and “characteristics” they seek include:
Elastic scalability: The ability to automatically scale resources up and down based on demand, without the need for manual intervention or hardware provisioning.
Cost transparency and efficiency: Pay-as-you-go pricing models that align costs with actual resource consumption, improving financial efficiency.
Cloud-native services: Access to a wide range of managed services, such as databases, AI/ML tools, and serverless platforms, that accelerate application development and deployment.
Low operational overhead: Outsourcing the management of underlying infrastructure to reduce operational complexity and allow teams to focus on business outcomes.
Compliance and data sovereignty: The ability to meet strict regulatory requirements while ensuring that data and workloads remain under the enterprise’s control.
This brings me to option number 2 and OCI Dedicated Region, because Oracle is the only public cloud provider, who can bring the same set of public cloud services to an enterprise data center.
What is OCI Dedicated Region?
OCI Dedicated Region (previously known as Oracle Dedicated Region Cloud@Customer aka DRCC) provides the full suite of Oracle cloud services (IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS) for deployment in one or more customer-specified physical locations. This solution allows customers to maintain complete control over their data and applications, addressing the strictest security, regulatory, low latency, and data residency requirements. It is ideal for mission-critical workloads that may not move to the public cloud.
OCI Dedicated Region provides the same services available in Oracle’s public cloud regions. It is also certified to run Oracle SaaS applications, including ERP, Financials, HCM, and SCM, making it the only solution that delivers a fully integrated cloud experience for IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS directly on-premises.
Key features of DRCC:
Full Public Cloud Parity: DRCC offers the same services, APIs, and operational experience as Oracle’s public cloud. This includes Oracle Autonomous Database, Exadata, high-performance computing (HPC), Kubernetes, and more.
Private Cloud: The infrastructure is deployed within the customer’s data center, meaning all data stays on-premises, which is ideal for industries with strict data privacy or residency requirements.
Managed by Oracle: Oracle is responsible for managing, monitoring, updating, and securing the infrastructure, ensuring it operates with the same level of service as Oracle’s public cloud.
Pay-as-you-go: DRCC operates under a consumption-based pricing model, similar to public cloud services, where customers pay based on the resources they use.
Oracle Alloy
Oracle Alloy is a cloud infrastructure platform designed to allow service providers, independent software vendors (ISVs), and enterprises to build and operate their own customized cloud environments based on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
Some key features of Oracle Alloy:
Customizable Cloud: Oracle Alloy allows organizations to brand, customize, and offer their own cloud services to customers using Oracle’s OCI technology. This enables service providers and enterprises to create tailored cloud environments for specific industries or regional needs.
Full Control: Unlike DRCC, which is managed entirely by Oracle, Alloy provides organizations with full control (of operations) over the infrastructure. They can operate, manage, and upgrade the environment as they see fit.
White-label Cloud Services: Oracle Alloy allows organizations to build and offer cloud services under their own brand. This is especially useful for telcos, financial institutions, governments or regional service providers who want to become cloud providers themselves.
In addition, partners can set their own pricing, rate cards, account types, and discount schedules. They can also define support structure and service levels. With embedded financial management capabilities from the Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP offering, Oracle Alloy enables partners to manage the customer lifecycle, including invoicing and billing their customers.
Final Words
Just because organizations call the combination of their data center solutions (even the components are coming from the same vendor) a private cloud, doesn’t mean that they have the right capabilities (people, processes, technology – not only technology!) and private cloud maturity to enable business transformations.
So, if you want to bring your on-premises environment to the next level with a true private cloud and a cloud operating model, why don’t you bring a complete public cloud region into your data center? 🙂
In case you missed it, Oracle announced on the 11th of September 2024, that their Dedicated Region offering is becoming smaller and this new configuration called “Dedicated Region 25” will be available in the next calendar year. This new offering allows businesses to bring the full power of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) to their own data centers, but now with a minimum of just three racks.
This is a significant shift from Oracle’s previous requirement of a 12-rack minimum. By reducing the infrastructure to as little as three racks, Oracle is making its powerful cloud capabilities more accessible than ever before. Let’s explore what this means for enterprises and how it opens up exciting new possibilities for hybrid cloud adoption.
With OCI’s distributed cloud capabilities, we’re helping customers deploy a dedicated cloud in a small, scalable footprint, build applications with the best services across cloud providers, and deploy AI infrastructure anywhere they want. This flexibility helps our customers address their unique needs and support their cloud investments in delivering significant business value.
OCI Dedicated Region (previously known as Oracle Dedicated Region Cloud@Customer) enables customers to deploy an Oracle Cloud region in their own data center. OCI Dedicated Region offers customers essentially the same experience as Oracle’s public cloud regions, including access to more than 100 of the same cloud services and the agility, scalability, and economics of the public cloud.
In other words, with Oracle Dedicated Region , companies can take advantage of a complete suite of cloud services, including Autonomous Database, Exadata, compute, storage, and networking, all while keeping data close to home. It is ideal for industries that need to meet strict data sovereignty or latency requirements, or that simply prefer having greater control over their environment.
Dedicated Region 25
The introduction of Dedicated Region 25 marks a major milestone. Previously, Oracle required a minimum of 12 racks for the full deployment of Dedicated Region , which limited the offering to only the largest enterprises with substantial IT budgets and infrastructure needs. Now, with a three-rack minimum, Oracle has significantly lowered the barrier to entry, making its Dedicated Region accessible to more organizations, regardless of size.
Here’s why this shift is a game-changer:
1. Smaller Footprint, Big Power With just three racks required, Dedicated Region 25 delivers the full suite of Oracle Cloud services within a much smaller infrastructure footprint. This is great news for businesses that do not have the space, power, or cooling capacity to handle a 12-rack deployment but still want to take advantage of Oracle’s cloud capabilities on-premises.
The reduced infrastructure means that even mid-sized enterprises or smaller businesses can now enjoy the benefits of running Oracle’s cloud technology in their own data centers.
2. Seamless Compliance and Data Control The most compelling feature of Oracle’s Dedicated Region offering remains intact: full data residency and compliance control. For industries like healthcare, finance, and government that are governed by strict data sovereignty laws, the ability to run Oracle’s cloud services in a local data center while adhering to compliance regulations is invaluable.
With Dedicated Region 25, organizations can maintain the same security and performance advantages of an on-premises setup without sacrificing the agility and scalability of cloud services. This makes it easier to comply with regulatory requirements while enjoying the benefits of cloud computing.
3. Optimized for Hybrid Cloud With OCI Dedicated Region, organizations can run sensitive or latency-critical applications on-site while still leveraging Oracle’s global public cloud infrastructure for other tasks.
This seamless integration allows companies to achieve the best of both worlds: the control and reliability of on-premises infrastructure paired with the scalability and flexibility of public cloud services. This makes it ideal for organizations that are looking to gradually migrate to the cloud or adopt hybrid cloud approaches.
Can I run Oracle Cloud VMware Solution on OCI Dedicated Region?
Yes, you can run Oracle Cloud VMware Solution (OCVS) on OCI Dedicated Region. OCVS includes VMware vSphere, vCenter, vSAN, NSX, and HCX. Customers have the same level of visibility and access as with their on-premises VMware cluster.
As I prepare to embark on a new role at Oracle in October 2024, diving deep into the company’s groundbreaking technologies has been both exciting and essential. In August 2024, I passed seven different Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) certifications, which helped massively to get a good overview. But I am still lacking information about the history and important advancements of Oracle and OCI over past years. Oracle CloudWorld 2024 came with a lot of great announcements and enhancements, but it is time for a structured approach to close the gaps. Yesterday, I listened to Larry Ellison’s keynote from OpenWorld 2019, which was mainly about the second-generation cloud and autonomous database.
A very good summary of this keynote can be found here.
In 2018, when I joined VMware and started this blog in 2018, the main idea was to share my learnings, knowledge and experience. That is exactly what I am going to do again. And it feels so good to a beginner again at something! 😉 Let’s dive in.
A Technological Revolution
In recent years, the digital landscape has been dramatically transformed by advancements in automation and artificial intelligence (AI). One significant development in this field is the advent of autonomous databases and autonomous operating systems. Oracle has been at the forefront of these innovations, with its Autonomous Database offering and Autonomous Linux OS.
Autonomous Databases – An Overview
An autonomous database, at its core, is a database that uses machine learning and AI to automate the tedious and complex tasks typically performed by database administrators (DBAs). These tasks include tuning, patching, security management, backups, and system optimization. By eliminating manual processes, autonomous databases provide better security, reduce human error, improve performance, and lower operational costs.
Oracle’s journey toward an autonomous database began with the introduction of Oracle Database 10g in 2003, which introduced “Automatic Storage Management” (ASM) and other automated features. Oracle continued its efforts with subsequent versions, such as Oracle 11g, which featured automatic memory management and automatic diagnostic frameworks. These incremental advances laid the groundwork for full autonomy.
While these automation features improved efficiency, DBAs were still required for many crucial tasks like patch management, security configurations, and performance monitoring.
Machine Learning and AI
The true breakthrough toward autonomous databases came with the integration of machine learning and artificial intelligence. These technologies enabled databases to not only respond to changes in workload patterns but also predict potential issues and optimize system resources in real-time.
Oracle’s Vision – The Autonomous Database
Oracle took a bold step forward with the introduction of its Autonomous Database in 2018. It automates every phase of the database lifecycle, including:
Provisioning: The database is automatically created, configured, and tuned for optimal performance without requiring human intervention.
Performance Tuning: AI and machine learning algorithms continually monitor and optimize the database to ensure high performance.
Patching and Updating: Autonomous databases automatically apply security patches and system updates with zero downtime.
Backup and Recovery: Automated backups are performed regularly without any DBA involvement, and recovery is automated in the event of failure.
Scaling: The system scales automatically based on demand, ensuring optimal resource utilization and cost-effectiveness.
Autonomous Database cloud services offer two infrastructure choices:
With serverless (ADB-S), the simplest configuration, multiple customers share the resources of an Exadata cloud infrastructure. These customers can quickly get started with no minimum commitment, enjoying quick database provisioning and independent scalability of compute and storage. Serverless runs on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
With dedicated (ADB-D), the customer must first subscribe to a dedicated Exadata cloud infrastructure that is isolated from other tenants, with no shared processor, memory, network, or storage resources. This infrastructure choice offers greater control of the software and infrastructure lifecycle, customizable policies for separation of database workload, software update schedules and versioning, and availability policies. Dedicated infrastructure is available on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and Exadata Cloud@Customer.
Autonomous Linux – Revolutionizing Operating System Management
Oracle introduced Autonomous Linux in 2019, marking the world’s first autonomous operating system. Just as the autonomous database eliminates the need for manual database administration, Autonomous Linux automates many of the routine and critical tasks associated with operating system management.
Oracle Autonomous Linux builds on Oracle Linux and adds machine learning-driven automation for system management. Some of the key features include:
Automated Patching and Updates: Oracle Autonomous Linux automatically applies updates, including security patches, without requiring downtime or rebooting. This continuous update process ensures that systems remain secure and up to date.
Self-Tuning: The operating system optimizes itself to ensure that resources are used efficiently, and that performance remains consistent.
Fault Detection and Resolution: By leveraging machine learning, Autonomous Linux can detect potential system faults before they become critical issues, reducing downtime and preventing system crashes.
Integrated with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI): Autonomous Linux is tightly integrated with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, allowing for seamless deployment, monitoring, and scaling.
Ksplice – Zero-Downtime Kernel Updates
One of the standout features of Oracle Autonomous Linux is its use of Ksplice, a technology that enables zero-downtime kernel updates. Traditionally, applying kernel patches required rebooting the system, which could result in service interruptions. Ksplice eliminates this need, allowing kernel updates to be applied in real-time without affecting running applications. This is particularly valuable in high-availability environments where downtime is not an option.
The combination of Autonomous Linux and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure offers organizations a powerful, automated cloud platform that requires minimal hands-on management. Autonomous Linux is ideal for environments where operational efficiency, security, and uptime are critical, such as e-commerce platforms, financial services, healthcare systems, and government infrastructure.
Also here, by reducing the need for manual intervention, Autonomous Linux minimizes human error, improves security posture, and lowers operating costs.
Enhancements to Oracle’s Autonomous Database Service and Autonomous Linux
Since their initial releases, Oracle’s Autonomous Database and Autonomous Linux have undergone significant enhancements, driven by advancements in machine learning, AI, cloud computing, and feedback from a growing user base.
Initially, Oracle’s Autonomous Database was offered in two main configurations: Autonomous Transaction Processing (ATP) and Autonomous Data Warehouse (ADW). While these were highly specialized, Oracle has since expanded its scope to support a broader range of workloads, such as:
Mixed Workload Capabilities: Initially, ATP was designed for OLTP (Online Transaction Processing) workloads, while ADW was optimized for analytics and data warehousing. Now, Oracle’s Autonomous Database supports mixed workloads, meaning organizations can run both transactional and analytical workloads within the same database. This flexibility is particularly useful for applications that require real-time analytics on transactional data, such as retail platforms or financial services.
Graph and Spatial Analytics: Oracle added native support for graph and spatial analytics, enabling more advanced data processing for IoT, GIS (Geographic Information Systems), and fraud detection applications. This enhancement allows businesses to derive deeper insights from data relationships, making the database more attractive for industries like logistics, smart cities, and social networking platforms.
JSON and NoSQL Support: To meet the needs of modern applications, Oracle introduced JSON and NoSQL data models within the Autonomous Database. This capability makes it easier for developers to build cloud-native, microservices-based applications using document stores, while still benefiting from the full automation and security features of Oracle’s relational database.
Multi-Cloud and Hybrid Cloud Flexibility
To address the growing demand for multi-cloud and hybrid cloud solutions, Oracle has introduced features that allow organizations to integrate their Autonomous Database across various environments.
Oracle Cloud@Customer: With Oracle Cloud@Customer, enterprises can deploy the Autonomous Database in their own data centers while maintaining the full automation and management benefits. This is ideal for organizations that need to keep certain workloads on-premises due to data sovereignty, security, or latency concerns.
Interoperability with Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and AWS: Oracle and Microsoft established a partnership that allows seamless interoperability between Oracle Cloud and other hyperscalers. This enables customers to run multi-cloud architectures, where they can use Oracle’s Autonomous Database alongside other Azure/AWS/GCP services, such as analytics and AI tools.
Since their initial launches, both Oracle Autonomous Database and Autonomous Linux have seen significant advancements. Oracle has continually expanded their capabilities to meet the demands of modern enterprises, from increasing the flexibility of workload support in the Autonomous Database to enhancing security and performance in Autonomous Linux.
The keynotes from day 1 Oracle CloudWorld 2024, held on September 10, spotlighted several significant themes centered around AI, cloud innovation, and partnerships. Oracle CEO Safra Catz opened the event, emphasizing how businesses are solving complex challenges using Oracle’s cloud and AI technologies. Catz introduced high-profile partners and customers, including MGM Resorts, Cloudflare, BNP Paribas, and even the CIA, each sharing insights on how Oracle’s technology is transforming their operations.
A major announcement involved Oracle’s expanding partnerships, including a collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to offer Oracle Database@AWS, which simplifies multi-cloud operations. Catz highlighted Oracle’s vision of creating a seamless experience across different cloud providers, helping businesses improve security, efficiency, and customer satisfaction.
Safra Catz’s Opening Keynote
Oracle CEO Safra Catz started the event by emphasizing Oracle’s commitment to assisting businesses in succeeding in an increasingly digital and AI-driven world. She pointed out how companies are using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and Autonomous Database to enhance operational efficiency, improve customer experiences, and control costs. She consistently emphasized the importance of partnerships and multi-cloud strategies, which are now essential as businesses navigate complex cloud environments.
Key announcements:
Oracle’s expanded partnerships with AWS and Google Cloud. These collaborations allow businesses to run Oracle Database services, including Oracle Autonomous Database, across these platforms. This opens up Oracle’s cloud technologies to a wider audience, enhancing cross-cloud operability.
Oracle Database@AWS: A new service enabling businesses to access Oracle’s Autonomous Database on Amazon Web Services with unified support, billing, and administration across platforms.
With Oracle Database@Google Cloud, customers will for the first time get direct access to Oracle Database services running on OCI and deployed in Google Cloud datacenters. They can now take advantage of Oracle’s industry-leading database and Exadata technology to accelerate innovation and develop new applications. In addition, customers can run applications on Oracle Linux, which is now supported by Oracle on Google Cloud. Oracle Linux images can be imported using Google Cloud’s virtual disk image import process. Within the next 12 months, customers are also expected to be able to streamline Oracle Linux image provisioning in Google Compute Engine with ready-to-use images.
Larry Ellison’s Keynote on Oracle’s Vision and Strategy
Co-founder and CTO Larry Ellison’s keynote reinforced Oracle’s vision for the future of cloud computing, focusing on how AI and automation will reshape industries. Ellison discussed Oracle’s strategy of integrating AI deeply into its cloud offerings, particularly around data analytics, business processes, and decision-making automation.
He highlighted:
Oracle’s AI-driven Fusion Applications and Autonomous Database, which help businesses automate repetitive tasks, reduce errors, and improve decision-making speed.
The importance of multi-cloud capabilities, stressing Oracle’s commitment to building seamless multi-cloud experiences, particularly with AWS and Google Cloud, as demonstrated by Oracle Database@AWS and Oracle Database@Google Cloud.
We are seeing huge demand from customers that want to use multiple clouds. To meet this demand and give customers the choice and flexibility they want, Amazon and Oracle are seamlessly connecting AWS services with the very latest Oracle Database technology, including the Oracle Autonomous Database. With Oracle Cloud Infrastructure deployed inside of AWS datacenters, we can provide customers with the best possible database and network performance.
Ellison also mentioned Oracle’s commitment to autonomous security, showcasing how Oracle is leveraging AI to combat cybersecurity threats such as ransomware and identity theft. This next-gen technology aims to autonomously detect and mitigate cyber risks across networks, reflecting Oracle’s push toward more secure and efficient cloud environments.
Juan Loaiza’s Keynote on Generative Data Dev and App Dev
Juan Loaiza, Oracle’s Executive Vice President of Mission-Critical Database Technologies, introduced the concept of Generative Data Development (GenDev), a transformative approach to application and data development powered by AI. This new development paradigm allows enterprise applications to be generated automatically, focusing on both data and application logic without the need for manual coding.
Here are the key highlights:
AI-Centric Development: The introduction of Oracle Database 23ai, the engine behind this shift, enables developers to harness the power of AI to generate modular and evolvable enterprise applications. This process automates the handling of complex data, ensuring that integrity, validation, and confidentiality are built into the core of the application.
Generative Development Infrastructure: GenDev provides a framework where developers can interact with applications and databases using natural language, simplifying the process of building, querying, and managing enterprise applications. This generative approach streamlines app development, making it faster and more intuitive.
Autonomous Database Integration:Oracle Database 23ai is fully integrated with Autonomous Database, featuring enhancements like retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), AI Vector Search, and built-in support for multiple large language models (LLMs) like Google Gemini and Anthropic Claude. This integration helps avoid issues like AI hallucinations and allows developers to retrieve precise, enterprise-grade data.
GPU and AI Model Support: By supporting NVIDIA GPUs, the Autonomous Database accelerates resource-intensive operations, especially those related to AI and deep learning models, making it easier for developers to implement advanced AI features without managing complex infrastructure.
Low-Code and No-Code Tools: Oracle also introduced a suite of tools like Data Studio AI and Graph Studio to enable non-developers to interact with data and build applications through visual interfaces. This further lowers the barrier to entry for businesses to leverage AI in their operations.
T.K. Anand’s Keynote on Oracle Data Intelligence
T.K. Anand, Executive Vice President of Oracle Analytics, delivered a keynote focused on how Oracle is transforming data management and analytics with AI-powered solutions. One of the key announcements was the introduction of the Oracle Intelligent Data Lake, designed to simplify data management and eliminate data silos.
This new solution integrates structured and unstructured data sources, allowing organizations to gain a more complete business view. The Data Lake also leverages Apache Spark and Apache Flink for real-time data processing and includes AI-driven features that streamline workflows.
Note: GA is expected next year in 2025
Anand emphasized how Oracle’s Data Intelligence Platform combines advanced analytics, data orchestration, and governance to deliver AI-powered insights at scale. This platform allows businesses to reduce administrative workloads, improve operational efficiency, and make data-driven decisions faster.
A critical feature introduced was the Oracle Analytics Cloud AI Assistant, which uses large language models to offer natural language-driven analytics, helping users to interact more intuitively with their data.
Additionally, Oracle’s Autonomous Database innovations were highlighted, such as RAG support (retrieval-augmented generation) and integration with GPU processing, enhancing performance for AI-driven tasks.
Oracle CloudWorld Day 2
On September 11, three key executives – Steve Miranda, Clay Magouyrk, and Mike Sicilia – took the stage to discuss Oracle’s latest innovations, strategies, and vision for the future. Each session highlighted groundbreaking advancements in cloud technology, AI, and industry-specific solutions, with a strong focus on helping businesses leverage these technologies to improve operations and drive innovation.
Steve Miranda’s Keynote on Oracle Fusion Applications
Steve Miranda, Executive Vice President of Applications Development, delivered a keynote centered on how Oracle is embedding artificial intelligence into its Fusion Applications Suite. He emphasized how AI is transforming every facet of business operations—from HR and finance to supply chain and customer experience—making it easier for companies to achieve better outcomes without requiring specialized expertise.
A standout feature of Miranda’s presentation was Oracle’s approach to making AI accessible. Unlike other cloud competitors that are introducing price hikes for AI-powered features, Oracle is incorporating AI capabilities into its existing Fusion Cloud Applications at no additional cost. Miranda humorously dismissed the idea of separate pricing for AI features, likening it to the absurdity of charging extra for fundamental software upgrades. His message was clear: AI is a natural progression in software evolution and should be available to all users without extra costs.
Miranda showcased how AI-driven automation and analytics are now seamlessly integrated across Oracle Fusion Applications. He gave concrete examples of how this benefits users – such as automated invoice processing in finance, predictive maintenance in supply chains, and enhanced employee engagement in HR. Through these real-world examples, Miranda highlighted how businesses can reduce manual workloads, make more informed decisions, and enhance efficiency by tapping into Oracle’s AI innovations.
Clay Magouyrk’s Keynote on AI, Speed, Flexibility, and Security
Clay Magouyrk, Executive Vice President of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), used his keynote to unveil Oracle’s advancements in cloud technology, focusing on the flexibility, speed, and security of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. His talk positioned OCI as the backbone of a new era of cloud computing. The big announcement he introduced was Dedicated Region25 – now starting as small as 3 racks!
A new OCI Dedicated Region configuration – Dedicated Region25 – will be available in a smaller, scalable size starting at only three racks and rapidly deployable within weeks. Dedicated Region25 has a 75 percent smaller launch footprint and simplified datacenter requirements, supports OCI’s 150+ AI and cloud services and allows a wider range of customers to gain the agility, economics, and scale of the public cloud in their own datacenters. The new configuration will be available in the next calendar year.
Clay emphasized that Oracle’s cloud strategy is all about reducing complexity while delivering high performance and security. He introduced several new offerings aimed at simplifying the cloud journey for businesses. One of the central themes of his presentation was Oracle’s commitment to multi-cloud environments. Acknowledging that most enterprises operate in hybrid and multi-cloud landscapes, Magouyrk showcased how OCI’s interoperability with other cloud platforms like Google Cloud allows customers to deploy applications across different environments seamlessly.
Mike Sicilia’s Keynote on Solving Industries’ Biggest Challenges with Applied AI
Mike Sicilia, Oracle’s Executive Vice President of Industries, provided a detailed look at how Oracle is addressing the unique challenges of various industries through its vertical solutions. His session focused on Oracle’s deep industry expertise and how the company is using cloud technology to drive digital transformation in sectors such as healthcare, financial services, construction, and government.
Sicilia explained that Oracle’s industry-specific solutions are not just about generic cloud applications but are tailored to meet the regulatory and operational complexities of each industry.
Other Announcements and News
Please find below additional information and announcements:
VMware Explore 2024 happened this week in Las Vegas. I think many people were curious about what Hock Tan, CEO of Broadcom, had to say during the general session. He delivered interesting statements and let everyone in the audience know that “the future of enterprise is private – private cloud, private AI, fueled by your own private data“. On social media, the following slide about “repatriation” made quite some noise:
The information on this slide came from Barcley’s CIO Survey in April 2024 and it says that 8 out of 10 CIOs today are planning to move workloads from the public cloud back to their on-premises data centers. It is interesting, and in some cases even funny, that other vendors in the hardware and virtualization business are chasing this ambulance now. Cloud migrations are dead, let us do reverse cloud migrations now. Hybrid cloud is dead, let us do hybrid multi-clouds now and provide workload mobility. My social media walls are full of such postings now. It seems Hock Tan presented the Holy Grail to the world.
Where is this change of mind from? Why did only 43% during COVID-19 plan a reverse cloud migration and now “suddenly” more than 80%?
I could tell you the story now about cloud-first not being cool anymore, that organizations started to follow a smarter cloud approach, and then concluded that cloud migrations are still not happening based on their expectations (e.g., costs and complexity). And that it is time now to bring workloads back on-premises. It is not that simple.
I looked at Barclay’s CIO survey and the chart (figure 20 in the survey) that served as a source for Hock Tan’s slide:
We must be very careful with our interpretation of the results. Just because someone is “planning” a reverse cloud migration, does it mean they are executing? And if they execute such an exercise, is this going to be correctly reflected in a future survey?
And which are the workloads and services that are brought back to an enterprise’s data center? Are we talking about complete applications? Or is it more about load balancers, security appliances, databases and storage, and specific virtual machines? And if we understand the workloads, what are the real reasons to bring them back? Figure 22 of the survey shows “Workloads that Respondents Intend to Move Back to Private Cloud / On-Premise from Public Cloud”:
Okay, we have a little bit more context now. Just because some workloads are potentially migrated back to private clouds, what does it mean for public cloud vs. private cloud spend? Question #11 of the survey “What percentage of your workloads and what percentage of your total IT spend are going towards the public cloud, and how have those evolved over time?” focuses on this matter.
My interpretation? Just because one slide or illustration talks about repatriation does not mean, that the entire world is just doing reverse migrations now. Cloud migrations and reverse cloud migrations can happen at the same time. You could bring one application or some databases back on-premises but decide to move all your virtual desktops to the public cloud in parallel. We could still bring workloads back to our data center and increase public cloud spend.
Sounds like cloud-smart again, doesn’t it? Maybe I am an organization that realized that the applications A, B, C, and D shouldn’t run in Azure, AWS, Google, and Oracle anymore, but the applications W, X, Y, and Z are better suited for these hyperscalers.
What else?
I am writing about my views and my opinions here. There is more to share. During the pandemic, everything had to happen very quickly, and everyone suddenly had money to speed up migrations and application modernization projects. After that, I think it is a natural thing that everything was slowing down a bit after this difficult and exhausting phase.
Some of the IT teams are probably still documenting all their changes and new deployments on an internal wiki, and their bosses started to hire FinOps specialists to analyze their cloud spend. It is no shocking surprise to me that some of the financial goals haven’t been met and result in a reverse cloud migration a few years later.
But that is not all. Try to think about the past years. What else happened?
Before 2020, not many of us were thinking about sovereign clouds, data privacy, and AI.
Most enterprises are still hosting their data on-premises behind their own firewall. And some of this data is used to train or finetune models. We see (internal) chatbots popping up using Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), which delivers answers based on actual data and proprietary information.
Okay. What else?
Yep, there is more. There are new technologies and offerings available that were not here before. We just covered AI and ML (machine learning) workloads that became a potential cost or compliance concern.
The concept of sovereign clouds has gained traction due to increasing concerns about data sovereignty and compliance with local regulations.
The adoption of hybrid and hybrid multi-cloud strategies has been a significant trend from 2020 to 2024. Think about VMware’s Cloud Foundation approach with Azure, Google, Oracle etc., AWS Outposts, Azure Stack, Oracle’s DRCC, or Nutanix’s.
Enterprises started to upskill and train their people to deliver their own Kubernetes platforms.
Edge computing has emerged as a crucial technology, particularly for industries like manufacturing, telecommunications, and healthcare, where real-time data processing is critical.
Conclusion
Reverse cloud migrations are happening for many different reasons like cost management, performance optimization, data security and compliance, automation and operations, or because of lock-in concerns.
Yes, (cloud) repatriation became prominent, but I think this is just a reflection of the maturing cloud market – and not an ambulance.
And no, it is not a better moment to position your hybrid multi-cloud solutions, unless you understand the services and workloads that need to be migrated from one cloud to another. Just because some CIOs plan to bring back some workloads on-premises, does it mean/imply that they will do it? What about the sunk cost fallacy?
Perhaps IT leaders are going to be more careful in the future and are trying to find other ways for potential cost savings and strategic benefits to achieve their business outcomes – and keep their workloads in the cloud versus repatriating them.
Businesses are adopting a more nuanced workload-centric strategy.
My name is Michael Rebmann. I am a OCI Dedicated Region Sales Leader for Alps at Oracle Switzerland, where I have the privilege of working with some of the largest and most strategic customers in the region.
The views and opinions expressed here are entirely my own, reflecting my journey and insights in the ever-evolving world of cloud computing.
We must be very careful with our interpretation of the results. Just because someone is “planning” a reverse cloud migration, does it mean they are executing? And if they execute such an exercise, is this going to be correctly reflected in a future survey?
My interpretation? Just because one slide or illustration talks about repatriation does not mean, that the entire world is just doing reverse migrations now. Cloud migrations and reverse cloud migrations can happen at the same time. You could bring one application or some databases back on-premises but decide to move all your virtual desktops to the public cloud in parallel. We could still bring workloads back to our data center and increase public cloud spend. 
