Historically, organizations relying on Oracle databases to power business-critical workloads may have faced challenges when choosing a cloud provider other than OCI. Other hyperscalers did not fully support Oracle Databases running natively in their cloud environments.  Oracle licensing agreements and support policies also incentivized customers to use Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) despite their potential strategic preferences for other cloud providers.

Due to constraints and concerns around supporting mission critical workloads, businesses running on Oracle faced these three less-than-ideal choices: 

• Migrate away from Oracle databases – A complex and resource-intensive process requiring a shift to alternative database engines better suited for AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud. 
• Adopt a multi-cloud strategy – Incorporate OCI into their multi-cloud architecture to comply with Oracle’s licensing requirements while still leveraging other cloud services. 
• Absorb the high licensing costs – Run Oracle databases on AWS or Azure despite the steep price increase.

In other cases, concerns over licensing complexity, performance limitations, and vendor support stifled cloud adoption altogether, leading many organizations keep their databases on-premises or in private data centers. 

The good news is, the cloud landscape has undergone a significant transformation, offering organizations new options for taking Oracle workloads to the cloud. 

Expanding Oracle Database Availability Across Hyperscalers 

Over the last two years, Oracle has expanded its partnerships with major hyperscalers, enabling organizations to run Oracle databases seamlessly and cost-effectively within their preferred cloud environments. These collaborations eliminate previous barriers, such as licensing complexities and support concerns, while providing enterprises with more flexibility and cost-efficiency. Here’s a closer look at the key milestones: 

• Oracle Database@Azure (September 2023) – Oracle and Microsoft pioneered the first major hyperscaler collaboration by introducing Oracle Database@Azure. This partnership allows organizations to run Oracle database services—hosted on OCI—directly within Azure data centers.  
• Oracle Database@AWS (September 2024) – Building on the success of the Azure partnership, Oracle and AWS announced a similar collaboration a year later. This new service brings Oracle Autonomous Database and Oracle Exadata Database Service to AWS, allowing customers to leverage Oracle’s high-performance database solutions without leaving the AWS ecosystem.  

• Oracle Database@Google Cloud (September 2024) – In a further expansion of Oracle’s multi-cloud strategy, Oracle and Google Cloud unveiled a partnership to bring Oracle database services—including Oracle Exadata Database Service, Oracle Autonomous Database, and Oracle Database Zero Data Loss Autonomous Recovery Service—directly into Google Cloud data centers.  

These strategic alliances mark a paradigm shift in cloud computing, breaking down previous restrictions and offering enterprises greater choice in where and how they run Oracle databases.  

With Oracle databases now natively available within AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, businesses can benefit from: 

• Flexibility in cloud deployments: Run Oracle databases more cost-effectively on the hyperscaler of your choice, without being locked into OCI. 
• Optimized performance: Leverage scalability and elasticity associated with cloud infrastructure, while still maintaining the full feature set and performance capabilities of an Oracle database. 
• Reduced costs: Minimize Oracle licensing costs and operational overhead with a managed environment. 
• Innovation across clouds: Leverage the full power of Oracle’s cutting-edge database technologies, no matter which cloud platform you choose.  

What this Means for Modern Enterprises 

These cloud collaboration offerings provide enterprises with greater flexibility and choice. By enabling Oracle database services to run natively within multiple hyperscaler environments, businesses now have an additional tool in their arsenal to optimize both performance and cost efficiency for their Oracle workloads. 

Additionally, organizations that were previously hesitant to transition mission-critical workloads—keeping them on-premises or within private data centers—may now be more inclined to leverage hyperscale environments. From an IT perspective, this shift enables teams to unify operations, while at an industry level, it is poised to accelerate broader cloud adoption. 

Finding a Cloud-Agnostic Partner 

Navisite, part of Accenture, brings a unique blend of deep Oracle expertise and a cloud-agnostic approach, partnering with all major hyperscalers to deliver unparalleled flexibility. This results in a team of seasoned experts dedicated to a single mission: identifying and implementing the optimal solution tailored to each customer’s needs. 

For more than a decade, Navisite has been empowering organizations to fully maximize their Oracle investment—wherever they are on their digital transformation journey—through strategic and successful migrations and managed services. Whether you need complete lifecycle management of your Oracle applications—including Oracle E-Business Suite, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, or Hyperion—or assistance moving these business-critical applications to the cloud of your choice, Navisite’s team of experts can support you every step of the way. Contact us today to get started.