Oracle Diary: Oracle ‘Simplifies’ Cloud Pricing With Licence Mobility & Universal Credits

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September 2017: Oracle lets customers transfer on-premise licences to the cloud

In the same week that AWS offered per-second billing, Oracle has moved to make its cloud services simpler and cheaper to use with Bring your own Licence for PaaS and Universal Credits.

Bring Your Own Licence lets customers reuse existing on-premise software licences for PaaS services, while Universal Credit allows for pre-payment for unlimited use of any existing or future Oracle Cloud service.

Larry Ellison, Oracle CTO, said customers shouldn’t have to choose between flexibility and cost when it came to the cloud and that the new programmes would allow them to maximise existing investments.

He added that some firms were concerned about having to sacrifice some database features as a result, but claimed there was no faster way to run Oracle Database than on its IaaS.

“We are completely transforming the way all companies buy and use cloud by providing flexibility and choice,” said Ellison. “Today, we combined the lowest prices with the highest performance and more automation to deliver a lower total cost of ownership for our customers.”

September 2017: Oracle delivers hardware boost with SPARC M8 chip

Given Oracle’s recent focus on software, and openness, it’s sometimes easy to forget it still has its fingers in hardware pies too. Especially when recent layoffs have disproportionately affected its hardware unit more than other divisions.

But today is has launched the eighth generation of its SPARC platform, claiming systems powered by the SPARC M8 chip, such as SuperCluster and T8 and M8 Servers, will deliver double the speed and security of comparable Intel chips and previous generations of SPARC.

The company claims the “world’s most advanced” processor runs Oracle’s famed database software faster than any other architecture, and also offers improvements for Java and in-memory analytics.

SPARC M8-powered systems promise to integrate with existing infrastructure and come with virtualisation and management tools for private cloud deployments.

“Oracle has long been a pioneer in engineering software and hardware together to secure high-performance infrastructure for any workload of any size,” said Edward Screven, chief corporate architect, Oracle. “SPARC was already the fastest, most secure processor in the world for running Oracle Database and Java. SPARC M8 extends that lead even further.”

September 2017: Oracle backs Kubernetes with CNCF membership

Oracle has become the latest cloud giant to give its backing to Kubernetes, the open source container platform, by becoming a platinum member of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF).

CNFC leads development for Kubernetes, which was handed over by Google back in 2015, and has the support of Amazon, Google and Microsoft. AWS joined the CNFC as recently as last month.

Oracle is releasing Kubernetes on Oracle Linux and Terrarform Kubernetes Installer for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to provide “unparalleled simplicity” for native cloud native workloads and applications on Oracle and to avoid vendor lock-in.

It claims Kubernetes deployments will be easier to setup and configure for any Oracle Linux environment, whether its private cloud, public cloud or on-premise.

“Nobody has more experience managing complex enterprise workloads than Oracle. By joining the CNCF, we’re making it easier for enterprises to leverage the power of container-native technology to simplify their infrastructure environments to run in true hybrid cloud mode – in any cloud,” said Mark Cavage, head of software development at Oracle.

“CNCF technologies such as Kubernetes, Prometheus, gRPC and OpenTracing are critical parts of both our own and our customers’ development toolchains. Together with the CNCF, Oracle is cultivating an open container ecosystem built for cloud interoperability, enterprise workloads and performance.”

“Oracle has decades of experience meeting the needs of world-class enterprises,” added Chris Aniszczyk, chief operating officer of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. “We are excited to have Oracle join CNCF as a platinum member, and believe that their key role will help define the future of enterprise cloud.”

September 2017: Oracle adds AI to IoT Cloud

Oracle is enhancing its IoT cloud platform with artificial intelligence (AI) features and new industry services, helping manufacturers gain greater visibility and insight into their entire supply chain.

The company says AI will boost Digital Twin, which is a digital version of a physical asset from which data can be collected to predict failures and run simulations, as well as Digital Thread, which shares data from various connected parts of the supply chain such as design and warehousing.

Three new services – Digital Field Service for remote monitoring and repair, Smart Connected Factory and Digital Fleet Management – are also being introduced as Oracle looks to entice more organisations.

It claims the Oracle IoT Cloud ecosystem of apps and devices has more than trebled in the past three months, while it has also agreed a new partnership with Mitsubishi Electic.

August 2017: Oracle Exadata Database lets customers run any app in the cloud on bare metal

A more open attitude towards technology has become the industry norm in the past few years and it appears as though Oracle isn’t immune to the wind of change even if it isn’t ready to full embrace full interoperability.

But its Exadata Cloud database is now available on bare metal servers, meaning it can will now run with any application in the cloud – so long as it’s on Oracle’s cloud of course. But this means businesses can move applications and create custom software, a freedom that has not been afforded in the past.

Oracle has been keen to secure the custom of cloud laggards in the past few years so this latest development is not as surprising as it once might have been.

“With the power of Oracle Exadata, customers using our infrastructure are able to bring applications to the cloud never previously possible, without the cost of re-architecture, and achieve incredible performance throughout the stack,” declared Kash Iftikhar, head of product management at Oracle. “From front-end application servers to database and storage, we are optimising our customers’ most critical applications.”

August 2017: Oracle Cloud Applications Release 13

Oracle has added a number of new features to its suite of SaaS applications, claiming they will improve customers management of supply chain, sales and staff.

“With the latest release of Oracle Cloud Applications, we are introducing hundreds of new innovations,” explained Steve Miranda, head of application development at Oracle.

“The latest updates include major enhancements to our supply chain management suite that will help customers create intelligent, connected, and customer-centric supply chains.

“In addition, we are introducing a brand new solution that enriches the customer experience by bridging the gap between sales and customer service. The new release also includes further advancements to the user experience and customer-driven changes for human resources and finance.”

Oracle ERP Cloud now has industry coverage for higher education, financial services and manufacturing as well as localisation for India and Brazil. It promises more depth for areas like finance and procurement as well as other new capabilities such as dynamic discounting.

More than 200 new features have been added to Oracle SCM Cloud while Oracle CX Cloud Suite has greater visualisation capabilities. Meanwhile Oracle HCM cloud gives HR teams greater personalisation, improved tools for unionised workforces and flexible work models.