Microsoft To Support Oracle On Azure Cloud

Microsoft and Oracle have confirmed that the two rivals are working together in the cloud. Oracle’s database will be available and supported on Microsoft’s Hyper-V virtualisation platform, as well as  the Microsoft Azure cloud service – alongside the competing Microsoft SQL Server.

The announcement, made yesterday in a California-time conference call, laid out terms of an agreement to support Oracle’s database and middleware on Microsoft Azure and on the Hyper-V virtualisation system which underpins it.

The two companies have, of course, always co-operated behind the scenes, and they will also continue to compete as Oracle will continue with its own hypervisor and cloud.

Behind the scenes is not enough

“In the world of cloud computing, I think behind-the-scenes collaboration is not enough,” said Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer (pictured) on the conference call with Oracle’s Mark Hurd (further down the page).

To allow the Oracle database to run, Microsoft will offer Oracle’s Java  and WebLogic middleware on Hyper-V. Until now, the Oracle software has had to run on bare-metal Windows machines, limiting it to old-fashioned installations at Microsoft-based IT departments.

Oracle’s 12c database is optimised for virtualisation and the cloud, and is presumably covered by the agreement, although the two companies did not specify it in their announcement.

The announcement should allow Oracle to address more customers. Oracle has its own VM virtualastion plattform, based on the open source Xen hypervisor, but Microsoft’s Hyper-V is doing best against the market leader VMware. While VMware is reported to run on more than half the virtualised x86 chips out there, Microsoft’s Hyper-V is apparently pushing towards a one-third share.

Meanwhile, the deal should also help make Microsoft’s Azure look a lot more serious as a cloud platform. It is lagging the leader, Amazon Web Services, which has supported Oracle databases for a long while.

As another enabler to the deal, Oracle’s own Linux version will be supported runs on Azure, which is very much a Windows-centric cloud. It’s not the first Linux in there – Microsoft already supports its favourite SUSE and the market leader Ubuntu.

Oracle and Microsoft have been rivals for a very long while, and Microsoft usually positions SQL Server as a strong low-cost alternative to Oracle. Ballmer emphasised that the competition will continue, in the call:  “A lot has happened, but we are going to continue to compete in areas.”

Is your Microsoft knowledge a bit cloudy? Try our quiz!

Peter Judge

Peter Judge has been involved with tech B2B publishing in the UK for many years, working at Ziff-Davis, ZDNet, IDG and Reed. His main interests are networking security, mobility and cloud

Recent Posts

Bitcoin Surges To Above $93,000 For First Time

Bitcoin price reaches new record, amid hope that incoming Trump administration will implement crypto-friendly policies

9 hours ago

Users Flock To Bluesky Post Election, As Guardian Leaves X

Bluesky briefly tops download charts in UK and US, as Guardian newspaper says it is…

10 hours ago

Apple To Launch AI Wall ‘Tablet’ – Report

Smart home expansion? Apple reportedly developing an 'AI wall tablet' for smart home control, Siri,…

11 hours ago

Waymo Opens Ride-Hailing Services In Los Angeles

End of road for taxi drivers? More people seeking transportation in Los Angeles can now…

14 hours ago

Trump Appoints Elon Musk To Lead Government Efficiency Department

Slash-and-burn cuts for federal staff? Elon Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy appointed to…

16 hours ago