Thousands of customers have built data platforms using a combination of Microsoft and Oracle technology over the years. Now, the duo is deepening the relationship with the rollout of Oracle Database Service for Microsoft Azure. The new offering lets Microsoft Azure customers access and monitor enterprise-grade Oracle Database services in the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) with a friendly user interface. Those creating new Azure installations or working within existing configurations can migrate or connect to high-performance Oracle Database services such as Autonomous Database running on OCI.

“Oracle Database Service for Microsoft Azure simplifies our multi-cloud approach,” shares David Plaza, CIO at Swiss multinational product testing and safety firm SGS S.A., in an announcement for the new venture. “We’re going to be able to leverage the best of Oracle databases in Azure, and we are going to be able to keep our infrastructure in Azure.”

In addition to SGS, the partnership has attracted high-profile customers including AT&T, Marriott International and Veritas, reports The Register.

The Oracle Database Service for Microsoft Azure builds on an earlier implementation, the Oracle Interconnect for Microsoft Azure, available to 11 regions beginning in 2019.

“It required a fair amount of effort and technical expertise on the part of customers to make it work, the companies said,” according to The Wall Street Journal, quoting Oracle Cloud Infrastructure EVP Clay Magouyrk as saying the earlier iteration “had a lot of success” with customers who nonetheless requested “a more integrated experience.”

Due to latency issues, the new Oracle and Microsoft integration is still limited to the 11 regions “where Oracle and Azure’s data centers are located in close proximity,” writes The Register, specifying that “in those locations, Oracle claims customers can achieve sub-two-millisecond latency for workloads split between the clouds, at least when one of them isn’t overheating.”

It bodes well to play nicely with others as antitrust activism sweeps the globe. This month, Oracle and Microsoft each launched “sovereign cloud” initiatives. The concept of a sovereign cloud — data aggregated along territorial boundaries with regard to security and service — is no doubt timed to please European Union customers under the new Digital Markets Act, but has broad applications worldwide.

At last week’s Microsoft Inspire 2022, the company announced Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty, designed to serve government sectors, allowing them to build digital workloads in the Microsoft Cloud while meeting compliance, security and policy standards.

Earlier in the month, Oracle unveiled Oracle Sovereign Cloud Regions, designed to meet the security and latency requirements of public service entities. The physical location of stored data is very much on the minds of those running democratic governments in the interest of free societies.

Related:
Microsoft Resolves Padding Oracle Vulnerability in Azure Storage SDK, SecurityWeek, 7/19/22