Oracle announced a strategic partnership with Amazon Web Services on Monday afternoon that will further integrate its database offerings and cloud infrastructure with the Seattle tech giant’s cloud platform.
It follows earlier partnerships struck by Oracle with Microsoft and Google Cloud.
The market share for Oracle’s own cloud platform is in the low single-digits, according to the latest numbers from Synergy Research Group, and the rise of the cloud has taken a toll on the company’s traditional database business.
In that context, the deals with Microsoft, Google, and now Amazon represent a trade-off for Oracle. They give the company a stronger case to retain its existing database customers, but make it tougher to persuade them to embrace its own cloud platform, said Charles Fitzgerald, a Seattle-based angel investor who closely follows the cloud market.
“Oracle goes from a platform to a feature on someone else’s platform,” he said.
The new “Oracle Database@AWS” offering offers access to Oracle Autonomous Database and Oracle Exadata Database Service within AWS. It also provides a unified experience between Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and AWS, simplifying database administration, billing, and customer support, according to the companies.
“We are seeing huge demand from customers that want to use multiple clouds,” said Larry Ellison, the Oracle chairman and chief technology officer, in a news release announcing the AWS partnership.
Oracle, now based in Austin, Texas, beat Wall Street’s expectations Monday with fiscal first-quarter revenue of $13.3 billion, up 7%, and profits of $2.9 billion. Cloud services revenues rose 21% to $5.6 billion in the quarter.
In the company’s earnings release, Ellison credited the increasing growth rate in Oracle’s database business to its Microsoft and Google agreements, and described the new AWS partnership as “a milestone in the MultiCloud Era.”
Oracle shares jumped 9% in after-hours trading following the news.
Ellison and AWS CEO Matt Garman are slated to appear on-stage at Oracle CloudWorld on Tuesday to discuss the new partnership. Ellison made his first-ever trip to Redmond last year to announce Oracle’s similar deal with Microsoft in a joint appearance with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at the time.
