‘There are a lot of customers who really want to be able to consume directly through those partners,’ says Nathan Thomas, vice president of multi-cloud for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
Oracle is enabling preferred resellers to sell its Database@Amazon Web Services, Database@ Microsoft Azure and Database@Google Cloud multi-cloud services and is offering cross-cloud universal credits to streamline procurement and governance with flexible terms and consistent contracts for Oracle Database and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure products and services across the three biggest public clouds.
The Austin, Texas-based database and cloud products and services vendor is opening up the Database@ services for VARs, systems integrators, MSPs and other partner types as a way to “meet customers where they are,” Nathan Thomas, Oracle’s vice president of multi-cloud for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, told CRN in an interview.
“There are a lot of customers who really want to be able to consume directly through those partners,” Thomas said.
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Oracle Multi-Cloud Resellers
Oracle revealed the news during its AI World conference, which runs through Thursday in Las Vegas.
Kashif Rahamatullah, principal and multi-alliances go-to-market leader for London-based Oracle solution provider Deloitte, which will be among the preferred Database@ resellers, told CRN in an interview that customers have appreciated Oracle getting closer with hyperscalers where they may have pre-existing financial commitments and can now use those credits with Oracle products.
Database@ products have appealed to customers with multi-cloud environments looking for flexibility, Rahamatullah said. Deloitte has been a launch partner with multiple Oracle Database@ services.
“There’s a lot of momentum in the market around getting out of their own managed data centers,” Rahamatullah said. “This really allows our clients to take advantage of the public cloud infrastructure and be able to maintain their applications, leveraging Oracle’s world-class database technology.”
Customers might have the ability to avoid egress charges and data copying by bringing Oracle data closer to other data sources and under the same infrastructure, he said. This could also simplify unlocking artificial intelligence use cases.
Oracle has seen “a lot of engagement” from systems integrators and other partners in its multi-cloud business already, but they couldn’t conduct the actual resale themselves. “We are continuing to enable new revenue streams for partners and ensure that they have ways to participate in the success and growth of the multi-cloud business,” Thomas said. “That’s something we are absolutely going to continue to do day in and day out.”
The universal credits should allow a centralized mechanism for contracting and tracking commitment and usage across various vendor marketplaces, Thomas said. For Microsoft customers, as an example, they can leverage their Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment with Oracle Database@Azure purchases.
Getting closer to the hyperscalers has resulted in financial upside for Oracle, with the vendor reporting in its latest quarterly earnings call in September that multi-cloud database revenue from hyperscalers Amazon, Google and Microsoft was 16 times the amount from a year ago.
In the lead-up to AI World, Oracle dropped a series of new product announcements, including an Intelligent Communications Orchestration Network Cloud Service meant to simplify enterprise network configuration and operations and new role-based AI agents within Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications for improving operational efficiency and customer relationships.
Partner updates disclosed by Oracle in the lead-up to AI World include an expansion of its Health and Life Sciences Partner Program with more training, accreditation and collaboration between this Oracle division and systems integrators and consultancies.
Partners also gained a new training academy with internal Oracle Health product and implementation training, new Oracle Health certification badges and dedicated Oracle Health partner success managers, according to the vendor.
