Feature
Platform services, on a subscription basis, will include the Oracle Database Service and the Oracle Java Cloud Service. The Oracle Social Network is a secure collaboration tool that enables team collaboration, delivery of real-time information and leveraging expertise across an organization.
User-Controlled Virtual Machines
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison recently told a conference that one way this cloud platform will differentiate itself is by offering user-controlled virtual machines for individual customers, instead of a multi-tenant infrastructure.
The platform-as-a-service offering was launched with a media event at the company’s Redwood City, Calif., headquarters. In October of last year at the Oracle Openworld conference in San Francisco, Oracle launched its Public Cloud as an integrated set of apps and infrastructure.
At the Oracle Public Cloud website, the company said that the subscription-based Public Cloud will offer “predictable subscription pricing” in a managed environment built with Oracle Exadata, Exalogic, Database and WebLogic, plus “added identity management, high availability, elasticity, backup, and monitoring.”
Oracle’s application programming interface allows developers to provision machines, modify configurations and standardize storage devices and networks.
Pricing of Public Cloud services will be based on a monthly subscription, either per user or per environment. Platform services will priced in multiple tiers, with variations to account for usage growth or shrinkage.
Buying Service Businesses
The company said some common use cases include managing sales through the Fusion CRM Cloud Service, delivering social business capabilities inside the enterprise with Oracle Social Network or rapidly deploying Java apps in the cloud and then deploying them locally.
Oracle has been buying service-based businesses over the years, many with online services, including Siebel Systems, JD Edwards, Hyperion, PeopleSoft and, more recently, enterprise talent management provider Taleo, customer relationship management company RightNow and data management company Endeca.
Even with its many unique products and services, and an established base of customers, Oracle is competing with the likes of IBM, Salesforce, Microsoft, SAP and others in providing applications, services and developmental infrastructure for enterprises.
