This year at Oracle AI World, we announced the latest advancements in cloud innovation and enterprise technology. Read the highlights below and subscribe to the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure blog for more in-depth updates.
Long-Running Functions (Up to 60 Minutes)
OCI Functions now allows invocations to run for up to 60 minutes in detached mode, supporting complex and intensive workloads like AI/ML inference, ETL, and batch jobs without needing to split tasks or re-architect. Long-Running Functions are available in all commercial OCI regions at no additional cost.
Response Destinations for Automated Result Routing
OCI Functions now offers Response Destinations, allowing invocation results—success or failure—to be automatically routed to OCI Streaming, Queue, or Notifications. This enables real-time integration with downstream systems and eliminates the need for manual polling. The feature is available today in all commercial OCI regions at no additional cost.
Protecting Data with Zero Trust Packet Routing
Customers of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) need to safeguard sensitive data like customer records and transactions. The mission is clear: even if an attacker compromises a workload or steals credentials, they must not move laterally, exfiltrate data, access unauthorized services, or escalate risk. Oracle’s Zero Trust Packet Routing (ZPR) helps deliver this protection with human-readable policies that define clear trust boundaries. Unlike complex, error-prone IP rules, ZPR controls which workloads can communicate, where data flows, and what services are reachable—default-denying everything else. ZPR turns network intent into enforceable zero-trust controls.
With this release, ZPR becomes stronger and simpler, addressing modern threats with precision. It prevents lateral movement across multiple Virtual Cloud Networks (VCNs), blocks data exfiltration, and neutralizes compromised credentials. Integrated with Private Service Access (PSA) and IAM Deny Policies, ZPR extends zero-trust to service endpoints. Together, these enhancements form a cohesive zero-trust framework that secures data, simplifies management, and streamlines compliance.
Improved Tenancy Guardrails with Deny Statements in IAM
Oracle Identity and Access Management is introducing explicit deny statements that override allow policies, providing administrators with fine-grained control over resource access. Historically, OCI IAM has used allow policies with a default-deny model, which works well for straightforward scenarios. As organizations grow into global operations, multi-region deployments, and with larger administrative teams, managing policies becomes more complex. IAM Deny introduces explicit deny statements that take precedence over allow policies, empowering administrators to define clear, enforceable access boundaries. This allows organizations to establish tenancy-wide guardrails while delegating policy management to sub-admins, enabling strong, scalable access control in even the most security-conscious environments.
Continuous Workforce Verification in IAM
Oracle Identity and Access Management (IAM) is introducing Continuous Workforce Verification (CWV) to ensure that employee credentials are always matched to the real individual behind them. Traditional identity systems often end with initial background checks, leaving organizations exposed to deepfake fraud and threat actors using valid credentials to infiltrate workplaces. CWV tackles this with ongoing, AI-powered facial biometric checks—initially verifying users with government-issued IDs and then regularly confirming identity at sign-in or other sensitive activities.
CWV will feature standards-based Open-ID Connect (OIDC) integration with leading identity verification providers for quick government-ID checks, followed by OCI-native facial biometrics powered by Biometrics AI service and Oracle 23ai database. Combined, these features provide a streamlined, end-to-end verification experience, with no complex integrations. With continuous verification, customers can trust that only legitimate users are accessing environments, helping organizations stay ahead of evolving threats and maintain trust with stakeholders.
Fine Grained Access to Oracle Services with Private Service Access
When accessing Oracle services within the same region, customers typically use the Service Gateway (SGW) for secure and convenient private connectivity to all Oracle services. For scenarios requiring more granular, per-service access controls, customers can now utilize the Private Service Access (PSA) capability. PSA enables configuration of dedicated private access for individual Oracle services, offering fine-grained network security, access management, and enforcement that only in-tenancy credentials can access the service. Apply Network Security Groups (NSGs) or Zero Trust Packet Routing (ZPR) policies to each PSA, tailoring security as needed. PSA supports private networks with or without a gateway, allowing selective private access to specific Oracle services requiring enhanced control. Used in conjunction with IAM deny policies, you can further restrict access so a service is only accessible through private service access.
Introducing OCI Resource Analytics
Today’s enterprises depend on resource inventory as a key tool for managing IT infrastructure, enhancing scalability, and automating processes. We’re excited to announce the launch of OCI Resource Analytics—a powerful solution that simplifies resource inventory and analytics across your OCI assets. Resource Analytics provides an up-to-date inventory of hardware and software attributes, relationships, and configuration history, giving deep visibility into your IT environment.
OCI Resource Analytics (RA) provides an inventory of OCI resources, their relationships, and configuration metadata. Customers can access near-real-time, detailed information on monitored resources with SQL queries, graph-based visualizations, and analytics dashboards. Resource Analytics provisions an enhanced Autonomous Data Warehouse (ADW) and, optionally, an Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC) instance in the customer’s tenancy, letting users import datasets and dashboards to track inventory, monitor compliance, and troubleshoot issues. The ADW maintains a best-practice relational model of OCI resources, includes a property graph for analyzing associations, and continuously ingests resource updates across specified regions and tenancies.
- Target Persona: IT Administrators, DevOps Engineers, Cloud specialists, Compliance & security teams.
- Create your RA instance today: Navigate to the Oracle cloud console → Observability & Management → Resource Analytics → Instances.
Model Context Protocol (MCP) Servers and Tools for OCI: A New Way to Build on OCI
Oracle is pleased to announce a preview of the new OCI MCP servers and tools, connecting OCI services with AI Agents. MCP stands for Model Context Protocol—an open-standard for connecting large language models (LLMs) to APIs. This lets developers use LLMs to translate prompts into OCI operations, enabling users to manage cloud resources through natural language requests.
With OCI MCP servers and tools, the cumbersome, service-centric, multi-step API calls needed to create and manage infrastructure resources are eliminated—working with OCI becomes both more flexible and user-friendly. By making these tools available in preview, we invite customers, partners, and the developer community to collaborate and innovate. Download these tools, try them in your own tenancy, and share your feedback to help shape the future of conversational user and developer experiences with OCI!
Dark Mode is now available in the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Console
Dark Mode makes it easier to work in different environments—whether in low light, deploying late at night, or simply for personal preference. Dark Mode reduces glare, eases eye strain during long sessions, and improves accessibility.
To enable Dark Mode:
- Click your profile icon in the Console.
- Select Console Settings.
- Under Color mode, choose Light, Dark, or Match with system settings.
Dark Mode is supported across all Redwood-styled pages in the Console; older legacy pages will remain in Light Mode.
As with all updates, this feature was prioritized based on customer feedback. If you’d like to share your experience with Dark Mode or have ideas for other improvements, please use the “Give us feedback” link in the Console footer.
Stay Connected
These releases are just another way Oracle is helping customers discover the technology innovations they need to help solve their most complex business challenges. For more about Oracle AI World subscribe to the Oracle YouTube channel and look for more Oracle Cloud Infrastructure updates on the blog.