Previewing the ability to securely run middleware, applications, and cloud-native services in customer’s data centers
Balancing the use and benefits of the public cloud with data security and regulatory concerns is an ongoing challenge for IT management. Organizations that want to take advantage of Cloud automation and economics can already use the Exadata Cloud@Customer platform to run Oracle Autonomous Database Service and Oracle Exadata Database Service on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) in their data centers. This allows them to use the world’s most advanced cloud databases while meeting strict data residency, security, and latency requirements behind their own firewalls. But what about applications and middleware? How can organizations use similar OCI capabilities in their data centers?
Today, we’re pleased to preview the Oracle Compute Cloud@Customer platform, which will allow organizations to run application and middleware deployed on optimized OCI infrastructure with flexible virtual machine (VM) shapes in their data centers. With Compute Cloud@Customer, organizations will easily be able to consolidate workloads on a fully managed cloud platform in their data center while using cloud-native tools and OCI’s cost-effective consumption model to streamline operations and reduce costs.
OCI everywhere
Using Compute Cloud@Customer with Exadata Cloud@Customer will provide customers with an ‘OCI everywhere’ experience that uses the same hardware and software on-premises in their data centers and OCI Regions. Developers and IT managers will use the same APIs and management tools to create a consistent user experience regardless of where services are running. This makes it easy for organizations to develop, deploy, secure, and manage a single software stack across a wide range of distributed cloud environments.
Compute Cloud@Customer will come in a compact, affordable, and highly available design that can be easily expanded to meet the needs of different sized organizations and distributed cloud deployment scenarios. The infrastructure will be owned, operated, and remotely managed by Oracle, with customers controlling their data and the local consumption of OCI services through the OCI console or using industry-standard APIs and tools. As with all OCI services, data on Compute Cloud@Customer will always be encrypted to improve security while the OCI console will provide full control over data locality, replication, and backups, enabling organizations to meet demanding data residency and privacy requirements. Furthermore, organizations using OCI based authorization and authentication will be able to add Compute Cloud@Customer as a resource into the OCI tenancy, creating a single, unified environment that spans on-premises and OCI Region data centers for a complete hybrid cloud experience.
Flexibility + OCI compatibility = portability
As in OCI, Compute Cloud@Customer will support flexible virtual machine shapes that allow organizations to deploy the number of vCPUs with the amount of memory and storage they need for each workload. Unlike other cloud providers that require their customers to provision VMs with inefficient fixed shapes, Oracle allows organizations to adjust the number of resources assigned to each shape so that it matches the needs of the workload, enabling them to optimize performance, efficiency, and price-performance.
In addition, Compute Cloud@Customer uses the exact same networking and storage constructs as OCI, with fully compatible VCNs, subnets, and security policies with block, file, and object storage. It also allows organizations to extend their OCI tenancies to on-premises deployments using the same Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies that were set in OCI in the public cloud.
For organizations that need to work across hybrid cloud and public cloud environments, the ability to use identical service constructs, APIs and IAM policies enables seamless portability for applications between the OCI public cloud and Compute Cloud@Customer in their data center.
Choice of optimized deployments
Oracle’s experience in working with customers in different geographies and with different business models has shown us that a single solution, whether it’s cloud-based, on-premises, or Cloud@Customer isn’t optimal for everyone. Most other cloud service providers are stuck in one world or the other, trying to force-fit partial solutions to meet everyone’s needs. To borrow a phrase from the early days of the automotive industry, these vendors’ customers can have any service, anywhere they want as long as it’s black.
Oracle provides a choice of optimized public cloud, Cloud@Customer, and traditional on-premises platforms that customers can mix and match to align with their business objectives and IT plans. For instance, customers have three options for deploying our industry-leading platform for Oracle Database in three flavors: Exadata Database Service in OCI and Dedicated Regions (more on that later), Exadata Cloud@Customer for those organizations that want to gain the cloud experience and benefits, but can’t move to the public cloud – at least not yet, and Exadata Database Machine for customers who have business and financial reasons for maintaining traditional on-premises deployments.
With the introduction of Compute Cloud@Customer, we will provide a similar breadth of capabilities for optimized, cloud-native compute infrastructure with our IaaS capabilities in OCI and Dedicated Regions, Compute Cloud@Customer as cloud infrastructure in customer data centers, and Private Cloud Appliance X9-2 as a customer-managed, on-premises application and middleware platform for disconnected clouds. This combination of solutions allows organizations to perform development and testing in the public cloud while running production applications outside of the cloud, or vice versa. With compatibility across public cloud, connected hybrid cloud, and disconnected cloud platforms, Oracle is enabling ‘develop-once, deploy anywhere’ capabilities and easy migration of workloads between cloud and on-premises resources.
Growing with Dedicated Region Cloud@Customer
For customers who need even more scale, versatility, and services than the combination of Compute Cloud@Customer and Exadata Cloud@Customer provide, they also have the option of implementing a Dedicated Region Cloud@Customer in their data centers. Using the same exact hardware and software infrastructure deployed in OCI Regions, Dedicated Region Cloud@Customer gives customers access to more than 80 different OCI services as well as Oracle Fusion SaaS applications.
The ability to deploy a range of Cloud@Customer platforms from simple sub-rack solutions in distributed locations up through fully scalable Dedicated Regions enables organizations the ability to deploy any combination to meet their business needs. This type of flexibility is crucial for distributed organizations or those with distributed customer bases such as Telecom providers it allows them to deploy cloud-enabled capabilities close to end-users, which is critical for monetizing investments in IoT and 5G networks.
Realizing a fully compatible hybrid cloud model
The promise of hybrid clouds is that they would provide consistent, compatible development and runtime models across customer data centers and those operated by cloud service providers. However, with the exception of using Oracle Exadata Cloud@Customer for running Oracle Database services across OCI Regions and customer data centers, the level of infrastructure and software compatibility that organizations need has remained elusive. Compute Cloud@Customer changes the playing field by using the same compute, networking, and storage constructs as OCI so a single Terraform script can be used to provision infrastructure, databases, or any application across environments.
When combined with unique Exadata Cloud@Customer capabilities for running Autonomous Database and Exadata Database service, Compute Cloud@Customer is the ideal platform for consolidating or expanding current application and middleware workloads tightly integrated with databases, and moving to a Dev/Ops model while running within customers’ data centers under their control.
Learn more about Oracle Compute Cloud@Customer:
Watch the Oracle Live – Hybrid Cloud Redefined for OCI replay
Learn more about using Compute Cloud@Customer in the telecommunications industry