Oracle Cloud’s New Alloy Platform: A ‘Game Changer’ for Partners

ORACLE CLOUDWORLD — Oracle Cloud is making strides in its efforts to stand out as a hard-hitting alternative to Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

In fact, one of its announcements, unveiled Tuesday, puts those hyperscalers on notice, challenging them to “respond and do the same,” Sid Nag, vice president of cloud services and technologies at Gartner Research, told Channel Futures.

That announcement? Oracle Alloy.

Gartner’s Sid Nag

“This could be a game-changer,” Nag said.

Let’s Back Up

Before we dive into Oracle’s big cloud news this week, it’s appropriate to take a step back for context. After all, Oracle, while still small compared to the Big Three, is creeping up in terms of cloud market share. In its fiscal quarter that ended May 31, Oracle Cloud reported a 19% increase in revenue comprising infrastructure and platform as a service.

“I am thrilled about the strong growth we have seen across our entire portfolio of cloud applications and infrastructure,” Oracle CEO Safra Catz said in July.

To be sure, under Catz’s guidance, Oracle continues to move away from its legacy hardware and software roots. Part of that progress comes via public cloud services and infrastructure. (This includes transitioning on-premises database and application users to the cloud for that more lucrative recurring revenue stream.) In fact, even though Oracle’s cloud growth “has a lot of catching up to do to get to the level of its competitors,” as Futurum Research’s Daniel Newman and Todd Weiss put it, industry observers seem to agree: Oracle Cloud is well on its way to increasing its market share and revenue.

That’s not to say that Oracle Cloud stands to overtake the Big Three any time soon, or ever. The 45-year-old Oracle was not “born in the cloud.” Plus, its $900 million in cloud revenue has a long way to go to rival that of AWS’ nearly $20 billion. Instead of going all in on head-to-head competition with the hyperscalers, at least in the near future, Oracle looks best positioned to deliver cloud services and infrastructure alongside them.

Consider that Oracle Cloud already teams with AWS and Azure to make some offerings available and easier to deploy. This “coopetition” has turned into the norm throughout the tech sector, especially given the rise of the much-touted “ecosystem” mindset. Of interest, though, is that Oracle Cloud and Google Cloud do not – so far – partner. They actively try to take customers away from one another. Yet, there is speculation the two will announce a partnership deal at this week’s Oracle CloudWorld in Las Vegas.

Teaming up with fellow vendors makes sound financial sense. It opens a provider to more potential users. With Oracle, in particular, such strategies are paying off, even as the company strives to go up against the entrenched Big Three.

“The market can see this growth happening and is beginning to realize that this company isn’t playing,” Futurum Research’s analysts said. “The continued challenges it will pose to the incumbents will be interesting to watch.”

Interesting indeed. Keep reading.

Back to the Big News

Recall the quick nod to Oracle Alloy — and that Gartner’s Nag called it a “game-changer.” That’s not an overstatement. Alloy gives big channel partners – large managed service providers and system integrators, namely – the resources to become white-label cloud providers. On top of that, the platform adheres to persnickety sovereignty and governance requirements in regions including Europe. There, for example, the government mandates that only citizens can staff data centers. Oracle Alloy supports that.

Oracle Cloud’s Leo Leung

“It’s the amount of independence we’re providing,” Leo Leung, vice president of products and strategy at Oracle Cloud, told Channel Futures.

Don’t conflate Oracle Alloy with the company’s Dedicated Regions initiative. That differs because Oracle acts as the managed service provider.

With Oracle Alloy, on the other hand, partners run and staff their own data centers, only calling on Oracle if “significant” technology problems arise, Leung said. Outside of that happening, partners get the hardware and software they need to provision their own cloud services.

Oracle Alloy also comes with a services portal that has billing and invoicing tools, and customer relationship management. All of this can integrate into partners’ existing systems. From there, partners set their own rates and manage all the operations, meeting sovereignty specs along the way.

Why Oracle Alloy Now?

Given how business and the world are changing, now presented the right time for Oracle to launch Alloy, Leung said.

“There are so many countries and governments and industries that are not necessarily well served by the Chinese and U.S. providers,” Leung said.

The answer is for channel partners to act as cloud service providers in their own geographies.

“This is a huge opportunity,” Leung said.

Consider the possibilities. Oracle Cloud resides in 22 countries spanning five continents, and its data center region presence …