Oracle Public Cloud Services (PART 1 OF 3)

There is a lot of rumor on cloud applications and services, but there is also a lot of misunderstanding.
Cloud services are often confused with hosting services, merely a piece of the whole cake!
Oracle proposition distinguishes on three types of cloud services:

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): storage, servers, networking in cloud
• Platform as a Service (PaaS): database, web server, app server, analytics, integration… in cloud
• Software as a Service (SaaS): ERP, CRM, HR, apps suite in cloud

The first one, if applied on servers (Virtual Machines, hosts, clusters, …) or on storage (disks, tapes, …) are true hosting services.
You see, Oracle is trying to go beyond this, expanding the concept of “hosting services” in a way you could never imagined before.
Oracle is aware of the troubles its customers could have moving their applications and data into the cloud, and takes a gradual approch.
Customers can move the most safe stuff first (i.e. non-core business data, or test/development environments), or the most resource-consuming ones (i.e. data warehouse, business intelligence, …).
This results in a hybrid environment, with some in-house applications and data, and some others in the cloud. Eventually, all of the applications and data could be moved into the cloud, with a lot of cost saving and better use of resources.
This is also a great opportunity for Oracle Partners, who could add more valuable services, such as:

• Optimize applications for running in the cloud
• Move part or the whole data to the cloud in a safe way
• Package multiple interconnected services with out-of-the-shelf configurations (i.e. database + backup + application server)
• Develop and deliver new applications directly in the cloud, selling them as services (SaaS)