Cloud has become the chief conduit fueling the growth of the digital economy. No longer just for experimentation or non-critical workloads, cloud is a core business enabler connecting enterprises to the data, applications, partners and users that matter most. However, this rush to the cloud is creating a level of complexity that many IT organizations did not see coming. According to a recent report by the Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), more than three-quarters of users of public cloud infrastructure services have two or more cloud service providers (CSPs), with two thirds of those organizations using three or more CSPs. Whether it’s to avoid vendor lock-in or to choose the best of breed cloud for a particular requirement, businesses are increasingly using multiple CSPs and needing to move workloads between them. For many enterprises, this is ushering in new challenges with integration, application and database performance, scalability, security and compliance – all common issues with hybrid multicloud architectures.
Of users of public cloud infrastructure services have two or more cloud service providers.
Growing the Equinix and Oracle cloud reach
Equinix and Oracle are committed to supporting this growing demand for hybrid multicloud services and helping customers resolve cloud complexity issues. Oracle recently announced that they will be opening 20 new Oracle Cloud regions in 2020, in addition to the 16 Oracle Cloud regions available today, bringing the total to 36 regions worldwide.[i] As a long-standing Oracle partner, Equinix also continues to expand its interconnection to Oracle Cloud. Equinix currently offers access to Oracle Cloud via Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) FastConnect with Equinix Cloud Exchange Fabric™ (ECX Fabric™) in 38 metros across five continents through its interconnected platform.
As cloud expands, so does fast, secure and scalable interconnection
As Equinix and Oracle continue to expand the reach of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), it will provide greater flexibility for businesses looking to scale their Oracle application and database environments into new markets or for those needing to add connectivity for a secondary backup region. Interconnection – the direct and private exchange of traffic between key business partners – is helping IT teams connect their businesses’ on-premises infrastructures to public clouds faster by removing the distance and network variability between IT services and users. Oracle and Equinix provide this direct and secure interconnection to Oracle Cloud – bypassing the public internet – in more geographies than any other provider via OCI FastConnect and ECX Fabric.
Oracle and Equinix provide direct, secure connectivity to Oracle Cloud – bypassing the public internet – in more geographies than any other provider.
5 strategic use cases for an expanding cloud reach
The growing Oracle Cloud footprint on Platform Equinix provides an excellent foundation for the following five use cases:
- Hybrid cloud: New Oracle Cloud regions will increase demand for hybrid cloud connectivity as businesses look to extend their on-premises infrastructures into the Oracle public cloud. Hybrid cloud enables businesses to quickly connect and scale their Oracle applications and databases for increased agility and time to market. At the same time OCI FastConnect with ECX Fabric provides fast, consistent and secure interconnection to Oracle Cloud services on Platform Equinix, whether or not they are local to a business’ data center locations.
For example, U.S. Silica, a leading producer of industrial materials, was experiencing rapid growth through mergers and acquisitions and wanted to move its on-premises ERP and database systems to Oracle Cloud for greater performance, scalability and redundancy for disaster recovery. With the help of technology partners, BIAS and Datatility, the company was able to create a high-performance, secure and reliable interconnected, multi-region hybrid cloud infrastructure on Platform Equinix.
U.S. Silica’s hybrid cloud deployment
2. Multicloud: Some of the new Oracle Cloud regions will be within <5 milliseconds of other major cloud providers on Platform Equinix in specific regions, providing greater performance for sharing and exchanging data across different systems and partners. Whether a business needs to run applications across different clouds (split-tier architecture), migrate data from one cloud to another or move data across clouds continuously, a multicloud architecture provides this flexibility, but throughput is key. OCI FastConnect with ECX Fabric provides the speed that enterprises need for cloud to cloud routing via low-latency, virtual connections. Network Edge, a set of virtualized network services on Platform Equinix makes multicloud connectivity even easier. Businesses can make network connections across the Equinix ecosystem of 2,900+ cloud and IT service providers in minutes through virtual network services from leading vendors like Cisco, Juniper or Palo Alto Networks without deploying physical equipment.
As a case in point, a global agricultural chemical company needed to continuously sync data between its AWS environment in Silicon Valley to its Oracle Cloud environments in other locations, but an IPSec-VPN solution over the public internet did not provide enough throughput. By leveraging Network Edge on Platform Equinix and a remote connection to Oracle Cloud via OCI FastConnect and ECX Fabric, the company was able to sync data across their locations with the high-speed, low latency throughput they needed.
Multicloud with Network Edge deployment
- Cloud adjacency: Oracle announced the Exadata Database Machine X8M at Oracle OpenWorld this year. The X8M combines new memory and networking technologies for optimal enterprise performance. Equinix and Oracle offer a joint cloud adjacency solution that enables businesses to place Exadata databases next to cloud providers with low latency, high performance, secure interconnection. More Oracle Cloud regions means businesses will have more options for deploying a cloud adjacent database with Exadata X8M to distributed users. Businesses can also colocate their Exadata Database Machine at Equinix, and leverage OCI FastConnect with ECX Fabric to securely connect their database to other applications and services in the cloud such as storage or analytics. For enterprises that have stringent recovery time (RTO) and recovery point (RPO) objectives as part of their disaster recovery (DR) strategy, a zero data loss recovery appliance (ZDLRA) can also be placed next to their Exadata Database Machine in both primary and backup locations.
Exadata cloud adjacent deployment with optional backup/DR site
- Autonomous database:Oracle Autonomous Database, which is optimized for data warehousing (DW) and online transaction processing (OLTP) workloads, will continue to gain traction as enterprises adopt ”Autonomous” services as part of their Gen 2 cloud strategy. Both DW and OLTP use cases benefit from high throughput and low latencies. By leveraging OCI FastConnect and ECX Fabric, businesses can avoid the performance variability and reduce the cyberattack surface area by bypassing public internet.
Hybrid multicloud deployment with Oracle Autonomous Database
- Blockchain: Oracle’s Blockchain Enterprise Edition enables businesses to build blockchain networks between Oracle Cloud, on-premises infrastructure and other cloud providers.[ii] That provides great flexibility for security sensitive enterprises that need to implement tamper-proof, verified workloads across multiple cloud providers. OCI FastConnect with ECX Fabric on Platform Equinix delivers highly secure, fast connectivity for these trusted networks and helps to ensure compliance with data protection and privacy regulations.
Hybrid multicloud deployment with Oracle Blockchain
Outlook for 2020 and beyond
As we head into 2020, we expect to see some exciting developments with the expanded, global Oracle Cloud footprint on Platform Equinix. Digital transformation will continue to impact every industry, making agility vital to success. To be agile, a business needs to innovate fast, adopt new technologies quickly and connect the data, applications, partners and users that matter most. Hybrid multicloud architectures with OCI FastConnect and ECX Fabric provide this kind of agility, enabling enterprises to seamlessly move workloads between on-premises infrastructure, Oracle Cloud and other cloud environments with the speed, security, scalability and reliability they need for today, tomorrow and the foreseeable future.
Learn more about delivering innovation with the right hybrid cloud solution in this webinar.
[i] Oracle, Oracle Cloud Accelerates Expansion to Bring Infrastructure to Customers Globally, Sept 2019; Oracle Accelerates the Rapid Global Expansion of Cloud Regions, Sept 2019.
[ii] Oracle, Oracle Blockchain Platform Enterprise Edition and What Everybody Ought to Know About Oracle’s Blockchain Platform Release, Feb 2019.
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