Oracle has announced the opening of a new Oracle Interconnect for Microsoft Azure location in Johannesburg, South Africa, providing direct connectivity between the Oracle Cloud Johannesburg region and the Microsoft Azure South Africa North region.
With the latest Oracle Interconnect for Microsoft Azure, customers across Africa can now use the Oracle Database Service for Microsoft Azure. This Oracle service builds upon the core capabilities of Oracle Interconnect for Microsoft Azure and enables customers to easily integrate workloads on Azure with Oracle Database services on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). Customers can also easily provision, access, and monitor enterprise-grade Oracle Database services in OCI.
Since 2019, Oracle and Microsoft have partnered to deliver 12 Oracle Interconnect for Microsoft Azure locations around the world, including San Jose, Phoenix, Ashburn, Toronto, Vinhedo, Amsterdam, London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore, and Johannesburg. These locations offer customers multicloud capabilities to run their business-critical applications. For example, customers using Oracle Autonomous Database on OCI can connect to Azure analytics tools and AI workloads without copying data. Customers can also run applications like Oracle E-Business Suite on Azure or OCI and integrate as part of a single solution.
“Our longstanding collaboration with Microsoft Azure gives our joint customers the flexibility and choice to innovate using the best of both our clouds. With growing customer demand for multicloud capabilities across Africa, we look forward to helping Microsoft Azure customers migrate their workloads to the cloud without the need for complicated re-platforming, while giving them seamless access to Oracle Database services on OCI,” said Nick Redshaw, senior vice president, Technology Cloud, Middle East and Africa, Oracle.
“Microsoft and Oracle share a long-standing history of delivering excellence on behalf of our mutual customers and supporting their evolving needs,” said Colin Erasmus, COO, Microsoft South Africa. “Expanding the Oracle Interconnect for Microsoft Azure to Johannesburg ensures our valued customers in this region can benefit from the choice to deploy multicloud solutions.”
Expanding Multicloud Opportunities in Africa
With Oracle Interconnect for Microsoft Azure, customers in Africa can now migrate and run mission-critical enterprise workloads across their Azure and OCI environments with a private, dedicated low-latency connection and identity federation. Customers also receive a collaborative, comprehensive service support model. Pricing is port-based with no additional charges for bandwidth consumed.
Customers can use the Oracle Interconnect for Microsoft Azure to connect components of one or more applications that require frequent communication, running some parts on OCI and others on Azure, thus benefitting from a “best-of-both-clouds” experience. They can also use either OCI Identity and Access Management or Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) for single sign-on to the two clouds and the respective applications. Customers can build high availability architectures within the regions and disaster recovery capabilities with another pair of interconnected regions using architectures published in the Cloud Adoption Frameworks for OCI and Azure.
“Cloud has become the foundational technology for organizations to modernize their critical IT infrastructure and leverage the benefits of emerging technologies such as AI/ML, analytics, IoT, security, and automation. The continuous investment in cloud data center space in South Africa by the global cloud providers has accelerated the adoption of public cloud services across industries, including some highly regulated sectors such as government, healthcare, and banking,” said Mark Walker, associate vice president, Sub-Saharan Africa, IDC.
“The total spending on public cloud services in South Africa is forecast to grow at a five-year CAGR of 24.6% between 2021 to 2026. The Oracle Interconnect for Microsoft Azure in South Africa will boost options available to local and global enterprises in the country. Given the availability of multiple in-country cloud providers, customers will be adopting a multicloud strategy based on price, functionalities, SLA, QoS, interoperability and innovation that, in turn, benefits the overall market,” added Walker.
“Because our platform was developed on the Microsoft .NET Framework and runs on Oracle Database, Oracle Interconnect for Microsoft Azure provides us with the best of both clouds. As Soho Media operates internationally, the fact that Oracle Interconnect for Microsoft Azure continues to rapidly expand into new regions allows us to accompany our customers wherever they are. The low latency connectivity of the interconnect helps ensure our platform runs seamlessly, better serving customers across the globe,” said Guillaume Delannoy, CEO, Soho Media Solutions.
“Oracle and Microsoft, together, enable us to realize our multicloud freedom and we’re glad to see these two leading cloud providers continue to make multicloud deployments seamless, safe, and cost-effective. With Oracle Interconnect for Microsoft Azure, we have been able to significantly expand our reporting and advanced data analytics capabilities, which allows us to better serve the needs of our customers and patients,” said Peter Gawroniak, senior director, IT Infrastructure and Operations (I&O), Integra LifeSciences.
