AWS, Others Seen Moving Off Oracle Databases

According to reports, the switch to open source database software weakens Oracle and other traditional database providers, as major clients such as Amazon prepare lower cost alternatives.

Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), which implemented a cloud computing initiative last year, insisted in December that large database clients such as Amazon and Salesforce remain among its list of Fortune 500 database clients. Since then, There have been reports that Amazon and other large customers are moving away from Oracle as they implement open source alternatives.

The Information website reported this week that several sources insisted that Amazon and Salesforce are preparing to abandon Oracle databases. Oracle officials insist otherwise.

In fact, Amazon Web Serves has recently introduced a series of database options based on open source software. Among them is a new graphics database. Nicknamed Nepture, the graphics database complements a growing list of AWS platforms, which include relational, non-SQL, and in-memory databases along with stores of key values and objects.

CEO Andy Jassy said during the AWS event in November that emerging platforms such as Neptune would help fill gaps in the way developers access data. In a not-so-veiled excavation at Oracle, Jassy added: "The picture of how people use databases today is really different from what has been the case in recent years," he said. "You do not use relational databases for each application, that ship has sailed."

Industry observers note that changing databases is difficult, as they often support a range of business software applications. However, the information report indicates that there is a broad incentive to make the transition given Oracle's aggressive application of the database license agreements.

Another incentive for hypermarketers like AWS to implement open source database alternatives is the difficulty of scaling current platforms. The report quoted a former Amazon employee who said that the first efforts of the AWS database were due to cuts in electronic commerce that encouraged efforts to move from monolithic relational databases to more agile and code-based alternatives. open.

Many of these efforts were presented by AWS during the annual cloud giant technology event in November. Precisely it remains to be seen how these database technologies would be integrated into Amazon's internal operations.

Amazon did not respond to a request for comment on the database report.

Those reports are emerging as AWS and Oracle in the growing effort to move database resources to the cloud. During a December 14 earnings call, Oracle CTO Larry Ellison struggled to challenge Amazon's database strategy and announced what he called the world's first "self-management database."

"The new artificially intelligent Oracle database is fully automated and does not require human labor for administration," Ellison said. "If a security vulnerability is detected, the database is immediately correlated while running."

Ellison added: "The price of running Oracle Autonomous Database on Oracle Cloud is less than half the cost of running a database on Amazon Cloud."