Up to now, the line on Oracle software was that it was only supported by Oracle on Oracle virtualisation. Prepare to be stunned … Microsoft Corp. and Oracle Corp. today announced a partnership.
Customers will be able to deploy Oracle software — including Java, Oracle Database and Oracle WebLogic Server — on Windows Server Hyper-V or in Windows Azure and receive full support from Oracle. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Damn. BTW, where’s Oracle’s partnership with VMware for the same support? Oh yeah, VMware will “support” your Orcale software on their virtualization. Before the vFanboys start barfing, sure, Larry Ellison will be at VMWorld to announce a partnership there too …
Back to the serious stuff, I’m gobsmacked by this. It makes sense for both parties. Sure MSFT wants to push MSFT BI solutions, but there’s a hardcore set of customers who have deeply embedded Oracle software. You don’t cut off your nose to spite your face; instead you get over the past and figure out a way where one hand can wash the other. Microsoft wants Oracle customers running on Microsoft’s Cloud OS. Oracle sees the writing on the wall about hybrid cloud computing and doesn’t want to be left behind. Is this an everyone-is-a-winner deal for customer/Microsoft/Oracle?
I wonder if this announcement will change some of the licensing limitations regarding running Oracle in a VM. Last time I read the licensing documents, you had to licence all the cores of the entire host where the VM was. If you wanted VM mobility (of course you did), you had to licence every host where the VM could be migrated on. The end result were totally insane licensing costs. Another option was hard partitioning but to me, it kind of defeated one of the purpose of having a private cloud with pooled resources and flexiblity.
Unlikely. Databases like SQL Server or Oracle are typically licensed per core. A customer with lots of SQL Server, for example, is advised to set up dedicated hosts/clusters just for SQL VMs to limit their licensing costs due to migration.