Oracle has announced a cloud interoperability partnership between Microsoft and Oracle. In this blog post, I have discussed an Overview of Microsoft and Oracle Interconnect & how it will be beneficial to customers.
Oracle and Microsoft have built a dedicated private network connection between Azure and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure data centres that provides data channel between the two clouds.
High-Level Overview of Oracle & Microsoft Interconnect
- This cross-cloud interlink enables customers to migrate and run mission-critical enterprise workloads across Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI).
- Customers can now seamlessly connect Azure services, like (Analytics and AI), to Oracle Cloud services, like (Autonomous Database). For the highly optimized, best of both cloud experience, Customers can run one part of a workload within Azure and another part of the same workload within Oracle Cloud.
- Connecting Azure and Oracle Cloud through network and identity interoperability makes lift-and-improve migrations seamless.
- It provides low latency and high throughput of cross-cloud connectivity.
- Multi-tier application can be partitioned to run DB on OCI and Application on Azure.
- ExpressRoute peering location is in proximity to or in the same peering location as the OCI FastConnect.
- Network Peering possible between Azure and OCI.
- Traffic between the 2 providers over a private network.
- Network traffic can be controlled using the Security List (OCI) and Network Security Groups (Azure).
- Identity side its common and well-known integration between IDCS and Microsoft Active Directory.
Region Availability
Cross-cloud connectivity is limited to the following regions as of now:
- Azure East US (US East) & OCI Ashburn (US East)
- Azure UK South (UK South) & OCI London (UK South)
- Azure Canada Central (Canada central) & OCI Toronto (Canada Southeast)
- Azure West Europe (West Europe) & OCI Amsterdam (Netherlands Northwest)
- Azure Japan East (japan East) & OCI Tokyo (Japan East)
Network Connectivity Between Oracle and Microsoft Azure
- Enables new and innovative scenarios like running Oracle E-Business Suite or Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne on Azure against an Oracle Autonomous Database running on Exadata infrastructure in the Oracle Cloud.
- Cross-Connect can be established via the ExpressRoute circuit in Azure and Fastconnect on OCI.
- FastConnect and ExpressRoute together create a path for workloads on both clouds to communicate directly and efficiently, which gives customers flexibility on how to develop and deploy services and solutions across Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and Microsoft Azure.
Both Microsoft and Oracle have invested in dedicated private networks to connect enterprise data centres with their respective cloud platforms.
Customer Benefits
Customers experience the following benefits when they interconnect the Oracle and Microsoft clouds:
- A Secure private connection between the two clouds.
- No exposure to the internet.
- High availability and reliability.
- High performance, low latency, predictable performance compared to the internet or routing through an on-premises network.
- Straightforward, one-time setup.
- No intermediate service provider required to enable the connection.
Note: The Azure region should be US-East for best performance. We have seen a few customers recently try to provision US-West on the Azure side, which would be fine for DR…but does not lend itself well to deliver a functional OLTP application.
Easy Migration on Cloud
With simplified licensing models, customers can deploy enterprise Oracle applications on Azure with the same processor mapping as their existing on-premises deployments.
- Enterprise apps such as Oracle E-Business Suite, JD Edwards, Peoplesoft Enterprise, Hyperion and Oracle Retail Applications can be migrated to Azure through simplified licensing schemes.
- The same model is applied to Microsoft workloads, including SQL Server running on OCI.
Traffic Flow Between Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Azure, and Non-Cloud Networks
The customer’s on-premises network is directly connected to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure through FastConnect and to Azure through ExpressRoute, and there’s a direct interconnection between the two clouds.
- In this scenario, users located in the on-premises network can access applications (web tier and app tier) directly within Azure through ExpressRoute. The applications then access the database tier located in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
- Workloads can access either cloud through the interconnection.
- This cross-cloud connection doesn’t enable traffic between your on-premises network through the Azure virtual network (VNet) to the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure virtual cloud network (VCN), or from your on-premises network through the VCN to the VNet.
For example, customers can’t reach Oracle Cloud Infrastructure through Azure. If you need to reach Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, you need to deploy FastConnect directly from your on-premises network.
Connecting the Cloud Networks
Below Diagram describes the connectivity between an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure VCN to an Azure VNet & the components which will be used for the connection.
Components of this Connection
Component | Azure | Oracle Cloud Infrastructure |
Virtual network | Virtual network (VNet) | Virtual cloud network (VCN) |
Gateway | Virtual Network Gateway | Dynamic Routing Gateway (DRG) |
Virtual circuit | ExpressRoute circuit | FastConnect private virtual circuit |
Routing | route tables | route tables |
Security rules | network security groups (NSGs) | security lists |
Future Roadmap Plan
Apart from basic connectivity and interoperability, Microsoft and Oracle are committed to a tighter integration of Azure and OCI.
Some of the interesting possibilities include:
- Integration of Oracle Analytics Cloud and Azure Data Services.
- Power BI integration with Oracle applications and Databases.
- Integrated monitoring between Azure AppInsights and OCI Monitoring service.
- Integrated key management between Azure KMS and OCI KMS.
- Microsoft Teams integration with Oracle applications.
Oracle and Microsoft have provided customers with the flexibility to build and deploy applications in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and Azure by providing a robust, reliable, low-latency, and a high-performance path between the two clouds.
Related/Reference
- Oracle and Microsoft Interconnect Clouds to Accelerate Enterprise Cloud Adoption
- Overview of the Interconnect Between Oracle and Microsoft
- [Video 3 of 5] Oracle Cloud (OCI): Create VCN, Subnet, Firewall (Security List), IGW, DRG: Step By Step
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