🚨Two Major Players, One Unified Strategy for Multicloud?
Host and CEO at The Futurum Group, Daniel Newman is joined by Gurmeet ‘GG’ Goindi, Director of Product Management, Databases, Google Cloud and Nathan Thomas, Vice President, Multicloud & Distributed Cloud, at Oracle Cloud Infrastructure for a discussion on the partnership between Oracle and Google Cloud. The guests detail how the two companies are collaborating to pioneer multicloud solutions through a new reseller program for Oracle Database at Google Cloud along with new product capabilities, aimed at bolstering customer multicloud strategies with Oracle Database services in Google Cloud.
Key Takeaways include:
🔹Industry-First Reseller Program: This partnership introduces an innovative reseller program for Oracle Database at Google Cloud, marking a new milestone in multicloud solutions and simplifying access for customers.
🔹Empowering Partners in Multicloud: The collaboration significantly impacts the reselling process, creating new opportunities and enhancing the capabilities of partners to deliver robust Oracle Database services within Google Cloud environments.
🔹Customer-Driven Innovation: Customer demand is directly shaping the development of new Oracle Database capabilities within Google Cloud, ensuring that the latest service and platform enhancements meet real-world enterprise needs.
🔹Real-World Customer Perspectives: Insights from early adopters of Oracle Database at Google Cloud highlight the practical benefits and strategic advantages experienced by customers following the recent announcements at Google Cloud Next.
Learn more at Oracle and Google Cloud.
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Transcript:
Daniel Newman: Hey everyone. Welcome to this Six Five Virtual Webcast. Daniel Newman here, CEO Futurum Group, host of the Six Five. Excited for this conversation. Today we’re going to be talking about accelerating customer innovation with Oracle Database and Google Cloud. We’ve entered this really exciting era of multi Cloud. Partnerships are coming out of the woodwork because we live in a world where infrastructure is complex, clouds are in many different places, companies and enterprises and organizations are running many different softwares. And while, yes, every big tech company on the planet wants to win as much market share as they can, oftentimes the best way to get the best results is to find the right partnerships. And this one will be talking about the partnership that took place recently between Oracle Database and Google Cloud. And it’s going quite well. And I’ve got a couple of great guests with me. Nathan Thomas from Oracle, welcome to the show. How are you doing today?
Nathan Thomas: You’re doing great. Thanks for having me.
Daniel Newman: Thanks so much for joining. And I’ve got GG Goindi with Google. GG, thanks for coming on the show to talk about this.
Gurmeet “GG” Goindi: Thank you for having me.
Daniel Newman: Yeah, both of you heard, you know, my quick run up here on the show. Really excited to talk to both of you. I remember, you know, being around this industry for a little while. You know, there’s been kind of this accordion effect. In the beginning it was everything’s going to the cloud and then it was everything’s going to be hybrid and then it’s, everything’s going to be multi and somewhere even in between this there was some things are going to go back on prem and you know, we’ve kind of seen this push and pull but what we have seen overall has just been a massive expansion. The overall TAM for cloud has grown like crazy. We’re seeing more and more of these great partnerships and this one between your two fine companies is certainly one that is notable and has seemingly got off to a great start. So Nathan, I’m going to start with you as the Oracle representative here on the webcast. Talk a little bit about what was the driving force from the Oracle side. A company that’s for a long time really wanted to build the whole stack, but has increasingly been really partner focused and then Done some great things across the cloud. What drove this Oracle database at Google Cloud’s partner program?
Nathan Thomas: Yeah, the announcements that we’ve made recently with our partners Google are really driven by that reality that large enterprises are using multiple cloud providers and a huge number of them are relying on Google Cloud for their cutting edge AI and analytics offerings. Things like Gemini’s Foundation Models, Vertex AI, BigQuery Looker and at the same time they trust Oracle Database for its scalability, its security resiliency, its ability to power those mission critical workloads. And so that partnership really gives us the opportunity to fast track those migrations of on premises Oracle Database workloads to Google Cloud where they can take advantage of those capabilities and they can really develop new applications using the best of the OCI tech and the database tech, but on Google Cloud with a unified operating environment.
Daniel Newman: So GG obviously every company enters partnerships with slightly different purposes but generally it’s always very customer centric. What was sort of the driving force on your side?
Gurmeet “GG” Goindi: You nailed it. It’s customers. The truth of the business for the majority of the enterprises is still set in Oracle Database. Oracle Database has probably one of the most resilient, most scalable relational databases ever in the industry. Ubiquitous to every enterprise. As these customers are looking at their journey to the cloud to leverage Google’s, Gemini’s models, our Vertex AI platform working with BigQuery they want to integrate deeply with their truth of business that sits in the Oracle database. Our necessity for this partnership is completely driven by customer demand and giving them optionality to do what’s best for their business. This partnership has been fun in that regard and this message has resonated really well with the customers as well. Our joint customers are very enthusiastically welcoming this partnership and we are working across all geos and you can think across all verticals in which the customers want to leverage the Oracle database at GCP at the same time leverage our data and AI platform that Google provides.
Daniel Newman: Yeah, this is very much one of those meet the customer where they are, make it very accessible and easy. Your comments match our research in terms of the performance of the Oracle database and there’s been a reason it’s been so sticky for so long. And of course you know, Google Cloud platform. I spent time with Thomas Kurian recently at Cloud Next and you know the growth of the business has been absolutely exponential. I think just when he took the helm it was about $5 billion, just over 5 billion of revenue. Now you just surpassed 50 and the run rate and the growth has been incredible. So these kinds of partnerships certainly meet the customers where they are. Of course on another side GG, though that is kind of interesting is how customers consume because you do have this, you know, when they do go multi cloud and they do work with multiple vendors, you know, I would imagine the reselling, the consumption process is impacted a little bit. From Google’s side, does it make it easier? Does it improve the reselling process to make it easier for customers to get both GCP and Oracle and what they need?
Gurmeet “GG” Goindi: Great question. So Google has been a partner first partner friendly cloud from the get go. Right. One way for us to expand and meet the customers we are is to work with the partners they are more familiar with to work with the resellers they are doing business with and how to incorporate them into our ecosystem. Oracle has the richness of working on these with these partners for decades and we were a relatively new entrant in this space. So in this motion we want to eliminate any, every aspect of friction with our customers. Whether that friction is in procurement, whether that friction is in migration technologies or migration approaches, whether that friction is enabling our customers to leverage both platforms. And with that point of view, we feel having resellers and partners join hands with us and Oracle to enable our customers is the right strategy for our customers.
Daniel Newman: Yeah. So Nathan, I imagine the same thing kind of for Oracle. And you know, I’m not just trying to flip over the same question to you, but it’s, in the end you have customers that sort of have an entry point and so you’re improving the technology customer experience. But part of it should also be friction. Yeah, I mean, how easy it is for them to buy, consume, use, regardless of where the sort of purchase point begins.
Nathan Thomas: Absolutely. So as you just said, we’ve done partnerships across the database side for years, but in the cloud world we find that there may be even more of that proclivity. So a lot of organizations really require cloud services to be purchased through preferred resellers. And as you may know at Google Cloud Next launched the new reseller program for multi cloud. And that program really simplifies access to Oracle database at Google Cloud for VARs, for channel partners, local and global systems integrators and ISVs as well as managed service providers. And reduces that friction by helping those partners really own the customer relationships and then giving the customers the ability to use the existing investments that they’ve made and draw down on the credits and the commitments they’ve made in those partner channels. So it’s a very powerful way for customers to begin to accelerate their migration of those Oracle databases to Google Cloud offerings.
Daniel Newman: You started alluding to some of the announcements from Cloud Next. I think that would be a good thing to touch on as well. As we mentioned, I think GG you said about the customer and you said that’s the answer. It’s about the customer but in the end its technology. It’s about having the best features to match customer needs. It’s about continuing to innovate, differentiate. I’ve watched both of your organizations do this and push boundaries. What are some of those sort of service platform capabilities that have come out that really have been sticky? Nathan, that has made a customer say yes Oracle, yes Google, this sandwich is absolutely delicious. When we put these things together.
Nathan Thomas: As you said, driven by customers, there’s really a continual push for acceleration. I think we’re all used to this in the cloud market where you, you can’t stay stable. You’ve got to continue to push for the latest and greatest capabilities in technology. And so at cloud and Google Cloud Next we announced a bunch of new capabilities here for customers. So Oracle based database service is going to be available soon in limited preview. It’s going to give customers more options on the database workloads. Oracle Exadata X11M which is the newest version of Oracle Exadata is now available for Oracle Exadata service on dedicated infrastructure at Google Cloud. Oracle Interconnect for Google Cloud is now available to Oracle US government customers. And we’re also planning on bringing the Oracle database at Google Cloud to 14 more cloud regions across North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia. As GG said, we’re going global with the whole offering.
Daniel Newman: Yeah, we’ve definitely seen by the way just how fast this proliferation going global is. Oracle is very busy. We’ve heard about the Stargate announcements and that’s a little bit of a different set of partnerships. But you know, just this week as we’ve been, you know, the week that we’re recording this and you know, you may be watching this right away or you may be watching this weeks in the future but you know, we heard about I think you know, trillions of dollars of investment in the Middle East, much of which will be centralized around AI. Of course both of your companies will be expanding your regional services. We know sovereign AI is going to be a huge thing. GG, are you seeing on your side as you’re sort of talking to customers, the ones that are saying yes we’re committed to Oracle and yes we are committed to building gcp, you know, instances for different reasons. Like what are they telling you in terms of the features and capabilities that are really getting them excited about this partnership?
Gurmeet “GG” Goindi: We need to build in and meet them where they are. So be in as many regions as possible where our customers are. Keep up with all the innovation that Oracle is bringing in at the same time, have the best integration with our services. That’s the three pillars we are pushing the envelope on. And the best integration of the services is where they can leverage Gemini and Vertex AI with Oracle database. In that pursuit. We also wrote an integration with LangChain in the Oracle database. Why not? It’s just to push to give customers full access to our tech stack. At the same time, meet with Oracle the innovation that Oracle is bringing in and be in as many regions as possible. So with that view in mind, this story resonates really well with the customers. They understand that we are getting their demand. We are addressing the need to maintain their business critical information in the latest and the greatest Oracle hardware, the latest and the greatest Oracle services, the latest and the greatest Oracle database at the same time bringing it in a very secure, easy to manage, easy to consume manner and integrating it with the latest and greatest that Google has to offer. So that’s the trifecta that has made this partnership really appealing.
Daniel Newman: I really like the fact, GG, that you brought in some of the services that are being built out with Vertex and also Gemini. I’ve been watching very closely and you know, this race around AI, there’s a lot of, you know, people that want to make very early proclamations. Oh, this was the, this is going to be the winner. But Google has had such an inherent advantage because of its massive distribution through search, through advertising and YouTube to bring AI experiences. And then of course in the cloud to take all that great knowledge, be able to take something like an Oracle, you know, database, bring it closer to data with Vertex and then using tools like Gemini that you can distribute, you can obviously also some of the things you’re doing in terms, terms of making it secure, local things that, you know, certain other companies maybe either don’t want to do or can’t do. It seems like one of those things that customers would be, you know, you kind of alluded to, but really excited about because in the end, like it’s. I heard a stat recently that 99% of enterprise data hasn’t touched AI yet. So Oracle is one of those multi petted byte of enterprise data companies that can help their companies in regulated industries and complicated B2B industries that have most of their data hasn’t touched AI yet. And they can really start to play with AI by bringing their data to your cloud and taking all that AI goodness.
Gurmeet “GG” Goindi: You bet, you bet. That’s, that’s been the whole driver behind this. One very simple example I can find is that we have a fully integrated experience between BigQuery and the Oracle database within a few clicks using products like Data Stream or Golden Cape. You can reflect your Oracle data in real time in BigQuery. It remains within your ecosystem, it inherits your security envelope or security posture, it maintains all the enterprise readiness you expect from these services to be and you can start playing with the latest and greatest technologies that AI has to offer within like three or four clicks. So that’s the real value add that customers get in addition to bringing these two cloud providers together.
Daniel Newman: I’m really glad you brought the security posture. Both companies, both very focused. I mean security is very complicated. It’s never a game about perfect, but it is a game about really trying to do it with a lot of rigor, diligence and steadfastness to make sure that you know, this data stays secure while of course opening up all the features and capabilities that help companies be more productive. Nathan, as we sort of tie this webcast off, I’d love to get your kind of viewpoint on that customer. You of course, like I said, both companies have had slightly different postures over the years about how they partner but Oracle has absolutely opened its, you know, soul to these multi clouds and it’s become a big part of your DNA and you know, you’ve done it across the multi clouds, this one being a great success. Are your customers, you know, excited, relieved, what are they kind of, how are they reacting to the fact that, you know, really you guys are doubling down and saying we want to be where you are and help you get the best of all the technology available to you.
Nathan Thomas: Very, very positively received customers are very excited to see that they can start to leverage the investments that they’re making in Google Cloud and with that really strong set of services but being able to take advantage of that Oracle database in that environment. It’s something they’ve wanted to do, it’s something they’ve been hungry for and we’re seeing that. We were just down at Google Cloud Next, as we said and there’s a lot of interaction, a lot of customers talking about it and engaging across a lot of industry verticals. And we really saw people actively talking about planning or in the middle of migrations for that opportunity. And you know, we talked to people who were in the retail space looking to migrate, you know, entire Oracle database estates from mainframe Linux onto Oracle Exadata database services at Google Cloud. We saw others who are migrating order management applications from on premises to Oracle Exadata environments to the Oracle database at Google Cloud offerings. So we’re seeing that real interest turn into action pretty quickly.
Daniel Newman: It sounds like there’s a lot of great things starting to brew through this partnership, GG and Nathan. And it sounds like by next year at Oracle Cloud World and at Google Cloud next, we’re probably going to start hearing from the stages, stories from the customers, you know, because this is one of those things that it’s great when you all talk about it as Google and Oracle. It’s even better when us analyst folks start talking about it. But it’s always the best when the customers come out and say, you know, together we’re moving faster, we’re getting more done, we’re getting more efficient, we’re getting better outcomes. It’s all, you know, it’s been secure and of course it’s been friction, less friction. It’s never perfect. That’s not, that’s never how technology works. But we are, I think, all of us collectively doing our best to make this stuff easy to consume and easy to deliver great results. GG, Nathan, I want to thank you both so much for spending a little time with me here talking about this new partnership. Congratulations and I look forward to hearing more from you and of course from the customers on how this plays out.
Gurmeet “GG” Goindi: Thank you. Thanks for having us.
Daniel Newman: And thank you everybody for tuning into this episode of The Six Five Virtual Webcast with Oracle and Google talking about an exciting and growing multi cloud partnership. Hit subscribe. Be part of our community. We appreciate you tuning into this and all of our shows here on The Six Five. For this episode, it’s time to say goodbye. See you all later.
Author Information
Daniel is the CEO of The Futurum Group. Living his life at the intersection of people and technology, Daniel works with the world’s largest technology brands exploring Digital Transformation and how it is influencing the enterprise.
From the leading edge of AI to global technology policy, Daniel makes the connections between business, people and tech that are required for companies to benefit most from their technology investments. Daniel is a top 5 globally ranked industry analyst and his ideas are regularly cited or shared in television appearances by CNBC, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal and hundreds of other sites around the world.
A 7x Best-Selling Author including his most recent book “Human/Machine.” Daniel is also a Forbes and MarketWatch (Dow Jones) contributor.
An MBA and Former Graduate Adjunct Faculty, Daniel is an Austin Texas transplant after 40 years in Chicago. His speaking takes him around the world each year as he shares his vision of the role technology will play in our future.
