When we think cloud providers, most of us think AWS, Google Cloud or Microsoft Azure, but there’s a new kid on the block. Well, not so new actually. Oracle was founded in 1977 and launched its cloud arm in 2016. That makes their cloud business about ten years younger than the three industry leaders. Despite its rookie status, Oracle reported record growth this week.
We recently reported on Uber’s cloud migration plans using both Oracle and Google Cloud. This is just one of many huge deals Oracle has been securing as it rises the ranks of the cloud computing industry.
Numbers Sky Rocket For Oracle
Earlier this week Oracle announced that they had topped fourth-quarter revenue estimates. Shares are up 4%. Revenue increased by 17% to $13.84 billion, with cloud revenue in particular reaching $4.4 billion, up by an absolutely crazy 54%! It’s been pointed out that this is a symptom of the sudden and growing popularity of cloud offerings that encompass AI.
Some say the company gained a competitive edge through its acquisition of Cerner, an electronic medical records company. Alongside its collaboration with AI company, Nvidia. Through this partnership, it’s thought Oracle could grow into a leading AI/ML development platform.
In a statement Larry Ellison, Chairman and Chief Technology Officer of Oracle said…
“Companies doing LLM (large language model) development such as Mosaic ML, Adept AI, Cohere plus 30 other AI development companies have recently signed contracts to purchase more than $2 billion of capacity in Oracle’s Gen2 Cloud”
And that’s not all! It’s looking like this growth will only continue. Oracle forecast 8% to 10% revenue growth in the first quarter.
The issue of monopolies is huge within cloud computing. And this means all sorts of things. Vendor lock-in where users become trapped with one provider. Tech giants wiping out the competition and stifling innovation. Nearly all the major players have been investigated by the monopoly cops. But a few smaller companies like Vultr are taking on the big guys.
Oracle may have a chance to dethrone the leading cloud companies, or at least give them a run for their money. But by no means can Oracle be described as an underdog. While Oracle Cloud is only a decade old, the main company is 45 years old, with over $100 billion in assets and 143,000 employees! How different would things really be if Oracle took over from AWS, Google or Microsoft?
