Uber has announced a huge data migration plan that it will undertake with the help of Google Cloud and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) over the next seven years. Since its launch in 2009 the company has been using mostly its own hardware. 95% of Uber’s data and IT services are stored in their own data centres. In this new plan, Uber will move everything to the cloud.
The cloud is looking like an ever more enticing option given the supply chain issues we’ve been experiencing since the COVID pandemic, that’s made it very difficult to get hold of IT hardware. So, that’s part of the reason for the move but Uber have also said they’re hoping it’ll give them more “flexibility and scalability”.
Uber has been making huge profits recently. Their February report claimed that the company made a $595m profit in the previous quarter and grew 83% reaching a value of $31.8bn.
Uber CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, has said,
“Uber is revolutionising the way people, products, and services move across continents and through cities” … “To deliver on that promise for customers while building value for shareholders, we needed a cloud provider that will help us maximise innovation while reducing our overall infrastructure costs. Oracle provides an ideal combination of price, performance, flexibility, and security to help us deliver incredible customer service, build new products and increase profitability.”
The Case For Multi-Cloud Migration
It’s now clear that every business is likely to need to at least partly migrate to the cloud. Uber has chosen to take a multi-cloud approach, using the services of both Google Cloud and Oracle Corp. This approach allows them to balance benefits with potential risks. Cloud insiders espouse the virtues of multi-cloud migration because, despite its complexities, it gives the customer control.
By using multiple providers, businesses are able to choose where to source each specific service, keep in control of the size of the migration and reduce security risks. Ultimately, a multi-cloud approach gives businesses the power to decide on what their cloud migration looks like.
What is Oracle Cloud?
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure provides Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), and Data as a Service (DaaS) and is owned by Oracle Corporation which was founded in 1977 in Austin, Texas. They count Siemens, Lyft, Deutsche Bank and Mazda as customers.
They recently added Prada to their client list, who will be using their retail Xstore Point-of-Service (POS) and customer engagement cloud service. It’s looking like this is just one of many big brands that will be making the move to engage with cloud technology.
How important do you think the cloud will be for the future of business? Will companies be able to avoid it? Let us know in the comments!
