In a stunning display of how new customer-centric ideas are overpowering archaic behavior and competitive mindsets, a top Google Cloud executive will be a mainstage speaker at Oracle CloudWorld this week to showcase the huge benefits customers are enjoying as a result of the recent multi-cloud partnership between Oracle and Google Cloud.
Even as Oracle and Google Cloud compete fiercely on a daily basis, the two cloud powerhouses are collaborating closely during Oracle CloudWorld this week to showcase how their multi-cloud partnership is making it easier, faster, and less expensive for customers to deploy their cloud services.
And as visions of hell freezing over dance in your head, picture this: On its LinkedIn account with 10 million followers, Oracle is prominently featuring high-level Google Cloud execs extolling the many virtues of their multi-cloud initiatives.
Welcome to the new and truly customer-centric world of the multi-cloud cloud!
Oracle’s partnership with Google Cloud follows a similarly striking agreement about a year ago between Oracle and Microsoft, which has resulted in Microsoft Azure customers being able to evaluate, purchase, deploy, and manage the Oracle database services through their Azure systems. Called Oracle Database@Azure, that breakthrough was followed a couple of months ago by Oracle Database@Google Cloud, a revolutionary service that will be given huge prominence at Oracle’s CloudWorld mega-event in Las Vegas this week.
To see what I mean, check out this image of Google Cloud’s Amit Zavery, vice president and general manager of platform, being featured on Oracle’s LinkedIn page to talk about his forthcoming appearance on the main stage at CloudWorld with Oracle executive vice president Clay Magouyrk.
And here’s another LinkedIn post from Oracle that includes a video testimonial from Google Cloud vice president and GM for databases Andi Gutmans highlighting the many benefits available for shared customers of Oracle and Google Cloud:
And one more example: Here’s Zavery using his LinkedIn account to highlight the conversation he’ll be having at CloudWorld with Oracle’s Maguoyrk:
Final Thought
Of course, a few LinkedIn posts don’t quite equate to eternal world peace and harmony, and no doubt the sales teams of Oracle and Google Cloud will, in most other respects, continue to battle each other with extreme intensity.
And that’s okay — that’s as it should be — because it’s precisely that level of unbridled free-market competition that spawns extraordinary innovation for customers and guarantees that the biggest winners in the Cloud Wars will always — always — be the customers.
But in the new world of the multi-cloud cloud, there are times when the shared interests of customers and cloud providers are best served by bold collaboration rather than bare-knuckle brawling.
So I say kudos to Oracle and Google Cloud for their multi-cloud partnership, and to both companies for staging this unprecedented — at least in my memory — big-event demonstration of customer-first thinking. And in the same vein, kudos to Oracle and Microsoft for being the first to strike a multi-cloud partnership.
P.S., Hey AWS, are you paying attention??
