Ultimate unicorn Uber has chosen Oracle and Google Cloud to power improved customer experiences, new products and services, and boost profitability as Uber shutters its own data centers and moves to the public cloud.
For both Oracle and Google Cloud, the separate but interrelated deals with Uber represent massive wins for not only revenue growth but also as very high-credibility references that other businesses will surely consider as they choose from among world-class hyperscalers.
Look at how Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi described his company’s engagements with Oracle and Google Cloud in separate announcements:
- Oracle: “Uber is revolutionizing 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 maximize 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.”
- Google Cloud: “Our partnership with Google centers around a shared commitment to putting customer experience at the forefront of everything we do. It is our job to continually improve and reimagine the types of experiences we’re providing through the Uber platform, exceeding expectations every time someone opens the app to go somewhere or get something delivered. We’re excited to deepen our work with Google to deliver new innovations that push the boundaries of what’s possible for transportation, delivery and more.”
I’ve chosen to run these complete comments from Khosrowshahi because I believe they represent what business customers truly want from the cloud today: speed, innovation, ideas, superb customer experiences, bigger and broader opportunities, expanded vision, and as I’ve noted before, a big shift in perceptions of what is possible versus what is impossible.
No talk from the Uber CEO about megawatts or clusters — and while those issues are certainly extremely vital at some level, the cloud now represents something that goes far beyond the core technology and instead encompasses outcomes like “revolutionizing the way people, products, and services move across continents and through cities” and the chance to “deliver new innovations that push the boundaries of what’s possible for transportation, delivery and more.”
In another indication of the significance of this deal and what it represents for each provider, both Google Cloud and Oracle featured top executives in their respective announcements.
For Google Cloud, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai described the impact that other parts of Google will play in this new Uber engagement.
“We look forward to expanding our collaboration with Uber to deploy our cloud infrastructure, artificial intelligence, data analytics, and edge networking solutions,” Pichai said. “This partnership is bringing together the best of Google technology across Cloud, Maps, Ads and more to help Uber continue to improve the customer experience for their users.”
From Oracle, CEO Safra Catz — the Cloud Wars CEO of the Year for 2022 — called the Uber deal “a landmark competitive win.”
“Uber is expanding into a ‘go anywhere, get anything’ platform, and the company needed a cloud partner that shares a relentless focus on innovation,” said Catz. “This landmark competitive win for OCI is further validation of the momentum and acceleration we are experiencing in the market. Enterprises, governments, and startups around the world are recognizing the differentiation of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and experiencing our performance, security, and economic benefits versus other hyperscalers.”
Speaking of “other hyperscalers,” I’ll share some thoughts on that aspect of this development later this week.
