Oracle has launched a cloud service tailored for the European Union (EU).
The company this week announced its EU Sovereign Cloud, designed to offer EU organizations greater control over data privacy and sovereignty requirements, is now open.
Oracle said the service is located out of facilities entirely within the EU, supported by EU-based personnel, and operated by separate legal entities incorporated within the EU. The EU service uses physically - and logically -separated cloud architecture from Oracle’s commercial and government cloud regions, including those in Europe.
First announced in July 2022, the service offers the same capabilities as Oracle Cloud Infrastructure's (OCI) public cloud regions with the same prices, support, and service level agreements (SLAs) to run all workloads.
The service currently consists of two cloud regions – Frankfurt, Germany, and Madrid, Spain – each comprising three fault domains. Digital Realty is the host partner for the EU Sovereign Cloud region location in Madrid, and Equinix is the host partner for the region location in Frankfurt.
"The European Union technology landscape has changed dramatically due to the growing importance of data protection and localization, leading to increased demand for sovereign cloud solutions that can securely host sensitive customer data and comply with regulations such as GDPR," said Richard Smith, executive vice president, technology, EMEA, Oracle. "Our goal is to meet customers wherever they are in their cloud journey and with Oracle EU Sovereign Cloud, customers in highly regulated industries, as well as those subject to certain country-specific legislation, can now accelerate their cloud strategies."
The two regions are owned and operated by separate Oracle-owned EU legal entities incorporated within the EU, with operations and customer support restricted to EU-based personnel. The company said the regions also align with EU monitoring regulations and guidance that limits data transfers out of the EU (such as the Court of Justice for EU Schrems II Ruling and European Data Protection Board).
Microsoft and Google also have sovereign cloud offerings, but are being marketed through partners. In 2021, Orange and Capgemini launched France-based cloud company Bleu to sell Microsoft Azure services from local data centers.
Google has partnered with T-Systems in Germany, Thales in France, and Proximus in Belgium and Luxembourg. A leaked report suggests Google views its trusted partner cloud initiative as its "most important program" and believes it can corner a $100 billion market in Europe and Asia via data sovereignty-compliant clouds.
Oracle plans second Mexico region in Monterrey
In Mexico, Oracle has confirmed its second in-country region is to be located in Monterrey.
In September 2022, América Móvil-owned telco léfonos de México (Telmex) announced it would be hosting Oracle’s second Mexican region, but didn’t state where.
Triara, Telmex’s data center unit, offers a total of 74,000 sqm (796,500 sq ft) from five facilities in Queretaro, Monterey, Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Cancun.
The company’s first Mexican region opened in Querétaro in June 2022; Oracle aims to open two regions per country for resiliency.
Oracle Q2 2023 results
Last week saw Oracle post its latest quarterly results. The company – which announced the results as Q4 2023 – saw total quarterly revenues of $13.8 billion, up 17 percent year-on-year. GAAP operating income was $4.1 billion, with GAAP net income was $3.3 billion.
Total Cloud Revenue – IaaS plus SaaS – was $4.4 billion, up 54 percent up. Cloud Infrastructure – IaaS only – saw $1.4 billion in revenue, up 76 percent.
"Oracle's revenue reached an all-time high of $50 billion in FY23," said Oracle CEO, Safra Catz. "Our infrastructure growth rate has been accelerating—with 63 percent growth for the full year, and 77 percent growth in the fourth quarter. Our cloud applications growth rate also accelerated in FY23. So, both of our two strategic cloud businesses are getting bigger—and growing faster. That bodes well for another strong year in FY24."
Oracle chairman and CTO, Larry Ellison, added: "Oracle's Gen2 Cloud has quickly become the number one choice for running Generative AI workloads. Why? Because Oracle has the highest performance, lowest cost GPU cluster technology in the world.”
In the earnings call, the company said it now has 42 public cloud regions globally, with another seven being built, along with nine national security regions. The company has deployed 10 dedicated on-premise regions, and nine more are planned.
