Salesforce, Oracle Announce Cloud Partnership

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Just one day after announcing a new cloud computing partnership with Microsoft, Oracle announced another cloud partnership–this time with Salesforce.com. Under the terms of the nine-year deal, Salesforce will expand its use of Oracle products, and the two companies will integrate their cloud offerings.

Computerworld’s Chris Kanaracus reported, “In a coming together of rivals, Salesforce.com and Oracle have signed a nine-year agreement under which the companies will integrate their technologies and Salesforce.com will make a significant investment in Oracle products for its cloud computing platform. Salesforce.com, long a user of Oracle’s database, will standardize on Oracle’s Linux OS distribution, Java middleware and Exadata server platform, as well as continue to use Oracle’s database, according to the joint announcement on Tuesday.”

CNET’s Andrew Nusca added, “For Oracle’s part, the company plans to integrate Salesforce.com with Oracle’s Fusion HCM and Financial Cloud, as well as provide the core technology to power Salesforce.com’s applications and platform. Salesforce.com will also implement Oracle’s Fusion HCM and Financial cloud applications throughout the company.”

The Inquirer quoted Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who said, “When customers choose cloud applications they expect rapid low-cost implementations; they also expect application integrations to work right out of the box – even when the applications are from different vendors. That’s why Marc [Benioff, CEO of Salesforce] and I believe it’s important that our two companies work together to make it happen, and integrate the Salesforce and Oracle Clouds.”

The Register’s Jack Clark commented that the deal “comes as something of a surprise, given Larry Ellison’s classification of Salesforce’s cloud as a ‘roach motel’ in October 2011, and Salesforce chief Marc Benioff’s labeling of Oracle’s on-premise tech as a ‘false cloud’ in 2010. Manufactured controversy is a great way to stay relevant in an era defined by nimbler, smaller competitors, it seems.”