In a joint statement, the companies said the agreement would make it possible to have direct, fast and reliable network connectivity between the two cloud platforms.

The new capabilities available under the deal are:

• Connecting Azure and Oracle Cloud, allowing customers to extend their on-premises data centres to both clouds. Direct interconnect is available for Ashburn (North America) and Azure US East, with plans to expand additional regions in the future.
• Unified identity and access management, via a unified single sign-on experience and automated user provisioning, to manage resources across Azure and Oracle Cloud. Oracle applications can use Azure Active Directory as the identity provider and for conditional access.
• Supported deployment of custom applications and packaged Oracle applications (JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, Oracle Retail, Hyperion) on Azure with Oracle databases (RAC, Exadata, Autonomous Database) deployed in Oracle Cloud. The same Oracle applications will also be certified to run on Azure with Oracle databases in Oracle Cloud.
• Collaborative support to help organisations deploy these new capabilities while enabling them to leverage existing customer support relationships and processes.
• Oracle Database will continue to be certified to run in Azure on various operating systems, including Windows Server and Oracle Linux.

“As the cloud of choice for the enterprise, with over 95% of the Fortune 500 using Azure, we have always been first and foremost focused on helping our customers thrive on their digital transformation journeys,” said Scott Guthrie, executive vice-president of Microsoft’s Cloud and AI division.

“With Oracle’s enterprise expertise, this alliance is a natural choice for us as we help our joint customers accelerate the migration of enterprise applications and databases to the public cloud.”