Oracle Launches On-Premise IaaS

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Oracle has added a new “Capacity On-Demand” offering to its Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) lineup. But unlike traditional cloud computing offerings, the new IaaS involves servers that reside on the enterprise’s premises, and software fees are not included in the charges.

Computerworld’s Joab Jackson reported, “Oracle has launched a set of infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) systems that companies can run in-house and pay for on a monthly basis, a project the company announced at OpenWorld in September. Oracle is not pitching the IaaS offers as an alternative to commodity cloud services, such as the Amazon Web Services (AWS), but rather as an alternative to purchasing Oracle systems for on premise deployment. Using Oracle IaaS, the company claims, eliminates the upfront capital costs of buying new equipment, and could quickly provide additional capacity, at a price, when needed.”

CBR added, “The ‘Capacity on Demand’ service will allow organizations to deploy Oracle Exadata Database Machine, Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud, Oracle SPARC SuperCluster, Oracle Exalytics In-Memory Machine and Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appliance, the company said. The service is claimed to offer the organizations total control and visibility over their IT environments, allowing them to meet internal regulatory and security requirements with the on-premise, private cloud infrastructure.”

ZDNet’s Rachel King explained, “Oracle also stipulated that this scheme is different from simply leasing the hardware because the monthly fees are published (and therefore, predictable) while the cost of hardware leases involve interest rates that can vary over the course of time. For the budget-minded, it is important to read the fine print. As this is a monthly subscription, Oracle asserted that there are no ‘upfront capital expenditures,’ but rather the operating costs will be spread out ‘over time.'”

InfoWorld’s David Linthicum criticized the “faux” IaaS, writing, “Just as Oracle IaaS is not a true cloud offering, neither is Oracle’s new ‘Iaas On Demand’ selection of rental application servers. Unlike with a true cloud on-demand service, your monthly fee — which requires a three-year contract — covers just the hardware, its maintenance, and some degree of usage. You pay extra for the Oracle software licenses and for ‘peak’ usage (no definition or price given). It’s not the standard cloud model, in which the entire service is included with the fee.”