• About Us
  • Partnership Opportunities
  • Privacy Policy

Data Center Frontier

Charting the future of data centers and cloud computing.

  • Cloud
    • Hyperscale
  • Colo
    • Site Selection
    • Interconnection
  • Energy
    • Sustainability
  • Cooling
  • Technology
    • Internet of Things
    • AI & Machine Learning
    • Edge Computing
    • Virtual Reality
    • Autonomous Cars
    • 5G Wireless
    • Satellites
  • Design
    • Servers
    • Storage
    • Network
  • Voices
  • Podcast
  • White Papers
  • Resources
    • COVID-19
    • Events
    • Newsletter
    • Companies
    • Data Center 101
  • Jobs
You are here: Home / Cloud / Oracle Seeking Data Center Space for Cloud Push

Oracle Seeking Data Center Space for Cloud Push

By Rich Miller - July 8, 2016

Oracle Seeking Data Center Space for Cloud Push

An aerial view of Oracle's Utah Compute Facility in South Jordan, Utah. (Image: Oracle Corp.)

LinkedinTwitterFacebookSubscribe
Mail

There’s a major new player in the cloud data center arms race, as database giant Oracle Corp. is seeking to add capacity to support its push into cloud services, according to a new report.

As Oracle shifts its business model toward the cloud, it is seeking to lease large amounts of wholesale data center space, according to North American Data Centers, which tracks data center inventory across the country. Oracle began adding leased server space last year, when it leased 5 megawatts of capacity with Digital Realty in suburban Chicago, according to the report.

Now Oracle is seeking to expand its data center footprint in northern Virginia, currently the nation’s hottest market for cloud real estate. Real estate sources in northern Virginia say Oracle may seek to deploy as much as 25 megawatts of data center capacity in the region, according to Jim Kerrigan of North American Data Centers.

Oracle isn’t the only cloud player seeking large amounts of data center real estate. Microsoft is continuing its aggressive cloud expansion to support its Azure cloud services, and hopes to line up 30 megawatts of additional space in northern Virginia as well as additional capacity in the Chicago market, Kerrigan says. That’s on top of the 47 megawatts of wholesale space that Microsoft leased in the first quarter of 2016.

Neither Oracle nor Microsoft have finalized plans in northern Virginia or made public announcements of expansions in the region. But their data center shopping spree illustrates how the growth of cloud computing is turbo-charging the market for wholesale data center space.

Oracle Beefs Up Its Cloud

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison was once known for his disdain for cloudy jargon. But in recent years Oracle has begun shifting to a cloud delivery model.

Oracle now has offerings in all three sectors of the cloud market: software-as-a-service (SaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS). Oracle’s SaaS services include enterprise resource planning (ERP) and human resources applications, while its PaaS offerings are led by its Oracle Database Cloud Service, which allows customers to run databases in Oracle’s server farms rather than their on-premise facilities.

In 2015 Oracle entered the IaaS market, which has been dominated by Amazon Web Services. Oracle Cloud offers elastic compute, storage and networking services on a subscription basis.

These IaaS services may be attractive to companies that are running applications on Oracle’s SaaS and PaaS platforms and want to reduce latency in moving data between their public and private clouds (eliminating the round trip to a private cloud at Amazon, for example).

“There’s a huge amount of demand or our infrastructure-as-a-service from our existing SaaS customers and our new SaaS customers, and even bigger amount of demand for infrastructure-as-a-service from our database customers,” Ellison said in the company’s earnings call last month.

Free Resource from Data Center Frontier White Paper Library

data center migration
Migrate Your Data Center Worry-Free
In this new white paper, Flexential provides best practices for IT teams looking to optimize their data center migration by minimizing downtime and avoiding hurdles.
We always respect your privacy and we never sell or rent our list to third parties. By downloading this White Paper you are agreeing to our terms of service. You can opt out at any time.

Get this PDF emailed to you.

“We’re growing fast in SaaS. We’re growing fast in PaaS,” Ellison added. “Now we need to grow fast in infrastructure-as-a-service. We’ve made the investments, we have the right technology with our second-generation data centers, and we’re very excited about the potential.”

Competing with Amazon requires some infrastructure, as demonstrated in the major data center expansion announcements this year from Google and Microsoft. So it’s not surprising that Oracle would also need to add capacity to compete in this market.

Oracle runs its online services out of data centers in Austin, Utah and Scotland. It also houses servers with some third-party data center providers.

A cut-away view of the data center design and cooling airflow for the Oracle Utah Compute Facility . (Image: Oracle)

A cut-away view of the data center design and cooling airflow for the Oracle Utah Compute Facility . (Image: Oracle)

The evolution of the Oracle Utah Compute Facility (UCF) in South Jordan, Utah illustrates the ongoing changes in technology and best practices, and Oracle’s emphasis on continuous refinement of data center design to strike a balance between sustainability, cost and operational efficiency. The Oracle data center team described the company’s data center evolution last fall at the 7×24 Exchange conference in San Antonio.

But the buildout of the Utah facility occurred over two years. By shifting to wholesale space, Oracle would be able to fill data halls with servers on a shorter timeline. In recent projects, wholesale providers have demonstrated the ability to deploy new capacity from the ground up in as little as six months.

The newest data halls in the Oracle Utah facility operate with a PUE of 1.18, a significant efficiency improvement over earlier designs. The facility uses indirect evaporative cooling and flywheel UPS systems.

The design features a ductless cooling system using multiple “decks” housing plenums to separate and transport hot and cold air. Supply air is dropped into the data hall, and from there is distributed to provide cooling for electrical rooms and telecom space. Racks are housed in a containment system, with a chimney system venting exhaust air from the hot aisle into the upper return plenum.

LinkedinTwitterFacebookSubscribe
Mail

Tagged With: Northern Virginia, Oracle

Newsletters

Stay informed: Get our weekly updates!

Are you a new reader? Follow Data Center Frontier on Twitter or Facebook.

About Rich Miller

I write about the places where the Internet lives, telling the story of data centers and the people who build them. I founded Data Center Knowledge, the data center industry's leading news site. Now I'm exploring the future of cloud computing at Data Center Frontier.

Comments

  1. JOE@MCGLONECO.COM'JOE MCGLONE says

    December 18, 2016 at 11:11 am

    Rick,
    You mention greater latency on loop back to premise from public with AWS, which is not evident with ORCL says on orcl iaas. Since i see MSFT and SALESFORCE with their own IAAS, as well as ORCL, doesn’t this give these vendors a significant advantage while competitions with non IAAS vendors of just SAAS, like WORKDAY???

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Voices of the Industry

Mitigate Risk, Improve Performance and Decrease Operating Expenses through Data Center Self-Performance

Mitigate Risk, Improve Performance and Decrease Operating Expenses through Data Center Self-Performance If a vendor conducts the actual work in your data center, then you or your operator aren’t maximizing your current operating resources and are experiencing incremental cost and risk. Chad Giddings of BCS Data Center Operations, explains the importance of your data center provider having a high-degree of self-performance.

White Papers

Liquid immersion

Approaching the Heat Limit with Liquid Immersion Technology

Liquid cooling offers a less costly and more sustainable alternative and recent advances in the technology and its deployment are driving change across the industry. This white paper from TMGcore explores some of the opportunities and limitations of liquid immersion cooling.

Get this PDF emailed to you.

We always respect your privacy and we never sell or rent our list to third parties. By downloading this White Paper you are agreeing to our terms of service. You can opt out at any time.

DCF Spotlight

Data center modules on display at the recent Edge Congress conference in Austin, Texas. (Photo: Rich Miller)

Edge Computing is Poised to Remake the Data Center Landscape

Data center leaders are investing in edge computing and edge solutions and actively looking at new ways to deploy edge capacity to support evolving business and user requirements.

An aerial view of major facilities in Data Center Alley in Ashburn, Virginia. (Image: Loudoun County)

Northern Virginia Data Center Market: The Focal Point for Cloud Growth

The Northern Virginia data center market is seeing a surge in supply and an even bigger surge in demand. Data Center Frontier explores trends, stats and future expectations for the No. 1 data center market in the country.

See More Spotlight Features

Newsletters

Get the Latest News from Data Center Frontier

Job Listings

RSS Job Openings | Pkaza Critical Facilities Recruiting

  • Electrical Commissioning Engineer - Los Angeles, CA
  • Data Center Construction Project Manager - Ashburn, VA
  • Critical Power Energy Manager - Data Center Development - Dallas, TX
  • Data Center Facilities Operations VP - Seattle, WA
  • Senior Electrical Engineer - Data Center - Dallas, TX

See More Jobs

Data Center 101

Data Center 101: Mastering the Basics of the Data Center Industry

Data Center 101: Mastering the Basics of the Data Center Industry

Data Center Frontier, in partnership with Open Spectrum, brings our readers a series that provides an introductory guidebook to the ins and outs of the data center and colocation industry. Think power systems, cooling, solutions, data center contracts and more. The Data Center 101 Special Report series is directed to those new to the industry, or those of our readers who need to brush up on the basics.

  • Data Center Power
  • Data Center Cooling
  • Strategies for Data Center Location
  • Data Center Pricing Negotiating
  • Cloud Computing

See More Data center 101 Topics

About Us

Charting the future of data centers and cloud computing. We write about what’s next for the Internet, and the innovations that will take us there. We tell the story of the digital economy through the data center facilities that power cloud computing and the people who build them. Read more ...
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

About Our Founder

Data Center Frontier is edited by Rich Miller, the data center industry’s most experienced journalist. For more than 20 years, Rich has profiled the key role played by data centers in the Internet revolution. Meet the DCF team.

TOPICS

  • 5G Wireless
  • Cloud
  • Colo
  • Connected Cars
  • Cooling
  • Cornerstone
  • Coronavirus
  • Design
  • Edge Computing
  • Energy
  • Executive Roundtable
  • Featured
  • Finance
  • Hyperscale
  • Interconnection
  • Internet of Things
  • Machine Learning
  • Network
  • Podcast
  • Servers
  • Site Selection
  • Social Business
  • Special Reports
  • Storage
  • Sustainability
  • Videos
  • Virtual Reality
  • Voices of the Industry
  • Webinar
  • White Paper

Copyright Endeavor Business Media© 2022