14 DAY TRIAL // The Oracle Cloud Platform launch took place this Monday and the cloud is going to get really crowded in a couple of months, with Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle, and soon IBM competing for the top spot.
This move was to be expected from Oracle, mainly due to its dwindling revenue from classic software offerings during the past years, and a 2014 Q4 report that featured one single sector in which the company had year-to-year growth, and that was its cloud service.
Now Oracle has launched 24 new cloud services, in a move that can be interpreted as a pledge to offer almost its entire product portfolio via the cloud in the upcoming future.
This means a switch from classic licensing to a subscription model, similar to what Adobe has done in the past with its Creative Suite - Creative Cloud move.
Box.com seals partnership with IBM
Just a few days after the Oracle Cloud launch, IBM made its counter-move, announcing a partnership with Box, which will have their two cloud services intermingle.
IBM will be putting up 46 worldwide data centers in the mix, while Box will be providing the client portfolio, of which the bigger names include the likes of General Electric, Procter & Gamble, Nationwide, and O2.
The "cloud war" will be waged using prices
If generally new market entries are regarded with skepticism, this will not be the case for Oracle and IBM, both Fortune 500 companies that can put up a fight in any market.
In a statement for Reuters, Oracle founder Larry Ellison had the following to say: "We're prepared to compete with Amazon.com on price."
That's one bold statement if we ever saw one, especially since Microsoft through its Azure service did the exact same thing, and Amazon (Web Services) reacted by dropping prices 48 times during the past years.
However, true to his word, Mr. Ellison's Oracle Cloud platform is currently featuring prices up to 10 times smaller than some of Amazon's services. But let's not forget that according to this report, Amazon has also been cutting down infrastructure investments, probably because it passed the data center build-up phase, and has now more wiggle room to play with its price offer as well.
