The cloud connects the business processes of the user. For customers who have disconnected business processes and data silos, the cloud helps them transform their business.

Cloud enables users to rent IT resources, rather than buy. Users do not have to invest large funds in databases, software and hardware, but can access their computing power via the Internet or the cloud and pay for it per use. Cloud provides speed, scalability and flexibility that enables users to develop, innovate and support business IT solutions. Complete cloud application suites are already connected, eliminating data silos, enabling integration and intelligent business decisions.

Users are increasingly adopting Cloud technologies that can create more flexible infrastructure, can accelerate technology implementation and bring digital products to market faster. The biggest benefit of Cloud service providers are advanced security measures that protect data from loss, stealing or damage with regular updates to their infrastructure. With Cloud computing, organizations actually buy a range of services offered by Cloud service providers (providers) in the cloud. There are three basic cloud service delivery models:

• Software as a Service (SaaS),
• Platform as a Service – Platform as a Service (PaaS),
• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

IaaS (infrastructure as a service) allows users to access infrastructure services on demand over the Internet. The main advantage is that the cloud provider hosts the infrastructure components that provide compute, storage, and network resources so that users can run their workloads in the Cloud. The Cloud User is responsible for installing, configuring, securing and maintaining any software on the source solutions, such as database, middleware and application software.

PaaS (Platform as a Service) gives users the advantage of access to the development tools they need to build and manage mobile and web applications, and to integrate and manage data without investing in core infrastructure. The provider hosts the infrastructure and middleware components, and the user accesses those services through a web browser. PaaS solutions have ready-made software components that enable developers to build new capabilities into their applications, including innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), chatbots, blockchain, and the Internet of Things (IoT). The right PaaS offering should include solutions for analysts, end users and professional IT administrators, including big data analytics, content management, databases, systems and security. This includes services such as analytics, handling and manipulating large amounts of data. The benefits of PaaS are application development speed, scalability, and cost reduction.

SaaS is a cloud-based software delivery model in which the cloud provider develops and maintains, provides automatic updates, and makes the software available to users over the Internet on a pay-as-you-go basis. It enables users to reduce costs, faster implementation, scaling and upgrading of business solutions. Cloud applications encompass and connect all end-to-end business processes, from finance, human resources, procurement and supply chain to marketing, sales, trade and service solutions. For organizations looking to start a new business, SaaS is a way to access a wide range of existing services quickly and cheaply. The advantages of SaaS are ease of use, scalability and speed of implementation.

Through the partnership of these two Cloud vendors, they addressed several core functionalities directly related to the gravitation of data into the appropriate cloud environment. And as part of this partnership, they worked on transparent integration through: Fast Connect, which enables direct, fast interconnection between Oracle and Microsoft cloud for applications and data exchange. One of the specifics of the cooperation between these two vendors is centralized identity and access management. They ensured the availability of support through existing, already known channels with both vendors, for a multi-cloud environment. The support for companies designed in this way ensures the cooperation of the support of both vendors to solve potential problems of the multi-cloud environment.

• The process of managing active containers whose purpose is transparent migration and scaling of services between private and public infrastructure is called containerization. Container orchestration platforms represent a natural environment for the development of cloud native applications, short cycles of developing new functionalities (CI / CD), automated processes for creating the environment (infrastructure as code), automated software testing and controlled release of new versions into production, i.e. all aspects of the devOps paradigm. Kubernetes is the basis of several commercial solutions of this type, such as IBM Cloud Private and Red Hat Openshift.
• Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) together with service-oriented architecture are an unavoidable step towards that goal. The transition from monolithic information systems to microservice architecture is a complex and time-consuming process. With ESB, it is possible to connect old and modern technologies, thus opening the possibility of gradual and controlled migration, as well as connect on-premise applications with services on public cloud infrastructure, or with public SaaS and PaaS services.
• API Management – In the architecture of easily connected components that communicate exclusively through API endpoints, it is important to have absolute control over all interfaces – from up-to-date API documentation, API version records, usage tracking and integration with billing systems, to rights of access and control of what is exposed and under what conditions.
• Identity & Access Management – Hybrid cloud implies the existence of an account in two domains – private (on-premise) and public (public cloud). In addition to traditional IAM solutions, there are also new products specializing in cloud environment, such as Cloud Access Security Broker – CASB.
• Cloud at Customer – As an Oracle partner, we can offer our customers the original Cloud-at-Customer option, where their public cloud services, including leading PaaS database products, are offered in the form of an on-premise system. The offer is especially interesting for existing users of Exadata Database Machine products, because by integrating with Cloud-at-Customer systems they can create disaster recovery, development and test environments which are safe, performant, in accordance with the law, and carry all the benefits of PaaS service – subscription model and complete technical support.