Oracle Cloud vs Amazon Cloud – Which is right for you?

Choosing the right cloud computing vendor for your database needs can be difficult. You have to sort through a crowded and competitive market and consider the short- and long-term needs of your organization. If you’ve narrowed down your selections to Oracle versus the Amazon Cloud, here are the pros and cons to help you make the final decision.

Oracle
Oracle is a latecomer and only has four percent market share, so it’s already starting out at a disadvantage versus cloud giant Amazon. However, the company has solid products and a strong growth strategy that shows it’s in the cloud market for the long haul.

Oracle Pros
Oracle knows its way around delivering business services, and it brings that to the table with its cloud products. One of the primary focuses of Oracle is creating an environment that is built with integration in mind, rather than requiring you to create a patchwork of third-party vendors. This approach contributes to a more user-friendly environment than Amazon, with a strong focus in making it keep mission-critical apps running strong with a smooth transition.

They have the infrastructure in place to support high demand and massive enterprises, with fairly straightforward pricing that favors this level of usage. After all, Oracle is one of the pioneers in the database field, and they’re bringing this expertise to PaaS and IaaS. Oracle’s big data management system is particularly enticing, especially for organizations that are already heavily invested in Oracle products.

Oracle Cons
Oracle is playing catch-up in a crowded market. It’s not only trying to differentiate itself from the current offerings in place by Amazon, but it also needs to make sure that it’s covering all the expected basics.

While the fully integrated IaaS, PaaS and SaaS platform simplifies parts of a cloud migration process, it also reduces the ability to start out small. You have these robust features (and the associated costs)

Amazon Cloud
Everyone knows about the Amazon Cloud, as it’s the largest player in this market sector. This company has the advantage of being the entrenched option and offering a comprehensive selection of products, as well as providing services that appeal to organizations just dipping their toes in the cloud computing waters.

Amazon Cloud Pros
Amazon excels in its flexibility and the ability for users to pay as they go. They have the resources in place to grow with the organization, rather than requiring them to go all in on a platform. Agile development is made possible with a platform that’s designed to provision and deploy the resources that you require quickly.

The configuration options available on AWS allow businesses to explore many ways of making the cloud work for them. Amazon is widely supported by third-party vendors, so you have many opportunities to expand functionality with leading services.

Amazon has an extensive geographic footprint, optimizing its services around numerous small data centers. They reduce the risk of localized disasters impacting a large swath of their users with this approach, and it also helps organizations target the data centers closest to their headquarters or target demographic.

Amazon Cloud Cons
Amazon’s not without its faults. The pricing structure can be complicated and difficult to figure out exactly how much you end up paying, and while the pricing may seem like it’s a better deal than other services, you typically have higher costs on AWS.

The sliding scale support costs can also represent a significant expense, depending on how often you need to rely on this service. Plus, if something goes wrong when you’re using many third-party services, you need to coordinate with multiple vendors to try to figure out the issue.

The biggest advantage of Amazon, its flexibility, is also its biggest weakness. When you can do virtually anything on a platform, trying to figure out the first steps can be an overwhelming prospect.

How to Choose Which Is Right for You in a Database Administration Environment
Oracle and Amazon both have compelling use cases that allow them to be a highly effective solution in your organization. Oracle Cloud is a straightforward choice if you already depend on Oracle as your database provider. The transition is smooth and you retain the same service and database expertise that you previously enjoyed.

If you aren’t sure exactly how the cloud fits in your organization or you want to experiment with many database technologies to determine the best option, AWS is an excellent choice.

When you evaluate Oracle Cloud and AWS for your database administration environment, consider your current infrastructure, the short- and long-term business goals, your preferred database technology, and the expense associated with each option.

You have a hard choice in front of you, as Oracle and AWS offer powerful solutions that have their own unique strengths.  To learn more about Oracle database cloud services please download Datavail’s white paper, Oracle Database Cloud Service Muscles-Up, or contact Datavail today. Datavail can provide your organization with database cloud consulting services and Oracle upgrade support.

Datavail is a specialized IT services company focused on Data Management with solutions in BI/DW, analytics, database administration, custom application development, and enterprise applications. We provide both professional and managed services delivered via our global delivery model, focused on Microsoft, Oracle and other leading technologies.