Are you starting your journey to cloud integration from SaaS? IaaS? Have legitimate constraints for public cloud consumption? “No problem!” says Oracle.

Promising to answer “Who we are, what we do and why it matters,” Steve Daheb, senior VP of Oracle Cloud – IaaS, PaaS, security, mobile and analytics at Oracle, took the stage at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, D.C. during Oracle CloudWorld 2016.

Oracle named after CIA project

Daheb started with a fun fact behind the history of Oracle’s name. Forty years ago, a small, nameless software development lab was hired by the CIA to work on a secret project. The project’s code name was “Oracle,” and for no other reason than it was an easy choice, the company that grew from the lab became known as Oracle.

Managing information is the foundation of IT

Over four decades in IT, Oracle has partnered with its customers through many industry transformations. From mainframe to client server, through the rise of the Internet, and now onto cloud, it can still simply express what it does and why it exists: managing information.

“It’s about connecting people and businesses to information, regardless of the underlying technology,” said Daheb.

One platform: Many uses

Declaring that silos aren’t good for business, as they prevent sharing of ideas and resources, Daheb made the case for why Oracle offers the best solution for businesses making the transition to cloud. Oracle provides connected layers spanning IaaS, Paas, IaaS and delivering real value, he said.

Daheb outlined the Oracle Cloud Platform’s solutions:

• SaaS: Aggregates multiple solutions for marketing, sales, service. etc.
• PaaS: Provides integration.
• IaaS: Provides a solid foundation of networking, compute and storage.

Solutions for all stakeholders

Oracle is always focused on corporate priorities and solutions, and the Oracle Cloud Platform offers solutions for all stakeholders:

• Developers: creating rich and high-performance apps in the cloud, native mobile apps, secure SaaS apps.
• Business owners: secure and simple file sharing, process automation with integrated social, instant access to rich analytics
• Business analysts: interactive analytics and discovery, insights across all data types
• Architects and operators: sandbox/dev test deployment environment, cloud on-prem and mobile, design, employ and manage a cloud, tie back to on-prem

The journey to cloud

All cloud journeys involve a transformation from existing business operations, but each business starts from different point. A journey that starts with SaaS will travel a different path to fully adopted cloud than one that starts with IaaS, or whatever infrastructure exists. Daheb promised that Oracle will guide its customers all the way, whatever their starting point and path.

Oracle’s new Cloud Machine

Acknowledging that genuine constraints prevent certain businesses from public cloud consumption, Daheb offers Oracle’s solution: the Oracle Cloud Machine. With the Oracle Cloud Machine, the Oracle Public Cloud can be deployed behind the firewall on a customer’s premises. This offers the public cloud experience but installed on-prem to meet data sovereignty and other issues that would regularly prevent cloud adoption. Customers have the choice to move between on-prem and public cloud, with same standards, same products, and same price as the regular Oracle Public Cloud.

Mastering Enterprise and Cloud

Oracle understands that transitioning to cloud is not about building a one-way street, Daheb told the audience, but instead it’s about building a bi-directional bridge between existing investments and the cloud. Truly understanding and bringing together the needs of enterprise and cloud is why Oracle offers a different and unique approach to transitioning to the cloud.

Use-case examples: AVAYA, JDSU, and Valdosta State

Daheb illustrates the following use case scenarios:

• AVAYA uses Oracle integration services to manage partner eco-systems, eliminating the costs of creating customizing apps.
• JDSU (Viavi Solutions) is living the dream of easily moving workloads to cloud. Its “pay per use” dev cycle can be spun up when needed, down when not, and cuts costs and time versus running on-prem.
• Valdosta State college aggregates and analyzes student data. Correlation identification for high drop-out rates for low-income students showed that access to meals and jobs on campus impacted retention rates. A seven percent increase in low-income student retention has brought $2 million in additional tuition revenues.

Daheb emphasized Oracle’s commitment to providing its customers with best-in-class technology, spanning all layers of cloud and bridging existing investments to the cloud. He wrapped up his speech by promising: “Whereever you may be, Oracle has the solution.”

Watch the full interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of Oracle CloudWorld 2016. And make sure to weigh in during theCUBE’s live coverage at the event by joining in on CrowdChat.

Photo by SiliconANGLE