After the internet, cloud was the next groundbreaking technology that completely transformed businesses, especially during tough times like the Covid era. Exploring more on the lines of Cloud computing and recent developments, CRN India, in an exclusive interview interacted with Siddharth Idnani, Head of Alliance and Channels, Oracle India. He opened up on Oracle Alloy, a game-changing cloud infrastructure. Further, discussions saw how Oracle is supporting its channel partners and helping them grow their business.
What are the key trends and challenges currently impacting the cloud infrastructure industry, and how are partners adapting to them?
Cloud adoption is rapidly rising as organisations aim for scalability and cost-effectiveness. In India, a remarkable surge in cloud adoption is driven by demands for data sovereignty, scalability, data residency, and low-latency connectivity. Businesses now prioritise agility, cost savings, and competitive advantages, making the transition to the cloud a compelling choice. A robust, high-performance cloud infrastructure serves as a foundation, allowing organisations to focus on core operations and drive growth. Customers increasingly seek flexibility and integration across multiple cloud providers, opening opportunities to collaborate with various providers using their edge. Contemporary cloud models, such as hybrid and multi-cloud, enable businesses to keep sensitive data on-site while leveraging public cloud services for other application aspects. Oracle Cloud, designed to tap into significant growth potential, offers customised services. With its acclaimed infrastructure platform, Oracle empowers customers to independently use Alloy in their data centers, ensuring full control over operations to meet specific regulatory needs.
How do cloud infrastructure platforms enable partners and integrators to better meet their needs?
Oracle Cloud is specifically crafted to design and deliver personalised services, leveraging the substantial growth potential within cloud computing. Supported by its highly acclaimed cloud infrastructure platform, Oracle empowers its customers to independently deploy Alloy within their own data centers, ensuring complete control over operations to address distinct regulatory requirements. Oracle Alloy provides partners with the ability to offer cloud services under their own brand, granting them control over commercial terms, customer relationships, and interaction points. This holds advantages for customers within the financial sector. With Oracle Alloy, operators can furnish a comprehensive suite of cloud services featuring branded and tailored user experiences, as well as bundle additional value-added cloud services and applications customised to the specific needs of a market or industry vertical. Oracle Alloy Operators retain full control over data and applications, meeting the most stringent security, regulatory, and data residency standards.
In which industries or sectors do cloud infrastructure services have the most significant impact, and what are some notable use cases or success stories?
Within the Indian market, Oracle sustains a network of 600 partners, with a substantial portion of its business—more than 50 percent—credited to Oracle Cloud infrastructure, and nearly 80 percent generated through partnerships in Software as a Service (SaaS). This emphasizes the extensive reach and growth potential embedded in Oracle’s partner ecosystem in India. The recent unveiling of Oracle Alloy signifies a crucial advancement, streamlining the expansion of partner businesses and fostering innovation. Oracle Alloy is gaining momentum across various industries, notably in the BFSI sector, driven by Oracle’s robust presence in finance. Since 2017, AU Small Finance Bank (AUSFB) strategically developed its loan and account management systems on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and Oracle Database, employing a comprehensive approach involving servers, processors, storage, memory, and network components. AUSFB also leverages Oracle Cloud capabilities to bridge the digital gap between thriving urban centers and economically underserved rural areas in India.
How does Oracle plan to provide support and training to help Indian enterprises make the most of the Alloy platform?
Alloy adopts a customer-centric approach, offering flexibility to end-users according to their preferences. Those looking for standard Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) services can directly engage with Oracle. On the other hand, users desiring customised services (OCI++) have the choice to partner with Alloy for collaboration. In terms of training and support, a framework akin to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is in place. Oracle University oversees certification and training programs for both partners and customers. For Alloy, the emphasis shifts towards training partners rather than end customers. Regardless of their existing expertise in Oracle technologies, partners undergo comprehensive training through Oracle University. This approach ensures partners are well-equipped to effectively present Alloy services to their end customers, aligning with the commitment to enhance both partner capabilities and customer experiences.
Share some of the unique features that Oracle Alloy offers to deliver unmatched performance, scalability, and flexibility in cloud infrastructure?
Oracle Alloy offers multiple benefits as it empowers partners to deliver branded cloud services with control over commercial terms, customer relationships, and touchpoints. With scalability to meet the needs of sizable organisations, partners can easily adjust the scale of cloud solutions. Security features, including encryption, access control, and threat detection, are integrated into Oracle Alloy. Operational flexibility is a key advantage for partners, as they can independently run Oracle Alloy in their data centers, maintaining full operational control. This autonomy allows partners to customise the cloud solution to meet both their specific requirements and those of their clients.
Could you talk about Oracle’s focus on accelerating cloud adoption in India and what role partners play in this engagement?
With Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) gaining traction in India, there exists a vast opportunity across various sectors to embrace Oracle Alloy. Cloud Alloy holds significant importance in the Indian market, primarily due to robust partnerships with global system integrators and data center providers. Partners stand to expand their businesses significantly by offering their customers the capabilities of public cloud services facilitated by this platform. This, in turn, opens up new avenues for growth. Given the subscription-based model in place, partners play a crucial role in driving usage. Oracle assumes a central role in setting up Alloy for partners and ensuring the platform’s proper deployment.
