Uber hitches a ride on Oracle

Uber has embraced Oracle as its cloud provider, alongside Amazon Web Services (AWS). The significance of the move lies in Uber’s status as the world’s largest ride-hailing service, with a presence in  more than 70 countries and 10,500 cities. This vast network is centrally managed and its updates quickly rolled out globally thanks to its use of cloud platforms.

Along with Netflix, it was one of AWS’s best advertisements for the ability to manage a global business with complex local variations via the cloud. However, Uber is not dumping AWS.

AN AWS spokesperson told Gadget: “Uber continues its work with AWS and we look forward to partnering with Uber on more innovations in the future.”

Oracle and Uber Technologies, yesterday announced a seven-year strategic cloud partnership, which they said was intended “to accelerate Uber’s innovation, help deliver new products to market, and drive increased profitability”. 

As Uber continues to grow and enter new markets, Oracle said in a statement, “It is increasingly important for the business to focus resources on its core strengths and strategic initiatives. By migrating some of the company’s most critical workloads to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), Uber will be in a position to modernise its infrastructure while also accelerating its path to profitability.”

 Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said: “Uber is revolutionising the way people, products, and services move across continents and through cities. To deliver on that promise for customers while building value for shareholders, we needed a cloud provider that will help us maximise innovation while reducing our overall infrastructure costs. Oracle provides an ideal combination of price, performance, flexibility, and security to help us deliver incredible customer service, build new products, and increase profitability.”

The new strategic partnership with Uber, along with recent analyst reports, serve as powerful validation of OCI’s strategy and product vision, said Oracle: “Customers want both flexibility and best-in-class price-performance infrastructure across a global footprint. Uber can now take advantage of these capabilities that only OCI provides.”

Oracle CEO Safra Catz said: “Uber is expanding into a ‘go anywhere, get anything’ platform, and the company needed a cloud partner that shares a relentless focus on innovation. This landmark competitive win for OCI is further validation of the momentum and acceleration we are experiencing in the market.

“Enterprises, governments, and startups around the world are recognising the differentiation of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and experiencing our performance, security, and economic benefits versus other hyperscalers.”

Along with the OCI agreement, the strategic partnership includes other areas of collaboration between the two companies. Oracle will become a global Uber for Business client, selecting Uber as a preferred rideshare for its employees to travel and eat around the world. Uber and Oracle will also continue co-innovating on additional retail and delivery solutions that will evolve from the cloud partnership,  including consumer experiences with last-mile logistics.