Oracle doubles down on Singapore with new cloud region

• Invests US$3mil to help startups accelerate digital initiatives 
• Plans to have at least 44 cloud regions by the end of 2022

Oracle Corp has announced the opening of its new Oracle Cloud in Singapore, which the company said will support growing demand for enterprise cloud services in Southeast Asia.

In a statement, the Redwood City, California-based software giant said this expands its reach to 33 cloud regions globally and continues to fuel the region’s economic recovery while contributing to its digital economy.

Cloud infrastructure underpins Singapore’s drive for innovation and digital initiatives, Oracle said.

To accelerate this, Oracle is offering 100 startups US$30,000 (RM125,000) each in Oracle Cloud credits over the next two years. 

It said it will provide free Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) training and certifications until Mac 31, 2022 to help expand Singapore’s IT talent pool and make it easier for businesses to acquire or develop the skilled professionals they need to grow and innovate quickly.

“We welcome Oracle’s move to accelerate startups in Singapore. These initiatives show the confidence that the international business community has in Singapore, as a place where established businesses can work with a vibrant entrepreneur community to transform, innovate and grow,” said Jacqueline Poh, managing director, Singapore Economic Development Board.

“We’ve witnessed triple-digit growth in the business last year and want to help customers innovate and modernise, while helping them address in-country data residency requirements,” said Garrett Ilg, president, Asia Pacific and Japan, Oracle. 

“With the opening of the new cloud region and the initiatives to support local innovation and growth, we are reaffirming our commitment to Singapore and to the region. The availability of OCI will help improve the speed of innovation, empower startups and champion upskilling for Singaporeans,” he added.

Oracle claimed that OCI helps customers move their existing complex, mission-critical workloads and data platforms to the cloud, and build new cloud native applications.

Customers will also have access to the full suite of Oracle cloud applications, as well as Oracle autonomous database, giving them the opportunity and choice to create the architecture that best suits their business needs, it said.

Glen Duncan, associate research director for datacentre at IDC, said enterprise appetite for public cloud services continues unabated in Singapore and across the rest of Asean. 

“The dominant data center architecture has become the hybrid multicloud environment that extends from core to edge and enterprises are now demanding cloud services from their partners that are global/regional/local, sustainable, secure, and high performance using machine-based intelligence, policies, and automation.

“Data and services must also be fully manageable and transparent to support compliance with increasingly stringent national government privacy and sovereignty regulations,” he said.

Oracle said the Singapore region will benefit customers throughout the Asean region with access to network partners that enable direct and private connection through OCI FastConnect.

This will be available via a direct connection or through partners. In Singapore, these partners will include Colt Technology Services, Equinix, Megaport and Singtel, Oracle said.

Oracle said it plans to have at least 44 cloud regions by the end of 2022, continuing one of the fastest expansions of any major cloud provider.

Upcoming cloud regions include Milan (Italy), Stockholm (Sweden), Spain, Johannesburg (South Africa), Mexico, and Colombia. Additional second regions will open in Saudi Arabia, France, Israel and Chile.