Advanced Computing in the Age of AI | Thursday, March 28, 2024

Atos, Google Cloud Bring HPC Servers to Oracle Database Workloads 

Powered by Atos BullSequana S x86-based HPC servers, Oracle users can soon run database workloads in conjunction with the Google Cloud Platform (GCP). The news, announced by Atos in Paris, furthers Atos’ partnership with Google Cloud with two high-performance colo “extensions” of GCP data centers in Frankfurt, Germany, and Ashburn, VA.

According to Atos and Google Cloud, the two companies “will provide customers with a single, unified process for identity management, access management, governance and administration across all environments, from GCP-based applications to database instances.” The offering will be available in the second half of 2019 from the GCP console via the Google Marketplace.

A key aspect of the offering, Atos SVP Wim Los, told us today, is a licensing advantage for Oracle users. He said the “extensions” to the Google Cloud data centers are private, collocated clouds operating, physically, next door to the GCP Frankfurt and Ashburn sites. Situating the BullSequana S systems nearby “allows us to come back into GCP with very low latency, below 1 millisecond, allowing customers to use the application on GCP and the database on this private cloud instance,” said Los.

Using BullSequana S HPC-class servers means fewer processors are needed to run Oracle database workloads than if run in GCP, so “the Oracle license goes down because the cost of Oracle licenses is connected to the amount of processors consumed in the hardware that you have underneath,” he said, adding that some customers will save 30 to 40 percent on licensing.

Beyond BullSequana S servers, Atos said it also will offer cloud orchestration and management, and infrastructure services and support, “to offer Oracle database customers a fully-managed and secure cloud service, which will be seamlessly integrated with Google Cloud Platform.” The Frankfurt and Ashburn data centers are certified by Google Cloud “to provide direct, secure and high-performance network connectivity,” Atos said.

“Running Oracle database workloads, while also taking advantage of all the features of the Google Cloud Platform is a priority for many customers, so we are delighted to partner with Atos to help them do so,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO at Google Cloud. “This solution from Atos means Oracle database customers can take advantage of Google Cloud’s performant infrastructure and scale, as well as our strengths in areas like AI and ML, backed by Atos’ expertise in business transformation and migration.”

Los said 20 customers in the Netherlands are early adopters of the Atos-Oracle solution.

Atos has more than 100,000 employees in 73 countries, with annual revenue of more than € 11 billion.

“I’m delighted to expand our global partnership with Google Cloud, to now bring Oracle database customers the benefits of Google Cloud Platform so that they may harness the power of AI and ML to solve business challenges and innovate,” said Thierry Breton, chairman and CEO of Atos. “This announcement reinforces all the fruitful work we have done together over the last year, which has seen us bring our customers new end-to-end offers (encompassing AI, ML, hybrid cloud and digital workplace), and innovative services such as our joint customer AI Labs in Europe and in the US, to enable them to transform their business.”

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