This week Oracle announced it is to buy Corente, which is headquartered in New Jersey, for an undisclosed sum. Corente’s Cloud Service Exchange is a cloud-based service delivery platform that enables either Service Providers or enterprises to deliver applications and network services between public or private cloud data centres. In essence, the purchase means Oracle can use Corente’s technology to speed up application deployments and improve cloud management and security.
Of note is that Corente uses a software defined network (SDN) approach, which enables significant functional and process integration and automation. The company has a single software interface to control parts of the network and prioritise application traffic.
The purchase is an interesting and canny move from Oracle taking it into closer competition with more traditional network firms, such as Cisco (and many more besides). But looking at this more broadly, the combined technology could help address the really big challenge enterprises face around managing the complexities of running multiple applications across different types of cloud from different vendors. (We talk more about customer expectations for managing hybrid cloud environments in our Predictions for this year – see Predictions 2014: UK Infrastructure Services.)
Oracle says the transaction is expected to close in “early 2014”.