Oracle Debuts New Cloud-Native Framework for App Development

(Pictured above: The expo hall at KubeCon 2018 in Seattle, Dec. 12.)

KUBECON + CLOUDNATIVECON — Oracle has released its new Oracle Cloud Native Framework which is designed to make it easier for developers to create applications using open standards for any kind of cloud environment.

Oracle’s Bob Quillin

“We’ve been hearing from customers that they want an open strategy that avoids cloud lock-in and allows public, private, hybrid and multicloud deployments,” Bob Quillin, the vice president of developer relations for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, told Channel Futures here at the KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2018 conference in Seattle, where the announcement was made.

Oracle Cloud Native Framework (OCNF) includes a set of six cloud-native managed services and on-premises software. It also introduces Oracle Functions, which is a serverless cloud service based on the open source, container-native Fn Project. The framework provides cloud-native capabilities for any kind of cloud deployments and leverages open standards established by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). Oracle is a platinum member of the CNCF.

Oracle Functions include scalable, multitenant serverless functions that let users focus on writing code without having to know about infrastructure concepts; a new streaming platform that makes it easier to collect and manage streaming data for a wide range of businesses; and a resource manager that can provision all Oracle Cloud Infrastructure resources and services.

Other framework services are an integrated monitoring service that reports metrics from all resources and services in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure; a notification service that broadcasts messages to distributed components such as email and PagerDuty; and a new events service that enables users to react to changes in the state of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure resources, both when initiated by the system or by user action.

The Oracle Cloud Native Framework is a tool that can be used by a wide range of channel partners to provide new and expanded services to their end user customers, said Quillin.

“Application developers in the channel are going to want to deliver new applications on this framework,” he said. “Systems integrators and channel partners will be able to do application development based on open source. Customers are going to be demanding that. It gives them an opportunity to build multicloud and cloud-neutral applications that run anywhere — and that’s what their customers are looking for.”

Developers will be able to use the framework to build applications that can run on bare-metal servers, without the overhead of virtualization, said Quillin.

“Basically, for a channel partner who wants to develop stuff for their customers, it gives them the opportunity to build anything from small applications to enterprise-grade applications.”

For customers who want to “lift and shift” existing applications to the cloud, the framework will also provide a means to do so using modern architecture and tools instead of out-of-date processes, he said.

“What we hear from customers is they don’t just want to lift and shift the old stuff, but they want to modernize.”

Using the framework, channel partners will have new avenues to expand their …
… service and consulting offerings to customers.

“It’s a huge opportunity for channel partners to dive in,” Quillin said.

Paul Teich, an analyst with Liftr Cloud Insights, told Channel Futures that the new Oracle framework has promise for potential users.

Liftr Cloud Insights’ Paul Teich

“The OCNF, in theory, will let customers run and manage containerized apps across any on-premises server gear and any public cloud infrastructure-as-a-service instances using the freely accessible open-source OCNF,” said Teich. “Support still needs to be addressed in detail, but at face value this should be very interesting to channel partners.”

After an app has been ported to OCNF, customers will be able to manage their own orchestration or use managed services, even in on-premises deployments, he said.

“There are a lot of options here for channel partners to help manage customer private-cloud deployments, even on-prem. Unlike VM frameworks, OCNF is a true private-cloud solution.”

By using standard CNCF open-source platforms, Oracle is enabling the channel with many support options –not just Oracle – said Teich.

“There is no lock-in here. Oracle has a history of playing nicely with others in open source, and obviously hopes it will be engaged as an enterprise-class support organization and that channel partners and customers will choose to run OCNF in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure IaaS instances, but there will be many other options.”