Oracle on Windows Azure Pricing, Availability Announced

Microsoft (MSFT) quietly unveiled details on license-included Oracle (ORCL) virtual machines (VMs), building on a strategic partnership the two companies signed last summer.

In June 2013, Satya Nadella, then-president of server and tools, announced the longtime competitors were beginning to work together on both public and private cloud services. Through the partnership, Oracle was to certify and support its software on Windows Server Hyper-V and Windows Azure.

Nadella also noted: “In the near future, we will add infrastructure services instances with preconfigured versions of Oracle Database and Oracle WebLogic Server for customers who do not have Oracle licenses. Also, Oracle will enable customers to obtain and launch Oracle Linux images on Windows Azure.”

Looks like that near future has finally come to pass.

The general availability of Oracle software on Azure will begin March 12. Microsoft also launched a page on the Windows Azure website to provide a breakdown of general availability and pricing.

This will put an end to what has so far been a preview period for license-included Oracle VMs. During the preview, Microsoft charged customers only for the Windows Server VMs, but not for the Oracle software itself.

That changes as of March 12, and Microsoft has offered a pricing breakdown based on the availability of VM instances, number of virtual cores required and which Oracle software is to be included.