Unlocking Innovation: Why Your Next Oracle Database Should Run on Google Cloud

Borkur Steingrimsson -

A few weeks ago I visited the Google offices in London to get some hands-on experience with the new offering and partnership between Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). That visit prompted me to write down my thoughts and share with the curious reader.

What if you could combine the legendary power and reliability of Oracle databases with the cutting-edge AI, analytics, and infrastructure of Google Cloud? For years, this was the dream for many enterprises—a "best of both worlds" scenario that seemed just out of reach. That dream is now a reality.

The landmark Oracle Database@Google Cloud partnership has created a deeply integrated, first-class service that allows you to run your mission-critical Oracle workloads directly within Google Cloud. This isn't just about running a database on a virtual machine; it's a native, co-engineered solution that offers unparalleled performance, scalability, and access to innovation.

In this post, we'll explore both the strategic advantages of this partnership ("the why") and provide a high-level technical guide ("the how") to help you get started and experiment, even with free cloud accounts. Whether you're a Database Administrator, an IT Manager, a Cloud Architect, or a developer, this guide will show you why this is one of the most significant multicloud developments in years.

The "Why": Top Reasons to Run Oracle on Google Cloud

1. Unleash the Power of AI and Analytics

For too long, valuable data has been locked away in transactional Oracle systems, difficult to access for modern analytics and AI workloads. Oracle Database@Google Cloud shatters this barrier. With your Oracle database living inside a Google Cloud data center, you get a high-bandwidth, low-latency connection to Google's world-class data services.

  • Connect to BigQuery: Seamlessly move data between your Oracle database and BigQuery, Google's serverless data warehouse. This allows you to run complex analytical queries on massive datasets without impacting the performance of your production OLTP database.
  • Leverage Vertex AI: Feed your real-time Oracle data directly into Google's Vertex AI platform. Imagine training machine learning models to predict customer churn based on live transactional data or building generative AI applications that use your company's proprietary data to provide intelligent insights. The possibilities are transformative.

2. A True Multicloud Experience, Simplified

This partnership redefines what a multicloud experience should be. The Oracle database services run on OCI hardware that is physically located inside Google Cloud data centres.

  • Unified Management and Billing: You can provision, manage, and monitor your Oracle databases directly from the Google Cloud Console. The service is available on the Google Cloud Marketplace, meaning you can use your existing Google Cloud commitments and receive a single, unified bill. This dramatically simplifies procurement and financial management.
  • Low-Latency Performance: Because the infrastructure is co-located, the latency between your applications running on Google Compute Engine or GKE and your Oracle database is extremely low (sub-2ms). This ensures your applications run with the performance they need, without the network overhead often associated with other multicloud setups.

3. Modernise and Accelerate Your Applications

This solution provides a clear and powerful path for application modernization. You can keep your database—the core of your critical applications—on the platform you trust, while modernising the application tier with Google Cloud's flexible and scalable services.

  • Lift and Modernise: Migrate mission-critical Oracle applications like Oracle E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, or JD Edwards to Google Cloud with minimal changes to the database layer. You can then incrementally modernize the application components using containers on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) or serverless functions.
  • High Availability and Reliability: Leverage proven Oracle technologies like Real Application Clusters (RAC) and Data Guard, combined with the resilience of Google Cloud's global infrastructure, to achieve the highest levels of availability for your most important workloads.

4. Maximise Your Existing Investments

Moving to the cloud shouldn't mean abandoning your existing investments in licenses and skills.

  • Bring Your Own License (BYOL): The service fully supports a BYOL model, allowing you to leverage your existing Oracle Database license investments and get more value from them.
  • Utilise Existing Skills: Your team of experienced Oracle DBAs can continue to use the tools and skills they've developed over years. The core database management experience remains consistent, eliminating the need for extensive retraining and ensuring a smooth transition.

The "How": Your First Steps with Oracle on Google Cloud

Getting Started for Free: A Hands-On Lab

One of the best parts of this offering is that you can experiment with it at little to no cost, thanks to the generous free tiers from both Google and Oracle.

  • Google Cloud Free Tier: New customers receive a $300 free credit to use over 90 days. This is more than enough to spin up a small Compute Engine e2-micro VM to act as a client machine for connecting to your Oracle database.
  • Oracle Cloud Free Tier: Oracle provides an impressive "Always Free" offering that includes two Autonomous Databases. These are fully managed, self-patching, and self-tuning databases that are perfect for development, testing, and building a proof-of-concept.

Step-by-Step Technical Guide

Here is a high-level overview of the process to get you up and running.

Step 1: Account Setup First, you'll need to sign up for a free tier account with both providers.

  • Sign up for Google Cloud here.
  • Sign up for Oracle Cloud Free Tier here.

Step 2: Onboarding via Google Cloud Marketplace From within the Google Cloud Console, navigate to the Marketplace and search for "Oracle Database@Google Cloud." You will subscribe to the service and follow a guided workflow to link your Google Cloud project with your Oracle Cloud account.

Step 3: Provisioning Your First Autonomous Database Once linked, you can create a database directly from the Google Cloud console. You will be prompted to provide key configuration details:

  • Database Name & Display Name: To easily identify your instance.
  • Region Selection: Choose the Google Cloud region where you want the database to reside.
  • Database Version: Select from available versions like 19c or 23ai.
  • Workload Type: Choose "Transaction Processing" for OLTP applications or "Data Warehouse" for analytics.
  • ADMIN Password: Set a secure password for the main database administrator account.

Step 4: Configuring Network Connectivity The onboarding process helps establish a secure, private network connection (via VPC Peering) between your Google Cloud environment and the underlying OCI network where your database runs. You will need to configure firewall rules to allow traffic from your client VM to the database.

Step 5: Connecting and Running a Query From the database details page in the Google Cloud console, you can download the client credentials wallet. This wallet contains the security certificates and connection information needed to connect. You can then install an Oracle client on your Compute Engine VM, configure it with the wallet, and connect using a tool like SQL*Plus to run your first query: SELECT count(*) FROM ALL_OBJECTS;

Or you simply want to run a command, using the gcloud CLI?

export ADB_ID=adb-oracle
export PROJECT_ID=snooty-fox-123456-a1
export GCP_REGION=europe-west2
export VPC_NETWORK_ID=ora-vpc
export CIDR=172.17.201.0/24
export ADB_PW=MyV0icePa55w0rd
export VPC_SUBNET_ID=lon-subnet-1


gcloud oracle-database autonomous-databases create $ADB_ID \
--project=$PROJECT_ID \
--location=$GCP_REGION \
--database=$ADB_ID \
--display-name=$ADB_ID \
--network=projects/$PROJECT_ID/global/networks/$VPC_NETWORK_ID \
--cidr=$CIDR \
--admin-password=$ADB_PW \
--properties-license-type=LICENSE_INCLUDED \
--properties-compute-count=2 \
--properties-db-version=23ai \
--properties-db-workload=OLTP \
--properties-backup-retention-period-days=1 \
--properties-data-storage-size-gb=20 \
--properties-is-storage-auto-scaling-enabled \
--async

gcloud cli to create an autonomous database in GCP

Conclusion

Oracle Database@Google Cloud is more than just a partnership; it's a powerful, integrated solution that solves real-world challenges for enterprises. It allows you to protect and extend your investment in Oracle while simultaneously unlocking the vast potential of Google Cloud's leadership in data, AI, and infrastructure.

The best way to understand the power of this combination is to try it yourself. With the free tiers available, there has never been a better time to experiment.

  • Ready to start your journey? Follow the steps in this guide to build your own proof-of-concept.
  • Need expert guidance? Contact us today to learn how we can help you design, migrate, and manage your Oracle workloads on Google Cloud.
  • Want to learn more? Check out the official Google Cloud and Oracle documentation.