Amazon is preparing to ditch Oracle’s database services as tensions between the two companies keep growing, The Information reported Tuesday, citing people familiar with the development. While Amazon is said to have been deliberating the possibility of moving away from Oracle’s offerings since the turn of the century, the company is now understood to be close to doing so on a large scale, having already managed to transition two of its databases to open-source NoSQL solutions, according to the report. The platforms affected by the change are the ones categorized as Amazon’s critical systems and handle data such as customer names and order histories, as well as email and shipping addresses, indicating that the e-commerce giant is already in the process of making a serious shift from Oracle’s software.
The Redwood City, California-based firm remains adamant its prospects remain good and has been aggressive in its efforts to communicate that notion to investors to the point that it may have prompted a legal clash with Amazon. During its earnings call held last month, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison revealed Amazon spent $50 million on its technologies in the third quarter of 2017 in response to one analyst who was questioning the sustainability of its database business. The answer reportedly led Amazon’s representatives to file a breach of contract notice as the details of its dealings with Oracle shouldn’t have been publicized, one insider claims.
In the meantime, cloud computing company Salesforce is also said to be investigating the possibility of moving away from Oracle’s database software but is understood to be much further away from being able to do so on a scale, as per the same report. Regardless, its first internal attempt to partially shift to another service may be close, though it supposedly opted for an opposite approach compared to the one employed by Amazon; instead of looking for an open-source database software alternative, it developed its own, having supposedly code-named it “Sayonara,” which stands for “goodbye” in Japanese. Oracle’s database solutions are widely considered to be the most advanced but also by far the most expensive offerings of their kind, with the company also having a reputation for enforcing them in an extremely vigorous manner, often sending on-site inspections probing whether their clients are violating their complex and constantly changing licensing terms. Due to that state of affairs, the main motivation for its clients to switch is cutting costs as not even some of the richest corporations on the planets appear to be satisfied with their database software licensing bills.