Cloud Watch: Oracle Steps In

You see, this was the week of Oracle OpenWorld, a prime venue for unveiling Oracle's own cloud strategy.

But first, the definition. As noted in Information Week, Ellison isn't that interested in a Salesforce.com Inc. type of cloud service. In fact, he derided Salesforce as "really just one or two applications on the Internet" applied with a "very weak security model." (Oracle is a Salesforce.com customer, by the way.)

What's a better cloud model, by his definition? The Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) from Amazon Web Services Inc. , a blank-slate platform for running standards-based applications. (Say, isn't EC2 on that list of finalists for this year's Leading Lights Awards? Why, yes, it just might be: See Light Reading's 2010 Leading Lights Finalists.)

The product Oracle launched this week is the Exalogic Elastic Cloud -- "one big honkin' cloud," as Computerworld headlined.

The system includes 30 servers driven by two six-core processors apiece, all meshed together via Infiniband. More Exalogic machines can be hooked in, which might be why it's scientifically not just big, but honkin'. Unlike EC2, it's meant to be the basis for private clouds within the firewall.

CTOs from the likes of IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) and Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) came to Washington, D.C., earlier this week. As reported in The Hill, the agenda included meeting with Obama Administration officials -- including the nation's CTO, Aneesh Chopra -- to talk about lessons learned in cloud computing. Separately, the group was to talk cybersecurity with a couple of Senators.

Elsewhere in the cloud:

— Craig Matsumoto, West Coast Editor, Light Reading