Oracle is playing catch up in the cloud industry as it looks to achieve beyond its legacy in databases by building a fully-fledged public cloud platform and going toe to toe with the like of Amazon, Google, and Microsoft

FREMONT, CA: Computer Software Giant Oracle Corporation seeks to expand its cloud business and is in the process of hiring about 2,000 new employees to roll out its cloud services to more parts of the world. With over 800 vacancies in Seattle, the company seems to be pushing a significant chunk of its new employees to Seattle, which has been the centrepiece of the company's cloud operations. With this expansion, the company looks to compete with cloud market giants Amazon and Microsoft. The company has also listed 24 openings in Bellevue, Washington, a region Amazon has expanded in recently.

Currently, Oracle is playing catch up in the cloud industry as it looks to achieve beyond its legacy in databases by building a fully-fledged public cloud platform and going toe to toe with the like of Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Over the last few years, Seattle has grown to become the cloud capital of the U.S. due to the rapid growth of Amazon and Microsoft in the region. Google's new cloud campus in Seattle also played a significant role in the development of the area. 

Oracle began its expansion in the region two years ago when it leased a big chunk of downtown Seattle office space. The company also laid off hundreds of people from their cloud-focused Seattle office earlier this year, indicating the uphill climb that lies ahead. Surprisingly, the company also struck a cloud deal with long-time rival Microsoft. As part of the agreement, Oracle is setting up its data centres, as close as possible to Microsoft's. The aim is to link Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to Microsoft Azure as seamlessly as Oracle would connect two of its own data centres in the same region, allowing businesses to run different components of an application in concert across the Oracle and Microsoft clouds.

According to Don Johnson, Executive Vice President of Oracle's cloud infrastructure unit, the company will add people in Seattle, the San Francisco Bay Area, India and near new data centres. The company also looks to open 20 new additional cloud regions, areas having clusters of data centres, by the end of next year. The new cloud regions will be located in Chile, Japan, South Africa and the United Emirates along with other data centers throughout Europe, and Asia.

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