Oracle’s announcement of a new free virtual server solution is, at the very least, an extension of those magazine ads that offered greater uptime by running Oracle on top of Linux (the Oracle Unbreakable Linux campaign).

It has been said that Oracle’s main interest in Linux, and Linux support, is to facilitate the hosting of Oracle’s proprietary products. (Oh, and if that cuts Microsoft out of the picture so that customers can spend more with Oracle so much the better!)

The Portable Consultant, whose present work happens to involve infrastructure design including database hosting options, agrees.

Oracle’s VM announcement seems to align with this approach: when hosting Oracle products, consider using Oracle-supported Linux and (New!) Oracle VM.

Whether Oracle’s free VM will challenge VMware in all its roles remains to be seen. My guess it that it is aimed primarily at hosting Oracle products and that is where Oracle development and support will focus.

Cheers,
-pmh