Amazon apparently planning to ditch Oracle 'within two years'

Oracle has been dealt another major blow by Amazon, following reports that the company is planning to complete its migration away from Oracle's database technology in less than two years.

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According to sources familiar with Amazon's plans who spoke to CNBC, the e-commerce titan is in the final stages of migrating its systems from Oracle's services to Amazon's own cloud infrastructure, and plans to be complete by Q1 2020.

Oracle has deflected the suggestion that one of its biggest and highest-profile customers may be about to jump ship, stating that Amazon's technology can't compete with Oracle's.

"Over the years Amazon has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on Oracle technology to run its business," an Oracle spokesperson said. "Around a year ago, Amazon spent another $60 million to acquire still more Oracle database and data analytics software."

"We don't believe that Amazon Web Services has any database technology that comes close to the capabilities of the Oracle database. That's why our biggest competitors like Salesforce.com, SAP, and Amazon continue to rely on the Oracle database to run their business."

While some may be surprised to learn that Amazon isn't solely reliant on AWS for its infrastructure needs, there are some parts of Amazon's e-commerce systems - which were set up prior to the launch of AWS - that still use Oracle databases.

According to sources, the driving factor behind the migration is the insufficient ability of traditional database technology to scale effectively. Amazon's infrastructure needs are both vast and rapidly-fluctuating, making cloud-based infrastructure better-suited to its needs.

While Oracle is quick to claim that its database technology is best-in-market, the company's growth has not matched these large claims. In fact, while Amazon has grown around 400% in the last five years to become the second most valuable public company in the world, Oracle's growth has remained flat, with its stock price up just 40% compared to half a decade ago.

Amazon could not be reached for comment.

Adam Shepherd has been a technology journalist since 2015, covering everything from cloud storage and security, to smartphones and servers. Over the course of his career, he’s seen the spread of 5G, the growing ubiquity of wireless devices, and the start of the connected revolution. He’s also been to more trade shows and technology conferences than he cares to count.

Adam is an avid follower of the latest hardware innovations, and he is never happier than when tinkering with complex network configurations, or exploring a new Linux distro. He was also previously a co-host on the ITPro Podcast, where he was often found ranting about his love of strange gadgets, his disdain for Windows Mobile, and everything in between.

You can find Adam tweeting about enterprise technology (or more often bad jokes) @AdamShepherUK.