Oracle confirms Mexico datacenter, private network projects

Mexico will be Oracle's next cloud region (datacenter services cluster) in Latin America, with a datacenter in Querétaro set to be activated next year, company executives said in a press conference.

“I can't specify the date yet, but, yes, in 2022 we will start operating with the datacenter in Mexico,” Marcos Pupo, Oracle's senior cloud VP for Latin America, said in a reply to a question from BNamericas.

In addition to Mexico, Oracle has datacenter plans for other countries in Latin America, according to Rodrigo Galvão, head of Oracle for Latin America.

The company currently has three cloud regions in Latin America: two in Brazil and one in Chile, the latter being activated in 2020.

The second cloud region in Brazil was opened last May, with a datacenter in Vinhedo in São Paulo state adding to a separate region in the state.

Oracle opened 12 cloud regions globally in 2020 and currently operates 36 regions around the world.

The company reports having over 3,500 cloud customers and 16,000 in total in Latin America (including cloud and on-premise clients). Furthermore, around 60% of the top corporate databases in Latin America run on Oracle systems, according to the firm's executives.

Worldwide, Oracle claims to have more than 400,000 clients. More than half of the company's revenue globally now come from cloud deliveries. 

PRIVATE NETWORKS

The US tech giant is also in discussions with telcos for 5G private network projects with edge computing for Latin American industries. 

The announcement of a specific project is expected to be made soon.

“There are things I still can't announce because they're not public. But we're looking at the issue of private networks and working very closely with all telecom companies,” Galvão said.

Oracle's role in the private network ecosystem involves providing network datacenter services for these projects through its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) platform, which Galvão claims is adapted to the protocols and standards of 5G networks.

The company's main cloud competitor and the world's leading public cloud provider, AWS, is also in talks with different industry verticals in Brazil, especially mining firms, about deployment of edge computing services within the scope of private networks.

Oracle wants to advance in the digital transformation segment with integrated and end-to-end projects for companies. For this, it created a new structure in Latin America specifically focused on the topic.

The new unit, according to Galvão, brings together teams that previously worked separately on their cloud, on-premise and applications projects.

"Now we've put it all together in this single go-to-market approach for the industry, the main objective of which is to accelerate the digital transformation of companies," Galvão said.