Oracle, Microsoft Strike Deal to Make Core Software Work Easily Together

Oracle and Microsoft agreed to allow pieces of Oracle's business software to more closely mesh with Microsoft's software and online services.

The technology alliance suggests the often-warring tech giants will work to ensure that Oracle databases and other software will be able to function on two Microsoft services that power the server backbones of corporate computing networks. The agreement means Oracle and Microsoft would act as partners as well as competitors in providing software tools that big companies use to analyze their lists of customers and other massive piles of information. The partnership is designed to allow companies to run key Oracle software on Windows Server Hyper-V—"virtualization" software that magnifies the power of a single computer server—and also on Windows Azure, a Microsoft service that lets companies rent shared server computing horsepower.