Run applications on Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure

Introduction

Microsoft® and Oracle®  have worked together to enable customers to deploy Oracle applications such as Oracle E-Business Suite&®, JD Edwards®, EnterpriseOne, and PeopleSoft® in the cloud.

You can use the direct interconnect between Azure ExpressRoute® and Oracle FastConnect to establish high-bandwidth, private, and low-latency connections between the application and the database layer. This connection enables you to run Oracle  Applications in Azure infrastructure, connected to backend databases in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI).

You can also integrate Oracle applications with Azure Active Directory to set up single-sign-on to log in to Oracle application by using your Azure Active Directory (AD) credentials. With this integration, you can take advantage of the
best of both clouds. Microsoft and Oracle have tested Oracle Applications on a multicloud architecture and confirmed that the performance meets standards set by Oracle for Oracle Apps.

OCI FastConnect

OCI FastConnect is a network connectivity alternative for using the public Internet to connect your network to OCI and other Oracle Cloud services. FastConnect provides an easy, elastic, and economical way to create a dedicated and private connection with higher bandwidth options and a more reliable and consistent networking experience when compared to the internet-based connections.

 Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute

According to Beringer Technology Group, ExpressRoute lets you extend your on-premises networks into the Microsoft cloud
over a private connection facilitated by a connectivity provider. With ExpressRoute, you can establish connections to Microsoft cloud services, such as Azure and Office 365. Connectivity can be from any-to-any (IPVPN) network, a point-to-point
Ethernet network, or a virtual cross-connection through a connectivity provider at a co-location facility. ExpressRoute  connections do not go over the public Internet.

Microsoft Azure to Oracle Cloud connection

You can connect a Microsoft Azure virtual network (VNet) with an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure virtual cloud network (VCN) and run Oracle E-Business Suite with an Application Tier on the Microsoft Azure and a Database Tier on the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. This blog post sets up a direct back-to-back connection between the two cloud platforms in the US East Region. You can use this one-time setup to connect multiple compute resources between the two cloud platforms. The connection between the two clouds is a private connection with no exposure to the Internet. Also, you don't need an intermediate service provider to enable the connection. After you set up the connection, you can install and configure Oracle E-Business Suite on the computer instances used during the setup. The following image depicts the Oracle E-Business Suite cross-cloud architecture

Image source 

Connection setup

Use the following steps to connect Microsoft Azure and OCI by using Azure
ExpressConnect and OCI FastConnect.

1. Log in to the Azure Portal and create a virtual network with a subnet.

2. Create a virtual network gateway. When enabled, FastPath sends network traffic directly to virtual machines in the virtual network, bypassing the gateway.

   a. For Gateway Type, select ExpressRoute.

   b. For SKU, select Ultra Performance or ErGw3AZ to enable FastPath.

3. Create an ExpressRoute circuit.

   a. For Provider, select Oracle Cloud FastConnect.

   b.  For Peering Location, select Washington DC.

   c. Select 1Gbps for Bandwidth to match the configuration on the FastConnect.

4. Create a Virtual Machine.

5. Verify the ExpressRoute deployment.

6. Log in to Oracle Cloud. Create a Virtual Cloud Network. When creating the VCN,    ensure that the IP address space in the OCI virtual cloud network does not overlap with the Azure virtual network's private IP address space. Create a regional Subnet and select defaults for Route Table and Security List.

7. Create a FastConnect connection and select Microsoft Azure: ExpressRoute as the PROVIDER and copy the Service Key from Azure ExpressRoute for the PROVIDER SERVICE KEY.

8. Create a compute instance.

9. Create a network security group to allow SSH or ping from Azure VNet to the    OCI compute instance. Then, assign the network security group to the compute instance that you created previously.

   a. Verify that the FastConnect connection state is Provisioned.

   b. Verify that the Azure ExpressRoute provider status is Provisioned and the peerings display.

   c. Test the connection by using SSH from the OCI server to the Azure server.

   d. Verify the connection from the other side by pinging the OCI server from the Azure server.

Conclusion 

The post gives an overview of the connection setup from Microsoft Azure to OCI. After you establish the connection, you can use the compute instance provisioned on both clouds to install Oracle E-Business Suite or other Oracle-related products,
with application services running on the Azure Cloud and database services running on Oracle Cloud.