Oracle rolls out two more UK cloud regions

Cloud provider accelerates UK infrastructure expansion

Oracle is expanding its secure cloud for UK public sector organisations with the launch of an interconnected dual-region in London and Wales.

A second commercial cloud region in the UK, Oracle UK West, located in Newport, Wales, was also announced, adding to an existing cloud region in London.

Government Cloud

The database-giant-come-cloud provider launched the dedicated Government Cloud Region in 2017 to help public sector organisations move sensitive data to the cloud in accordance with National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) cloud security guidelines.

The Home Office, NHS BSA, Lambeth Borough Council and Croydon Council are among the UK public sector organisations that have since moved workloads to the security-focused cloud.

Oracle said its new dual-region, designed in collaboration with UK Government and Defence ministries, allows public sector organisations to deploy cloud services in multiple independent regions for disaster recovery, while also enabling them to host and store transactional data within the region — a central component of NCSC guidelines.

“We’ve had a Government Cloud Region in the UK for several years, but today’s announcement really unlocks a completely new potential for all of our customers across the UK to take advantage of Oracle’s second-generation Cloud,” said Richard Petley, senior vice president, Oracle UK and Israel.

“This is a completely unique offering to the UK government – no other cloud provider offers the sovereignty and performance we are announcing today. We’ll be working with all aspects of government – both local and central – to help them understand how they make use of the cloud to deliver better services and value to the UK taxpayer.”

Oracle opened eleven cloud regions in 2020 and currently operates 28 regions globally, including seven government regions and multiple dedicated regions for U.S. intelligence services. A cloud region typically consists of two or more data centres.