Larry Ellison says Oracle will 'write into your contract that your bill will be half' of what you'd pay Amazon, as the database giant announces new cloud products (ORCL)

Larry Ellison

Larry Ellison said Oracle is giving free access to its cloud and database platforms, and unveiled a new autonomous operating system.
Larry Ellison announced a new so-called autonomous operating system in a new initiative to challenge to Amazon Web Services, the leader in cloud computing — and took a jab at Amazon over its small role in the massive Capital One hack.
He also reaffirmed a guarantee that an Oracle cloud client's bill "will be half of an Amazon bill."
He also introduced a new program giving free access to the Oracle cloud.
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Oracle founder and chief technology officer Larry Ellison unleashed a new offensive against cloud rival Amazon Web Services, introducing a new autonomous operating system and a guarantee to Amazon clients that they would pay much less by using Oracle cloud.

"We will write into your contract that your bill will be half," Ellison said in his keynote at the Oracle OpenWorld event, which opened Monday in San Francisco.

It was the same promise Ellison made last year, that a "customer's bill will be half of an Amazon bill," a company spokesperson told Business Insider. "Just bring your bill."

A highlight of Ellison's speech was the unveiling of what it touted as the world's first autonomous operating system, that will automatically be maintained and updated and will not require manual management. This operating system is based on Linux, the free and open source operating system that's ubiqitious in server rooms and data centers around the world.

IDC President Crawford Del Prete told Business Insider said Oracle "needs excitement and developers on its platform."

"This is a smart way to bring development to the platform from enterprise customers who want to develop on Linux," he told Business Insider.

The announcement highlights a key theme of Oracle's strategy to expand its presence in the cloud, the creation of a new cloud model based on automation technology and AI. Last year, the company unveiled the Oracle Autonomous Database, which it said will not require any human-based management.

At this year's OpenWorld, Ellison took another jab at Amazon Web Services, quipping that Oracle's autonomous approach to the cloud might protect users from themselves — as in the case of Capital One, where user error allegedly allowed an attacker to breach an Amazon cloud server and steal personal information from millions of customers.

"No human labor. No human error. No data loss," Ellison said, in an apparent reference to the Capital One hack. "That's a big difference between us and AWS."

Ellison capped his presentation by announcing that Oracle is giving free access to its cloud infrastructure and autonomous database. This means, organizations, including developers, students and educators will be able to build networks and use application on the company's platform.

"This is our best stuff," Ellison said.

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