Microsoft today announced that it has partnered with Oracle. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Now our customers will be able to take advantage of the flexibility our unique hybrid cloud solutions offer for their Oracle applications, middleware and databases, just like they have been able to do on Windows Server for years.

– Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft.

Very recently, Microsoft also partnered with Skype to enable the Lync-Skype connectivity.

As per the official blog post, the key elements of partnership are:

Customers can now run supported Oracle software – including Java, Oracle Database and Oracle WebLogic Server – on Windows Server Hyper-V and in Windows Azure.

Oracle now provides license mobility for customers who want to run Oracle software on Windows Azure.

Microsoft will now add Infrastructure Services instances with popular configurations of Oracle software including Java, Oracle Database and Oracle WebLogic Server to the Windows Azure image gallery.

Microsoft will offer fully licensed and supported Java in Windows Azure.

Oracle will offer Oracle Linux, with a variety of Oracle software, as preconfigured instances on Windows Azure.

The partnership is especially beneficial for Java developers, IT professionals and businesses who can now will benefit from the flexibility to deploy fully supported Oracle software to Windows Server Hyper-V and Windows Azure.

Oracle Support policies as they apply to Oracle software running in Windows Azure or on Windows Server Hyper-V are covered in two My Oracle Support (MOS) notes which are shown below:

“Microsoft is deeply committed to giving businesses what they need, and clearly that is the ability to run enterprise workloads in private clouds, public clouds and, increasingly, across both,” said Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft.

“Now our customers will be able to take advantage of the flexibility our unique hybrid cloud solutions offer for their Oracle applications, middleware and databases, just like they have been able to do on Windows Server for years,” he added.

“Our customers’ IT environments are changing rapidly to meet the dynamic nature of the world today,” said Mark Hurd, President, Oracle.

“At Oracle, we are committed to providing greater choice and flexibility to customers by providing multiple deployment options for our software, including on-premises, as well as public, private, and hybrid clouds. This collaboration with Microsoft extends our partnership and is important for the benefit of our customers,” he added.

For more information on Oracle software licensing in Windows Azure, click here.