How Microsoft's new cloud migration service takes a swing at Oracle

Dive Brief:

Microsoft introduced a new database migration service to help companies migrate Oracle databases or Microsoft SQL Server databases to Microsoft Azure, the company announced during its Build 2017 developer conference Wednesday, Business Insider reports.
The new service "seamlessly migrates third-party and SQL Server databases into Azure SQL Database with near-zero application downtime," wrote Scott Guthrie, executive vice president, cloud and enterprise group, Microsoft, in a blog. The service is currently in early preview.
Microsoft also introduced Azure Database for MySQL and Azure Database for PostgreSQL options in Azure to allow Azure cloud to work better with those databases, Business Insider reports.

Dive Insight:

Two years ago, Amazon introduced Amazon Database Migration Service, a database migration service, designed to help businesses move away from Oracle and into the Amazon Web Services cloud, according to Business Insider. The service was a hit with companies looking to move to the cloud but unsure how to do it. Migrating existing technology, like databases, can be tricky, hence these migration services.

It's a good time for Microsoft to launch a similar attack against Oracle. Oracle has dominated the database arena for years, but recently its hold on the market has slipped. A lot of it has to do with vendor lock-in.

With technologies evolving so rapidly, businesses are less interested in committing to one company or one technology for a long period of time. Microsoft's SQL Server and open-source PostgreSQL have both been growing, while Oracle's hold on the market has slipped, according to data gathered by Tech Republic.

Seeing the writing on the wall, Oracle has been working to build its own cloud services, targeting AWS specifically, but has yet to come close to threatening the big cloud providers.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has seen an upswing with Azure. Microsoft Azure grew 93% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2017, according to Microsoft financial reports released in early May.