Oracle Plans FedRAMP Class D Certification for Multicloud AI Database

What Oracle plans to certify

According to Oracle, the planned certification will cover regulated Oracle AI Database workloads that use Oracle Exadata Database Service on Dedicated Exadata Infrastructure. The services would run in AWS GovCloud (US), Microsoft Azure Government and Google Cloud Assured Workloads.

Oracle said FedRAMP Class D certification across its cloud partners is expected to help customers that serve US government and public sector organizations use FedRAMP certification packages in their own authorization and risk management processes. The plan builds on the existing FedRAMP-certified government environments of each cloud provider. In Oracle's words, that gives organizations a certified Oracle database service on cloud infrastructure they already trust.

The announcement describes plans and expectations. Oracle's own disclaimer states that the release is not a commitment to deliver any functionality and that development, release, timing and pricing may change at the company's discretion.

AI access to live data inside the certified environment

Oracle said that by running its databases on Dedicated Exadata Infrastructure inside a preferred cloud, organizations will be able to bring data closer to existing applications and AI services. They would not have to manage a separate environment or billing account.

AI models in that environment will be able to access live Oracle data with minimal delay, according to Oracle. The company said this lets organizations take greater advantage of AI while keeping data within FedRAMP Class D Certified Services.

Oracle also pitched the multicloud approach as a modernization route. Organizations can migrate on-premises Oracle databases to their preferred cloud with minimal application changes, combining Exadata performance and scalability with AI services from the cloud provider. They can also keep architectural consistency with existing Oracle AI Database deployments.

Customers will be able to buy the services through the respective cloud marketplaces or qualified channel partners. Oracle said this should simplify procurement, provide a unified customer experience and support model, and let organizations use Oracle license benefits and existing cloud investments.

Comments from Oracle and its cloud partners

Nathan Thomas, senior vice president of product management at Oracle, said that stringent compliance requirements have limited many government and public sector organizations in using the cloud. He said Oracle is working to remove those barriers.

G2 Krishnamoorthy, vice president of Database Services at AWS, said Oracle AI Database@AWS on AWS GovCloud (US) is built to support FedRAMP High and Impact Levels 4 and 5. He added that it lets customers deploy across multiple AWS Availability Zones for high availability and Regions for disaster recovery, and that customers can use services such as Amazon Bedrock.

Brett Tanzer, vice president of Azure Product Management at Microsoft, said expanding the services to Azure Government will give joint customers more flexibility to modernize mission-critical workloads and to use their data with Microsoft AI and analytics services.

Raj Pai, vice president of product management for Databases at Google Cloud, pointed to Oracle AI Database Agent for Gemini Enterprise and Gemini Enterprise Connector for Oracle AI Database@Google Cloud. He said these show how intelligent agents can make data more accessible through natural language.

What it means for public sector customers

For agencies and contractors with FedRAMP requirements, the plan points to a way to keep Oracle databases on the government regions of the three large cloud providers while using those providers' AI services. The benefit depends on Oracle completing the certification, as the announcement describes only intended steps and expected outcomes. No timeline or pricing was given in the release.