The new public cloud region will offer over 100 OCI services and applications, including Oracle Autonomous Database, MySQL Heatwave, OCI Data Science, Oracle Container Engine for Kubernetes, and Oracle Analytics. Credit: IDG As part of its ongoing strategy to expand its roster of public cloud regions and catch up with larger cloud service providers such as AWS, Microsoft and Google, Oracle has launched a new cloud region in Chicago to cater to enterprises operating out of the US Midwest. The Chicago region, which will be Oracle’s fourth public cloud region in the US and 41st globally, will primarily cater to manufacturing and financial services firms among other industries operating in that part of the country, said Leo Leung, vice president of products and strategy at Oracle. The Midwest region, according to Oracle, is home to more than 60% of all US manufacturing firms and houses the world’s largest financial derivatives exchange. “This is just going to give them (enterprise customers in the region) the capability of running their workloads closer to their headquarters versus other parts of the country,” Leung said, adding that the demand in the region is fueling the company’s growing bookings for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). CEO Safra Catz, during an earnings call for its quarter ended November, had said that the company had triple-digit bookings growth across its infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) services for the past two quarters and basis this growth, the company planned to invest $2.4 billion approximately every quarter for the next few quarters. The new region in Chicago will offer over 100 OCI services and applications, including Oracle Autonomous Database, MySQL Heatwave, OCI Data Science, Oracle Container Engine for Kubernetes, and Oracle Analytics, the company said. Oracle has three other regions in the US, situated in Ashburn, Virginia; San Jose, California; and Phoenix, Arizona. Globally, the company has a total of 55 cloud regions including national security regions. Nine new regions are currently being built, Catz had said during the earnings call, according to a transcript from Motley Fool. For the quarter ended November, the company’s total revenue grew 25% in constant currency, buoyed by revenue growth from its infrastructure and applications cloud businesses, which grew 59% and 45% respectively, in constant currency. Related content news Microsoft and Cognizant team up to boost enterprise Copilot adoption The companies hope to broaden enterprise adoption of generative AI by pairing Microsoft’s technology with Cognizant’s digital advisory services and customer base. By Sascha Brodsky Apr 24, 2024 6 mins Generative AI IT Consulting Services feature How CIOs align with CFOs to build RevOps Generative AI continues to blur the lines between IT and business, demanding a new breed of CIOs. So forward-thinking tech execs are upskilling in finance and building cross-functional relationships to bolster AI-driven revenue operations and corpora By Maria Korolov Apr 24, 2024 9 mins CFO CIO C-Suite case study A comparative assessment of digital transformation in Italy Italy’s AMA and Molteni are each pursuing ambitious digital transformation plans. But despite deploying a wide range of tech and AI-focused solutions, human oversight prevails, with the company CIOs prioritizing corporate culture during each st By Patrizia Licata Apr 24, 2024 8 mins CIO Business Intelligence Data Architecture feature What is a CTO? The exec who sets tech strategy The chief technology officer has emerged as a key player in the C-suite, as digital transformations become high strategic priorities for so many organizations. By Bob Violino Apr 24, 2024 10 mins CTO IT Leadership PODCASTS VIDEOS RESOURCES EVENTS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe