Oracle and Microsoft team up in new cloud partnership

Rivals to make products more compatible as they face growing competition from new computing companies

Rivals Microsoft and Oracle are to team up on their cloud-based platforms as they face growing competition from new agile internet-based tech firms that sell cheaper services.

For years Microsoft and Oracle had been competing for the same customers, but the firms will now work together in order to make their existing products more compatible for companies that are looking to move their environments into the cloud.

In the companies' respective blogs, they said that Oracle software will be able to run on Microsoft's Server Hyper-V, which competes with VMWare and Citrix offerings, and on the Windows Azure cloud computing platform.

The move will enable Microsoft to offer Oracle's Java, Database and WebLogic Server to Windows Azure and Hyper-V customers. Oracle will also make Oracle Linux available to Windows Azure customers.

"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," Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, said in a statement.

Oracle's Mark Hurd added that the company is "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".

The deal is the second partnership with a rival that Oracle has made in the past week, the first being with cloud CRM company Salesforce.com.