Oracle Deal Adds Data Tools to its Cloud Services

Oracle moved this week to expand its portfolio of data tools and libraries with the acquisition of DataScience.com, developers of a collaboration platform that connects with popular workflows and cloud infrastructure.

Oracle said Wednesday (May 16) the addition of the Los Angeles-area data science startup would help boost utilization of machine learning on Oracle Cloud.

“Every organization is now exploring data science and machine learning as a key way to proactively develop competitive advantage, but the lack of comprehensive tooling and integrated machine learning capabilities can cause these projects to fall short,” said Amit Zavery, executive vice president of Oracle Cloud Platform. The acquisition “will harness a single data science platform to more effectively leverage machine learning and big data for predictive analysis and improved business results,” Zavery added.

The DataScience.com platform was designed to overcome “barriers to deploying valuable machine learning models in production,” added DataScience.com CEO Ian Swanson. The platform is used to access data and computing resources as well as to execute model development workflows. Current DataScience.com customers include biopharmaceutical developer Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN) and home audio specialist Sonos.

Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) said the acquisition would deliver a data science platform that leverages Oracle’s cloud infrastructure along with software and platform services increasingly aimed at machine learning.

The acquisition also reinforces Oracle’s platform services push unveiled in late March that includes automated data services designed, for example, to accelerate application development. In an effort to differentiate its cloud services from market leader Amazon Web Services (NASDAQ: AMZN) and other public cloud vendors, Oracle is promoting services such as machine learning tools that can, for example, automatically track event logs, detect a database intrusion and automatically patch itself to prevent system downtime.

Oracle has lately been emphasizing platform services and automation as ways of cutting costs associated with the labor-intensive management of databases. Automation also helps reduce costs by eliminating human error while boosting reliability and availability, the company asserts.

Terms of the DataScience.com deal were not disclosed.

DataScience.com, Culver City, Calif., was founded in 2014 by Swanson, Colin Schmidt and Jonathan Beckhardt.

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