ORACLE
ORACLE CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE (OCI) ARCHITECTURE
TECHNICAL MEMORANDUM
Global Engineering & Infrastructure Operations
TO:
OCI Engineering, Enterprise Solutions Architecture, and Global Data Center Operations
FROM:
O
ffi
ce of the Chief Technology O
ffi
cer & Executive VP, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
DATE:
September 18, 2026
SUBJECT:
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Policy & Architecture Directive
1. PURPOSE & STRATEGIC VISION
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is architected as an enterprise-
fi
rst, Gen 2 hyperscale platform engineered to run
mission-critical transactional databases, complex enterprise applications, and cutting-edge arti
fi
cial intelligence
training clusters. Unlike legacy cloud platforms built on oversubscribed shared virtualization networks, OCI
emphasizes deterministic performance, native bare-metal isolation, and cost-effective interconnectivity.
This policy directive de
fi
nes operational standards, architectural requirements, and compliance baselines governing
current global datacenter expansions, AI supercluster deployments, and multicloud interoperability initiatives.
2. CORE ARCHITECTURAL PILLARS OF GEN 2 INFRASTRUCTURE
All OCI engineering squads, infrastructure teams, and regional datacenter builds must conform to three core design
imperatives:
Off-Box Virtualization & Bare-Metal Isolation:
Storage and network virtualization overhead is entirely o
ffl
oaded
from compute host CPUs onto dedicated smart network interface cards (SmartNICs). This guarantees zero
hypervisor overhead, prevents noisy-neighbor resource contention, and prevents lateral tenant traversal attacks.
Non-Blocking Flat Network Fabric:
OCI data centers implement ultra-dense Clos network topologies with RoCEv2
(RDMA over Converged Ethernet). This guarantees predictable low latency (under 2 microseconds) and massive
bi-directional bandwidth critical for high-throughput AI workloads and Oracle Exadata clusters.
Uniform Global Pricing Model:
Compute, storage, and networking instances maintain identical list pricing across
all sovereign regions worldwide, providing transparent total cost of ownership (TCO) without punitive cross-
regional billing penalties.
Architectural Principle:
Security and isolation are foundational, not optional add-ons. By separating customer
workloads from platform control planes using custom hardware isolation, OCI delivers zero-trust network
segmentation by default.
3. DISTRIBUTED & SOVEREIGN CLOUD STRATEGY
To meet complex data residency and national security mandates, OCI standardizes identical software capabilities
across public cloud regions, Dedicated Regions (in-customer data center deployments), and Sovereign Cloud
enclaves across the European Union and authorized global government zones.
Oracle Corporation
—
Con
fi
dential Internal Technical Policy
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