Inside Oracle's cloud transformation journey, D&I and more: CIO Jae Evans

Last week, Oracle hit a significant milestone by partnering with its rival, Amazon Web Services (AWS), to integrate its database services into the cloud giant, making it easier for customers to transition to the cloud. Meanwhile, the company's approach to moving its infrastructure and applications to the cloud is truly remarkable. In an exclusive interaction with Jae Evans, Chief Information Officer (CIO) and executive vice president (EVP) at Oracle, who spearheaded the company's cloud transformation, elaborates on Oracle's cloud migration efforts, advocating for diversity and inclusion (D&I) while sharing her passion for team sports that keep her motivated.

The Cloud Transformation journey

Evans joined Oracle in 2020 as CIO, after overseeing infrastructure engineering and operations at Walmart for five years. During her initial two years as Oracle's CIO, Evans focused on transitioning a diverse array of infrastructure and applications, acquired over time, to the company's second-generation Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), the vendor's cloud platform offering a variety of services to build and run applications and services.

Overseeing a new IT department at the tech giant was particularly complex at the time, Evans said, as she took on the responsibility of moving Oracle's internal data center-based services to its cloud-computing platform.

"We had a lot of disparate infrastructure and applications. Often, we lacked clarity regarding the locations and quantities of our resources. Therefore, our initial step involved dedicating time to comprehensively assess this landscape, compile an inventory, and establish a single source of truth," she said.

Evans already had experience in cloud migration during her previous role, where her team managed in-store infrastructure and e-commerce for the retail giant's global operations. This included developing a private cloud capable of scaling with Walmart's needs and modernizing legacy systems to support the growth of its physical stores while addressing the demands of peak shopping periods.

"Even though retail and tech companies operate differently, I can leverage my experience from Walmart's scale to Oracle's scale," she said.
At Oracle, with thousands of applications under her supervision, Evans faced the challenge of determining which applications were essential. "We had some 'shadow teams,' and the IT department discovered instances where multiple applications had been developed by different business units for similar purposes.

To effectively integrate these shadow teams, we focused on developing standardized practices and tools, including implementing Oracle cloud operations and security standards and establishing measurable key performance indicators.

"We established a central repository for our assets, and once we gained clarity on their usage—some applications were even found to be unused—we were able to achieve a level of transparency during the migration process," Evans noted.

Additionally, her team identified that a considerable portion of the provisioned infrastructure was underutilized. By adopting a 'lift-and-improve' strategy for migrating its infrastructure to OCI, Oracle successfully minimized waste and enhanced infrastructure efficiency, leading to significant cost savings.

This platform was meticulously designed from the ground up, incorporating advanced automation and security features. By utilizing a suite of native tools within OCI, we successfully migrated our historically on-premises assets, which had suffered from significant infrastructure sprawl to the cloud, she said.

"More importantly, we achieved a remarkable increase in the speed of provisioning workloads compared to our previous on-premises capabilities, thanks to automation and creating a reference architecture to move those workloads in a repeatable manner," she continued.
Apart from being Oracle's CIO, Evans also oversees platform services for OCI, with her experience deploying OCI services leading to product improvements. 

Championing D&I in the workplace

In addition to her professional accomplishments, Jae is committed to advancing D&I in the workplace. "As a leader, one of your most important responsibilities is developing the next generation of leaders. Hence, purposeful mentor and sponsor relationships are crucial to shaping the employee experience," said Evans, whose passion for fostering diversity and inclusion extends to her role as a member of Oracle's Executive Diversity and Inclusion Council as she also actively supports numerous initiatives focused on Asian Leadership and Women in Technology.

An avid participant and dedicated member of team sports, including volleyball and basketball, Evans believes that these activities have consistently provided her with essential support, describing them as a means to relax, de-stress, and develop leadership skills.
Looking to the future, Oracle's CIO said, we have already entered the 'multicloud era,' which is poised to be significant as organizations increasingly consider migrating essential infrastructure to the cloud. Evans expressed optimism regarding generative AI; however, she emphasized that the effectiveness of such technology is contingent upon the quality of the data utilized in the model.

“It is crucial to maintain human oversight and possess a comprehensive understanding of the sources and quality of your data. Collaborating with a provider that delivers a robust data management platform—encompassing curation, analytics, and security—enables organizations to leverage this technology with confidence,” she said.
Her advice to CIOs is that they should deploy technology only after determining the real, demonstrable business benefits that will yield results.

(The author was attending OracleWorld 2024 in Las Vegas, U.S. at the invitation of Oracle)