In an Oracle CloudWorld keynote, the Oracle founder and CTO also held up the company’s new alliance with Amazon Web Services as the start of the “open multi-cloud era.”

Oracle’s next-generation network security technology, which leverages AI and biometric authentication to thwart cyber threats, is now available in the Oracle Cloud, Oracle founder, chairman and CTO Larry Ellison told Oracle CloudWorld attendees in a keynote speech Tuesday.

Ellison’s news of the availability of the Oracle Gen2 Cloud Network + ZPR software came during a broader segment of his keynote in which he described how AI technology is being used to improve data, application and network security and will change today’s password-centric user identity security practices.

Ellison also devoted part of his hour-plus keynote to touting the benefits of the new partnership with Amazon Web Services, unveiled Monday, through which Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, the Oracle database and other technologies will be integrated with – and even embedded within – AWS systems.

[Related: As Oracle Inks Partnerships With OpenAI, Google Cloud, CTO Ellison Says ‘We Should Be Interconnected To Everybody’]

“If we’re going to do a really good job of defending our networks, defending our computer systems and stopping data theft, preventing identity theft, all of those things, we need to exploit the most advanced technologies to defend ourselves. And those advanced technologies are artificial intelligence,” Ellison said.

Oracle has been talking about its planned use of ZPR (zero trust packet routing), a new standard for network and data security, since Oracle CloudWorld in September 2023. Tuesday Ellison said the Oracle Gen2 Cloud Network + ZPR Software is now available as part of the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI).

The ZPR technology was developed by Applied Invention. Ellison explained that ZPR essentially separates network configuration from network security and uses autonomous robots to do packet inspection and authorize data paths across networks, allowing only permitted users to access specific services.

The system also uses AI-driven code generation techniques in software to enforce ZPR rules while AI-based biometric user identity tools also play a role.

Ellison predicted that biometric databases will also revolutionize identity security for everything from IT systems to credit cards and will eventually replace passwords. “The idea that we use passwords is a ridiculous idea. It’s obsolete. It’s very dangerous,” he said.

The Oracle founder added that starting about a year from now biometrics will replace the use of passwords within Oracle. “That option is going to be gone inside of Oracle,” he said.

Ellison said AI-based automated capabilities within the Oracle Autonomous Database will improve data security by “getting rid of human errors that allow people to steal your data.” He said that in 2025 Oracle will require that all Oracle applications running on older versions of the company’s database be moved to the Oracle Autonomous Database.

And Ellison said AI-powered code generators in Oracle APEX, the company’s low-code application development platform, improve application security by reducing the number of security vulnerabilities that are introduced into applications by human developers. “We don’t generate security vulnerabilities,” Ellison said of APEX. “You’re more productive and you’re more secure.”

“All of these AI technologies give us a chance to win the cyber wars,” Ellison said. “If you’re worried about cyber criminals and you think they pose a threat, wait till you look at the capabilities of nation states who can shut down utilities, entire utilities, in an unfriendly moment. We need to make sure that our digital systems, our digital infrastructure, is much more secure than it is today. And we have the technology to do it.”

Cloud Computing Evolution

Ellison devoted much of the first half of his keynote to talking up the new Oracle-AWS alliance and how it ushers in a new “open, multi-cloud era.”

The Oracle executive said the advent of cloud computing created islands of cloud platforms and cloud applications that did not work well together. But Ellison said the industry is “entering a new phase” in cloud computing.

“Now, as we’re well into the cloud era, we’re entering a new phase where services on different clouds work gracefully together. The clouds are becoming open. They’re no longer walled gardens. Customers will have choices and can use multiple clouds together,” he said.

Under the partnership with AWS Oracle technology, including Oracle OCI, the Oracle 23ai database and Oracle Exadata systems, will run within AWS data centers, starting late this year in an AWS facility in Virginia. That will allow customers’ applications to tap into services from multiple clouds.

AWS CEO Matt Garman joined Ellison on stage and talked up the benefits of the relationship. The CEO noted that many customers run workloads on the AWS platform because of its “security and scalability,” but they also want to use their Oracle database and applications. He also saw the Oracle-AWS alliance as helping customers accelerate their move to cloud computing.

“Customers are just super excited about being able to bring these together,” Garman said. “It also speeds that migration. A lot of customers want to move to the cloud and the more we can make it easy for them to use the components and the applications that they love, and that they use as part of their operating environment, and make it easy to migrate those without having to change those out, the faster many of these customers can go on that modernization journey and get out of their own data centers.”

Catz Spotlights Key Customers

Earlier in the day Oracle CEO Safra Catz focused her keynote speech on highlighting some of the innovative ways a number of marquee customers are using Oracle’s software and services, including the company’s AI services.

MGM Resorts International CEO Bill Hornbuckle joined Catz onstage and said his company is using AI to personalize and customize automated responses when people call to make resort reservations. “We are leaning more and more into AI taking on that responsibility,” he said.

Michelle Zatlyn, Cloudflare co-founder and COO, said her company is using AI capabilities within OCI to help efficiently connect clients across multi-cloud environments and best utilize the available services.