Uber recently signed cloud deals with Google and Oracle, which will help the ride-hailing company end reliance on its own data centers, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Uber has confirmed plans to move its IT operations from its own data centers to the cloud-computing platforms of Alphabet and Oracle. The San Francisco-based ride-hailing company has signed two seven-year deals, one with Google Cloud and the other with Oracle, to complete the move away from its data centers over the next few years. The value of the deals has not been disclosed by the companies.

“It’s much more than just, ‘Here’s some infrastructure,’” Oracle Cloud Executive Vice President Clay Magouyrk said. “It’s a lot about partnering together to push multi-cloud forward.”

The shift to the cloud has been driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused supply chain disruptions and pushed IT hardware delivery times beyond 12 months. Moving to a cloud provider will reduce Uber's reliance on the hardware supply chain and provide the company with cybersecurity defenses and compliance with data-handling standards offered by cloud providers. Additionally, the move will allow Uber to shift its engineers from managing data centers to focus on areas that will differentiate its product and support its cloud move.

The move to the cloud by large companies continues despite greater constraints on IT budgets, and Uber's move is part of a broader shift seen across industries. Uber began its search for cloud partners 11 months ago, seeking out multiple cloud vendors to mitigate the risks of relying on a single provider and to take advantage of the areas of expertise offered by cloud vendors. The new cloud deal with Google will bring Uber and Google closer together in areas such as mapping and advertising. With Oracle, Uber is planning to integrate its freight business into Oracle's cloud-based enterprise resource planning system and other database-related projects.