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Virtual Machines (VMs)
Run any workload, from small development projects to enterprise-scale applications, securely at scale on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Compute VMs. With our flexible instances, you can optimize VM resources for improved price-performance.

Why choose OCI VMs?
Save up to 72% in costs
Flexible VM shapes let you configure VMs precisely to your application requirements.
Secure
Shielded instances, confidential computing, hardware root of trust, and off-box virtualization help reduce malicious attacks and help applications run securely.
Right instance for your workload
With a targeted set of VM shapes—standard, dense I/O, GPU, and optimized—OCI makes it easy to find the right instance for your workload: general purpose applications, enterprise applications, HPC, AI/ML, and more.
VM shapes to match your workload needs
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Flexible shapes
Flexible shapes let users customize the number of vCPUs and memory (RAM) to match their workload needs at launch time or when resizing VMs.
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Standard shapes
Standard shapes, designed for general purpose workloads and suitable for running a wide range of applications, provide a balance of cores, memory, and network resources.
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Dense I/O shapes
Dense I/O shapes are designed for large databases, big data workloads, and applications requiring high performance local storage.
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GPU shapes
GPU shapes are designed for workloads such as AI/ML and video rendering that require hardware acceleration. These shapes are powered by GPUs from NVIDIA and AMD.
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Optimized shapes
Optimized shapes are suitable for HPC workloads that require high-frequency processor cores.
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Burstable instances
Burstable instances provide a baseline level of CPU performance with the ability to burst to a higher level to support occasional spikes in usage.
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Preemptible instances
Preemptible instances optimize costs for workloads that need to run for only brief periods or that can be interrupted when capacity is reclaimed.
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Confidential instances
Confidential instances protect data while in use at the hardware level. Securing in-memory data processed on compute instances reduces the risk of data leakage.
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Shielded instances
Shielded instances harden the firmware security on VMs and bare metal hosts to defend against malicious boot level software.
Customer successes with VMs
Reference architectures with VMs
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Solution Architecture
Deploy fluid simulation software from Ansys on HPC nodes in OCI.
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Solution Architecture
Learn how to deploy a managed full-stack architecture with middleware and databases in your data center.
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Solution Architecture
Use OCI DevOps to deploy software to a Kubernetes cluster, VMs, or OCI Functions.
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Solution Architecture
Set up a highly available multitier application topology consisting of a load balancer, a web tier, and a database tier.
Get started with VMs
Try 20+ Always Free cloud services, with a 30-day trial for even more
Oracle offers a Free Tier with no time limits on more than 20 services such as Compute, Storage, and Autonomous Database, as well as US$300 in free credits to try additional cloud services. Get the details and sign up for your free account today.
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What’s included with Oracle Cloud Free Tier?
- AMD and Arm Compute VMs
- 200 GB total block storage
- 10 GB object storage
- 2 Autonomous Databases, 20 GB each
- 10 TB outbound data transfer per month
- 10+ more Always Free services
- US$300 in free credits for 30 days for even more
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Apply for OCI Arm Accelerator
Get free Oracle Cloud Universal Credits valid for 365 days.
Learn with a hands-on lab
The best way to learn is to try it yourself. Use our tutorials and hands-on labs with the Oracle Cloud Free Tier, your own Oracle Cloud tenancy, or for selected solutions in an Oracle-provided free lab environment.
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Deploy HA applications using load balancers
In this lab you will deploy web servers on two compute instances in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), configured in High Availability mode by using a Load Balancer.
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Get started with OCI Core Services
Explore basic OCI services, including Compute, Networking, and Storage.
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Deploy Oracle Container Engine for Kubernetes
In this lab you will deploy a Container Engine for Kubernetes cluster, connect to it, and run a sample application using OCI CLI.
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Migrate Tomcat Java Applications to OCI
Explore how to migrate Tomcat to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and connect to an Autonomous Database.
Start this lab now
Explore more than 150 best-practice designs
See how our architects and other customers deploy a wide range of workloads, from enterprise apps to HPC, from microservices to data lakes. Understand the best practices, hear from other customer architects in our Built & Deployed series, and even deploy many workloads with our "click to deploy" capability—or do it yourself from our GitHub repo.
Popular architectures
- Apache Tomcat with MySQL Database Service
- Oracle Weblogic on Kubernetes with Jenkins
- Machine learning (ML) and AI environments
- Tomcat on Arm with Oracle Autonomous Database
- Log analysis with ELK Stack
- HPC with OpenFOAM
Explore virtual machines
OCI offers two types of instances: virtual machines and bare metal servers. Explore why VMs are ideal for running applications that don’t require an entire physical machine.
See how much you can save with OCI
Oracle Cloud pricing is simple, with consistent low pricing worldwide, supporting a wide range of use cases. To estimate your low rate, check out the cost estimator and configure the services to suit your needs.
Experience the difference
- 1/4 the outbound bandwidth costs
- 3X the compute price-performance
- Same low price in every region
- Low pricing without long term commitments
Contact sales
Interested in learning more about Oracle Cloud Infrastructure? Let one of our experts help.
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They can answer questions such as
- How do I get started with Oracle Cloud?
- What kinds of workloads can I run on OCI?
- What types of services does OCI offer?