Oracle is competing against Amazon and Microsoft to offer cloud services, where businesses use Oracle’s data centers to handle their computing needs. In recent years, cloud providers have worked to woo large businesses that still run their own data centers to move some or all of that work to the cloud.

VMware has emerged as a key player because many clouds use it to power their data centers. To win over those customers, cloud providers need technical compatibility with VMware. Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have all announced partnerships with VMware in recent years.

Oracle, which announced the deal at its annual user conference in San Francisco, OpenWorld, has designed a system to allow joint customers to move VMware-based computing work to its cloud without reworking the code.

The two companies said that Oracle would offer technical support to customers who run its applications on top of VMware. Many companies will not run business-critical systems like financial software with the option for support.

Oracle and VMware have come to blows over the issue.

VMware’s core tool splits up one physical computer server into multiple smaller “virtual” machines to ensure that all of a company’s computers are put to full use. Oracle offered a competing product and was unclear on whether it would provide support when, for example, its financial software was used with VMware.

Oracle said it would now provide support for those situations.