Since the release of the (first) Oracle Exadata Database Machine in 2009 and the soon followed acquisition of Sun Microsystems in 2010 Oracle is in the Hardware business. Not a bad position to stand in. But sales are not as promised and one of the large complaints about the Exadata (Database) and ExaLogic (Middleware) machines an often heard complaint is that the machines are simply ‘too big’. And it’s probably true. An Exadata machine can hold an extremely large Data Warehouse, but will it effectively run your database applications with economics in mind? But we have to take into account that the Exadata machine offers great flexibility and extra features we would love to see on other database machines.
So now, just a week before Oracle OpenWorld 2011, the answer is here. Oracle now offers us the Oracle Database Appliance. (Sounds as if we’re dealing with fancy kitchen machines, doesn’t it?) It’s a full grown machine that offers flexibility and some of the neat features the Exadata machine offers us. Only, this time it’s smaller. The flexibility mainly lies in the fact that Oracle offers an increasable licensing model with it.
When you purchase the Database Appliance, you can start off as small as 2 cores licensed. And, as your applications grow, either in size or complexity, you can mature toward a full grown 24 processor core machine. Without changing the underlying hardware configurations. So it really can be seen as an investment.
The Oracle Database Appliance in itself (not even looking at the flexibility of the license structure) is quite impressive. Two Oracle Enterprise Linux based Database Servers in one package. Each based on two Intel-Xeon 6-core CPU’s (hence the license model going from 2 times 1 core to 2 times 12 cores) and a stunning 96 Gigabytes of memory. Besides this, the machine contains 12TB (triple-mirrored, so effectively 4TB) of hot-swappable disks of database storage. Plus, the now essential SSD’s for Database redo-log’s and HDD’s for the server OS.
This all sounds pretty good to me. A system that offers a lot, but still can ‘grow’ together with the needs that you have for your database systems. Of course, this is without mentioning the costs of the machine itself. But all in all it looks positive. It just might be what Oracle needs in the Hardware business.
Here is a video of the official release of The Oracle Database Appliance.
