As a leading 24x7x365 remote Oracle DBA services provider, dbaDIRECT is obsessed with staying on top of the latest and greatest in anything Oracle. So, like children pouring wide-eyed into a giant candy store, we recently joined over 45,000 other industry professionals at Oracle OpenWorld 2011 in San Francisco with an enormous sense of anticipation—and we definitely were not disappointed.
In particular, we heard a few things on a couple of Oracle’s most advanced database products—Exadata and the Exalogic Elastic Compute Cloud—that especially caught our attention. Over half of our client projects involve Oracle databases, and so the news we heard from a number of experts at OpenWorld on these products was especially pertinent to us as Oracle database consultants and, ergo, to our clients.
Oracle Exadata is Here—Are You Ready?
For one, Oracle is pushing the Exadata database machine as the imminent database solution for its customers. Exadata consolidates storage, servers, networking, and software into one pre-engineered machine, merging disparate servers and data stores into one centralized solution.
Exadata indeed does a tremendous job at helping organizations collect, store, process, and utilize ever-increasing volumes of data for superior business intelligence; however, migrating to Exadata poses some critical implementation and administrative challenges. Exadata consolidates the traditional means of managing Oracle database implementations via separate IT specialties, and so organizations using or considering Oracle must be sure to have the personnel with the right skills—a mix of database, storage, Linux, and UNIX expertise all rolled into one—available when making the transition to and utilizing Exadata.
Since Exadata was first introduced in 2008, we have been diligent in ensuring we have ample remote Oracle database administrators trained to the highest degree on all of the requisite Exadata skills. With Oracle increasingly pushing Exadata’s widespread adoption, we are more committed than ever to helping our clients take maximum advantage of its ability to handle massive amounts of data and provide superior business performance.
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Here is a great video that illustrates Exadata’s tremendous benefits to organizations:
Larry Ellison on the Exalogic Elastic Compute Cloud
In his keynote speech at OpenWorld, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison introduced the Exalogic Elastic Compute Cloud (herein referred to as Exalogic), which he described as “a cloud in a box.” Exalogic is indeed a single open-system “box” that consolidates all of the hardware and standards-based software needed for high-performance execution of Java, Oracle, and other mission-critical enterprise applications on a private cloud platform.
Exalogic includes 30 servers, an InfiniBand network to enable the servers to talk with one another, a high-availability storage device, a virtual machine with a couple of guest operating systems, and all of the middleware needed to run and develop applications. It is a tremendously powerful platform that provides high performance, high availability, high reliability, and cost efficiency. It also works well with Exadata via the InfiniBand network and software enhancements to optimize data transfer between the systems.
Like Exadata, however, transitioning to Exalogic can be a challenge for an organization. It too requires a consolidation of disparate IT processes and skills. But the transition is well worth it because of the long-term performance improvements and savings it offers.
If you’re considering deployment of a private cloud, therefore, the Exalogic Elastic Compute Cloud solution is an excellent choice, especially if you already run an Oracle database environment. Moreover, our remote Oracle DBA and consulting services can make your migration to Exalogic—as well as Exadata—easy, safe, and pain-free. Socontact us if you are considering the transition or need assistance with an existing deployment.
Finally, here’s a great excerpt of Ellison discussing Exalogic and cloud computing at Oracle OpenWorld:
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