Oracle Database Appliance is a sort of converged, medium-size Exadata for SMBs, midrange and remote-office enterprise IT systems.
Not
long after Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems in 2010, it did some rebranding and
ported over its 2-year-old, Hewlett-Packard-boxed Exadata Database Server to
its new SPARC-powered hardware and began weaning it off the older machines. If
Oracle was going to become a full-service IT provider, this is where it had to
start.
That
was the beginning of the end for a previously harmonious-well, relatively
harmonious-Oracle-HP relationship. Of course, now the two mega-companies are
dead-set competitors, and they tiptoe around an uneasy residual relationship.
They are still forced to work together in client systems in which they are
co-installed, and when those finally go away, the two companies may never speak
to each other again.
Meanwhile,
Oracle is ramping up system development using its own hardware and software,
not needing to rely on OEMs anymore.
On
Sept. 21, just in time to show it at Oracle OpenWorld 2011 next week in San
Francisco, Oracle introduced the Oracle Database Appliance. This is a sort of
converged, medium-size Exadata for SMBs, midrange and remote-office enterprise
IT systems.
It
uses the latest Oracle Database, 11g Release 2, and the company's Real
Application Clusters on a two-node (expandable up to 24 cores) Sun Fire server
cluster running Oracle Linux. (Remember Unbreakable Linux?) The clustering and
Automatic Storage Management features handle the disaster recovery failover
requirements.
In
summary, Oracle is positioning the Database Appliance as a fully preconfigured
system of software, servers, storage and networking to run both custom and
packaged OLTP and data warehousing application databases with high
availability, Oracle said.
Other
features, according to Oracle, include proactive system monitoring, one-button
software provisioning, full-stack integrated patching and automatic "phone
home" on hardware failures.
The
Oracle Database Appliance will be demonstrated and made available during Oracle OpenWorld 2011, set for Oct.
2-6 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.
Chris Preimesberger was named Editor-in-Chief of Features & Analysis at eWEEK in November 2011. Previously he served eWEEK as Senior Writer, covering a range of IT sectors that include data center systems, cloud computing, storage, virtualization, green IT, e-discovery and IT governance. His blog, Storage Station, is considered a go-to information source. Chris won a national Folio Award for magazine writing in November 2011 for a cover story on Salesforce.com and CEO-founder Marc Benioff, and he has served as a judge for the SIIA Codie Awards since 2005. In previous IT journalism, Chris was a founding editor of both IT Manager's Journal and DevX.com and was managing editor of Software Development magazine. His diverse resume also includes: sportswriter for the Los Angeles Daily News, covering NCAA and NBA basketball, television critic for the Palo Alto Times Tribune, and Sports Information Director at Stanford University. He has served as a correspondent for The Associated Press, covering Stanford and NCAA tournament basketball, since 1983. He has covered a number of major events, including the 1984 Democratic National Convention, a Presidential press conference at the White House in 1993, the Emmy Awards (three times), two Rose Bowls, the Fiesta Bowl, several NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments, a Formula One Grand Prix auto race, a heavyweight boxing championship bout (Ali vs. Spinks, 1978), and the 1985 Super Bowl. A 1975 graduate of Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., Chris has won more than a dozen regional and national awards for his work. He and his wife, Rebecca, have four children and reside in Redwood City, Calif.Follow on Twitter: editingwhiz
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Chris Preimesberger was named Editor-in-Chief of Features & Analysis at eWEEK in November 2011. Previously he served eWEEK as Senior Writer, covering a range of IT sectors that include data center systems, cloud computing, storage, virtualization, green IT, e-discovery and IT governance. His blog, Storage Station, is considered a go-to information source. Chris won a national Folio Award for magazine writing in November 2011 for a cover story on Salesforce.com and CEO-founder Marc Benioff, and he has served as a judge for the SIIA Codie Awards since 2005. In previous IT journalism, Chris was a founding editor of both IT Manager's Journal and DevX.com and was managing editor of Software Development magazine. His diverse resume also includes: sportswriter for the Los Angeles Daily News, covering NCAA and NBA basketball, television critic for the Palo Alto Times Tribune, and Sports Information Director at Stanford University. He has served as a correspondent for The Associated Press, covering Stanford and NCAA tournament basketball, since 1983. He has covered a number of major events, including the 1984 Democratic National Convention, a Presidential press conference at the White House in 1993, the Emmy Awards (three times), two Rose Bowls, the Fiesta Bowl, several NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments, a Formula One Grand Prix auto race, a heavyweight boxing championship bout (Ali vs. Spinks, 1978), and the 1985 Super Bowl. A 1975 graduate of Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., Chris has won more than a dozen regional and national awards for his work. He and his wife, Rebecca, have four children and reside in Redwood City, Calif.Follow on Twitter: editingwhiz
