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.
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