oracle’s exadata boosts speed, saves space; cost savings ......performance speed and reduce...
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Oracle’s Exadata Boosts Speed, Saves Space; Cost Savings to Come
321 Pacific Ave., San Francisco, CA 94111 | www.blueshiftideas.com
INITIAL REPORT
November 17, 2011 Companies: CSCO, DELL, EMC, HPQ, IBM, MSFT, NTAP, ORCL, TDC, VMW
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Reverdy Johnson, [email protected], 415.364.3782
Summary of Findings
All 12 sources said Oracle Corp.‟s (ORCL) Exadata database machine quickens data input and migration as well as
processing and analytics. As a result, Exadata‟s performance has freed up capacity and led many sources to increase
their workloads, including in new jobs and new revenue streams.
Sources said Exadata has exceeded expectations and is a breakthrough and reliable device.
Five sources fully expect to order more Exadata racks. Another source already has added to his initial Exadata purchase.
None of the other sources has ruled out a future purchase.
Exadata saves energy costs, decreases terabyte requirements and, in some cases, conserves space at data centers
although many sources have used the extra room for other hardware.
Exadata is viewed as unique, with no viable competitors. Its edge stems from its ability to both house and process data
quickly. The closest competitors are strictly data warehouses.
Because of the initial high cost, Exadata will not save companies money in the short term, but sources expect the
machine to result in cost savings in the long run.
Challenges related to Exadata were described as manageable. Minor installation glitches and the expected learning
curve were the most common complaints. Two sources said Exadata will change corporate culture, diminishing the
importance of the storage teams while bolstering status of database administrators.
Four sources said Oracle‟s new Database Appliance is a logical product extension with a strong market potential among
smaller businesses with tighter budgets and less technological know-how. It serves as a possible add-on or flash
memory device for users scaling up. The Database Appliance was viewed as yet another way for Oracle to bring new
customers into the fold.
One source said Exadata may result in lost business or market share for Oracle component/hardware suppliers,
including Dell Inc. (DELL), Cisco Systems Inc. (CSC), EMC Corp. (EMC) and IBM Corp. (IBM).
Improves Data Speed Saves Space Already Has Saved
Customers Money
Exadata Box Users
Research Question:
What are customers’ reactions to Oracle’s second version of the Exadata database
machine in terms of cost savings, data speed and space conservation?
Oracle Corp.’s Exadata
321 Pacific Ave., San Francisco, CA 94111 | www.blueshiftideas.com
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Background
Oracle‟s second version of Exadata is a database machine that serves both data warehousing and online transaction
processing. It is intended to allow companies to lower costs by consolidating workloads onto one platform, improve
performance speed and reduce storage requirements. Oracle believes that by combining the software and hardware
components in a preconfigured format, Exadata could eliminate the configuration issues that plague many organizations and
eliminate the need for multiple database server and storage server solutions while increasing storage and speed.
CURRENT RESEARCH This report aims to gauge customer reaction to Exadata and to determine if the database machine has resulted in cost
savings, higher speed and improved storage. Blueshift employed its pattern mining approach to establish and interview
sources in two independent silos:
1) Exadata box owners/users/customers (12)
2) Secondary sources (5)
Blueshift interviewed 12 primary sources and included five of the most relevant secondary sources focused on the changing
administration dynamic in IT departments as a result of Exadata, praise for the new device, details on cost and payment
structure, and inputs on the Database Appliance for small and midsized businesses.
Silos
EXADATA BOX OWNERS/USERS/CUSTOMERS Director of database development for an automotive industry company
This source bought one full Exadata X2-2 (formerly known as V2) in mid-2010 for $3 million all-inclusive (hardware and
software licenses). The machine has exceeded company expectations, with processing speeds that are 10 times faster
than the company‟s previous system and much improved from Oracle‟s V1, which disappointed the industry. He expects
sales of the Exadata box to do well because Oracle has a captive audience in its existing customer base and continuous
revenue through annual maintenance fees. The new rack replaced six servers, saving energy costs and making room for
other equipment at a rented storage center. It has not saved money for the company, but Exadata‟s sophisticated data
analysis and speed capabilities have helped the company create new customer products and revenue streams. He
expects his company to purchase another Exadata box.
“The box definitely makes a difference. Our company business is
providing data and database warehousing with high value and
performance. We have been at the forefront with Oracle, but with our
standard configuration of servers there comes a point where you reach
a limit of what the database system can do.”
“The Exadata first came out in November of 2008. That was the
Version 1. It was interesting but rough around the edges. It had a lot of
issues, and to keep customers happy it took a lot to keep it running
smoothly. Early on, a lot of companies were unhappy with V1.”
“In November of 2009, they came out with the Version 2 and
introduced it at a trade show. We bought it and installed it in July of
2010, and it is apparently miles better than the first one. We have
been absolutely thrilled, and its performance is beyond what other
[nontechnology] people at the company expected.”
“It comes in different configurations, so the costs vary. We bought one
full rack, which is the standard buy and the cost covers all of the
licenses and hardware. It‟s an expensive device and it cost us about
$3 million. But it really is not substantially more expensive than if you
bought everything separately.”
We have been absolutely
thrilled, and its performance is
beyond what other
[nontechnology] people at the
company expected. … There is
increased data speed. We have
stuff running for customers that
is 10 times faster than before.
A job that once took 15
minutes now takes just
seconds. The speed change is
absolutely dramatic.
Director of Database Development
Automotive Industry Company
Oracle Corp.’s Exadata
321 Pacific Ave., San Francisco, CA 94111 | www.blueshiftideas.com
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“They sell them by the quarter rack, half rack and full rack, so the price of a quarter rack might be around half a
million and so on. The bulk of the cost is for the licenses, so about two-thirds of the cost are in licensing with
about one-third of that for the Exadata licenses and the other third for the database licenses. The rest is for
hardware, etc. If you look at it from a monetary perspective, the software license is the highest margin item you
can have. There also is annual support and maintenance, and that comes to about 22% of the originally cost,
annually. The annual fee includes personnel support, patches and new releases. So if you have an Oracle V10
and they introduce a V11 there is no extra cost.”
“There is increased data speed. We have stuff running for customers that is 10 times faster than before. A job
that once took 15 minutes now takes just seconds. The speed change is absolutely dramatic.”
“We have been an Oracle customer for 10 to 15 years. We are a small niche company and have no room for
more equipment. For us, it is more about performance and space. As we see more and more data being
generated in our industry niche, it gets harder and harder to analyze without higher performance capability. Also,
in part because of Google search, people just expect better data.”
“Is it saving us money? I wouldn‟t go that far. But it is providing something for us we did not have for our
customers before. I suppose some companies are saving a lot of money. I know one company that had 36
Teradata devices and now they have three Exadata racks, so the cost can go down if you use technology that
uses less energy and space.”
“It is saving us lots of space. We rent a space for our servers at a
hosted data center that handles the backup and cooling and oversight.
This one device replaced six racks of what was there before. So it cut
our footprint down by 80% because it‟s all integrated into one box. The
magic of that is in the software. So right now we are down five racks,
but of course we just filled up that space with other junk.”
“We probably would buy more. Everything we have is not on Exadata
yet. We have 50 terabytes of Oracle storage and 18 terabytes are
already on the Exadata. In the next year, we will do a technology
refresh so we will take a look at our needs and wants. We maybe would
buy another full rack, but we would not have to pay out for the Oracle
licenses again, just the hardware and Exadata license. And then the
additional maintenance.”
“It has not hurt us in any way. The transition is almost transparent. It
has been more reliable than I expected. For example, we bought it in
July [2010], and by October we had most of our main customers on it.
We will move every one of our customers. In November of 2010, the
system was down for one hour and 40 minutes. That was the only
outage in a year, and that‟s not bad for such a new device. We did have
to learn some new things, but that was pretty easy.”
“Oracle is installing the database everywhere, and for any company
that has gained dominance in their niche or field, the box is hard to beat. I know they are selling a bunch of
them. They probably are not all full racks. Most getting it are already Oracle customers, so they can just roll [the
box] in. Exadata has a built-in customer base, and now they are pushing it really hard.”
“Their market is large, and most are already Oracle customers. Most of them are migrating to Exadata. If you are
with Oracle, this is the only real option. It‟s too expensive and overwhelming to start over. They are selling to
people who are already existing customers and their current customer base is huge.”
“I don‟t think others can compete with people who are already Oracle customers. That installation base is such
an asset. You might go with another if you are a smaller company. IBM [Corp./IBM] has the DB2 and Netezza.
Microsoft [Corp./MSFT] has the SQL server and DATAllegro, but it is not as heavy-duty. Teradata has a good
installation base, and they are loyal. They will continue to sell and improve versions, and I don‟t think Oracle can
make headway on Teradata. But I also don‟t think Teradata will kick out or overtake Oracle.”
“Another big selling point is that if you need help, you just call Oracle. With other systems, you are putting them
together with components from this company and that company, so if you need support it can be really
frustrating.”
“Before Exadata, there were separate components. The standard Oracle configuration was a Dell server, Cisco
component and an EMC storage device. Now it‟s all in one box. I do not believe that will knock the others out of
Is it saving us money? I
wouldn‟t go that far. But it is
providing something for us we
did not have for our customers
before. I suppose some
companies are saving a lot of
money. I know one company
that had 36 Teradata devices
and now they have three
Exadata racks, so the cost can
go down if you use technology
that uses less energy and
space.
Director of Database Development
Automotive Industry Company
Oracle Corp.’s Exadata
321 Pacific Ave., San Francisco, CA 94111 | www.blueshiftideas.com
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business, but it definitely with take some market share away from
them. I think EMC will be the biggest loser. IBM will definitely see some
changes.”
“Before Exadata, there were other systems offered. Teradata had a
special data-warehousing platform, but you had to buy their hardware
and software. There were a number of start-ups that came out with
data warehouse appliances, and the products were getting better and
better and they were getting better performance than Oracle was. That
is why Oracle developed Exadata.”
“Most of the people I know using it are pretty happy. I think Monsanto
is buying four or five. P&G has four to five, and Macy‟s has four. The
U.S. Customs and Border Protection bought 15 full racks to track all
the shipments that go through the ports. Amway bought three full
racks. These all may be part of the 1,000 already delivered, I‟m
guessing. Most are happy. But PNC Bank bought three to four, and they
had a rough time. So not everyone is doing back flips.”
“The next big thing we are seeing is flash memory. We have 18
terabytes [Exadata] in use, and it is filling up quickly. We are seeing
more pure storage flash memory that is not as fast as a server and has
less memory but it can be a bridge. I don‟t know if it would reduce the
value of the Exadata box.”
Senior data warehouse architect with a large financial institution
After buying two half racks of Exadata in July of 2010, the source said data input was 17 times faster than before and
data processing speeds were 100 times faster. Although he declined to provide cost details, he agreed with another
source who priced half racks at between $500,000 to $1 million each. The company expects to see a return on
investment for the full purchase cost in less than a year. The appeal of Exadata is reliability and simplicity that eliminates
the burden of managing technology. The Exadata has no viable competition. The biggest challenge for Oracle will be from
internal culture clashes and shifts in job descriptions as database administrators (DBAs) become more important and
storage teams less important to companies with Exadata machines. He expects his company to buy more Exadata boxes.
He also believes the Database Appliance will be successful and create customers in businesses that too small and
technologically inexperienced to embrace other Oracle products.
“In July of 2010, we bought two half Exadata racks, one for use in production and the other one as a
disaster/backup relief. I can‟t give you information on specific costs, but the true detail of the question goes to
our return on investment. We will get the payback of the full cost in less than a year. The total cost of ownership
additionally is about one-third the cost of other solutions. That is, one-third the total of what would have been
expected over a three-year lifespan. We also got a very good deal in terms of what we paid.”
“It is expected to save us money over the multitude of years. The
savings refers to everything related to the TCO [total cost of
ownership]. The reference to one-third the cost of other solutions
includes the data center savings because the thing takes up much less
space, so we are saving one-third of what we would have spent. We are
saving space and we are saving on what it would take to put it into the
data center and, of course, energy costs. But once you are using the
thing, that is where the real ROI is.”
“There are a couple of different metrics we look at when we assess its
ability. There are two applications: throughput and consumption. Our
throughput—the time it takes to put data into the machine—went up to
about 17 times faster than before. The migration time was about four
times faster, and the consumption of the data is about 100 times
faster. So to quantify the increase in speed, every minute becomes 3.5
seconds.”
“What this thing really does is it allows us to focus on our operations
and our business, rather than on the technology. It essentially has
Before Exadata, there were
separate components. The
standard Oracle configuration
was a Dell server, Cisco
component and an EMC
storage device. Now it‟s all in
one box. I do not believe that
will knock the others out of
business, but it definitely with
take some market share away
from them. I think EMC will be
the biggest loser. IBM will
definitely see some changes.
Director of Database Development
Automotive Industry Company
We will get the payback of the
full cost in less than a year. The
total cost of ownership
additionally is about one-third
the cost of other solutions. That
is, one-third the total of what
would have been expected over
a three-year lifespan. We also
got a very good deal in terms of
what we paid.
Senior Data Warehouse Architect
Large Financial Institution
Oracle Corp.’s Exadata
321 Pacific Ave., San Francisco, CA 94111 | www.blueshiftideas.com
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changed the conversation of our business. I would say it represents a paradigm shift, and I am not the kind of
person who is prone to making dramatic statements.”
“Will we buy more Exadata? Yes, I am 100% certain of it, and it will be sometime soon because it works really
well. I imagine we will buy a bunch, several, but it is more of a strategy and it will occur over the course of time. I
would say most current Oracle users that rely on big data are moving toward Exadata and they will move in that
direction as they have the need for more power.”
“You can‟t compare Exadata to other products on the market because
nothing out there comes close to it. You can‟t compare it to Teradata or
Netezza.”
“The one challenge I see that is insidious is that Exadata changes the
way you manage your infrastructure team. Your storage teams and
network teams are less involved, and now you really rely on your
database team. Storage is really not involved, but they are not out of
work, at least not right away. But because of this, it will change the
industry. Remember, 15 years ago people were buying motherboards
and making servers. We don‟t do that anymore. And with this machine,
we now don‟t need to do the engineering.”
“Is it disruptive? Any change is disruptive for those in the business who
resist the change. For the corporate culture it certainly will change the
playing field, especially if people who need to change the most resist.
Developers don‟t have to fix code with it. The biggest [internal/industry]
corporate losers are the storage guys because storage is integrated in
and Oracle has its own support/automation/storage team. The
database guys benefit the most.”
“There is a big market for it because everyone is moving to big data. As
our data volumes increase exponentially, people need more efficient, faster platforms. Anyone with a lot of data
needs it, and anyone who is ramping up to manage a lot of data, which is everyone else, needs it. This is
especially true in finance and medical records.”
“The Oracle Database Appliance is a totally different thing and not Exadata at all. It is an engineering solution
that comes with a database cluster. The preinstalled data gives a company access to some of Oracle‟s coolest
things. You can slap it in a rack, but it is completely separate. The application database is just a computer with
software preinstalled. Most would buy two, not just one. I don‟t know if anyone has purchased it yet or whether
it‟s even available, but I know there is a lot of interest.”
“Imagine Exadata as a car and you put the engine in and parts in and paint it. The Appliance is more like a bike
that comes in a box and you put it together and ride away. It is lower-scale and at a price point people are
interested in. It appeals to the low-tech company that cannot put things together themselves. But the Appliance
and Exadata can coexist. You can ride your bike in the park, but you would use the car to go on vacation.”
“Will the Appliance bring in new customers for Oracle? Absolutely, 100%, it will bring in new customers. Because
until Open World, Oracle was hard to get into. To configure you really had to know what you were doing. Now, you
really don‟t have to build anymore. Oracle [Exadata and Appliance] is especially appealing to businesses and
today‟s business model. With everything that‟s changed in the economy, people have got other problems to
worry about, and they don‟t want to think about the technology.”
DBA who handled the Exadata installation for a U.S. cable TV, telecom and
wireless company
After installing one full and one half Exadata rack, the source‟s company
experienced a 70% increase in the speed of data processing and performance.
The machine saves time and takes up less space, but the source doubted the
company would save money in the short term. The Exadata is unique and
currently has no viable competitor. The purchase of additional Exadata racks is
inevitable.
“We bought one full rack and one half rack, and we have them in the
same location but use one for production and the other for
development. We see a great big difference with Exadata, and our jobs
There is a big market for it
because everyone is moving to
big data. As our data volumes
increase exponentially, people
need more efficient, faster
platforms. Anyone with a lot of
data needs it, and anyone who
is ramping up to manage a lot
of data, which is everyone else,
needs it. This is especially true
in finance and medical records.
Senior Data Warehouse Architect
Large Financial Institution
We see a great big difference
with Exadata, and our jobs are
running about 70% faster. The
customers noticed the
performance change
immediately.
DBA for U.S. Cable TV, Telecom &
Wireless Company
Oracle Corp.’s Exadata
321 Pacific Ave., San Francisco, CA 94111 | www.blueshiftideas.com
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are running about 70% faster. The customers noticed the performance change immediately.”
“It saves a lot of space. It takes a 2-terabyte database and makes it into less than a terabyte database. But we
are not really down any racks or servers. We just replaced one thing for another.”
“We use it a lot for writing reports, and they are completed a lot faster. The processing is faster, and the loading
is faster. It used to take from midnight to 11 a.m. the next day to load all of the data for the day. That loading
time went down to six hours with Exadata. We used to use a lot of bitmap indexing, and we don‟t use it anymore.
So by dropping the bitmap indexing, performance overall is now much faster.”
“Personally, I love it. But they still have had some problems. That‟s true with every new database. Some of the
initial problems we had were our fault. Something went wrong, and it was apparent something was bad on the
rack after we set it up but we didn‟t call Oracle until after the fact. If we
had notified Oracle right away, they would have handled it. The
problem was just that one piece that went into it was bad. They
ordered it and replaced it. I do not believe it was a systemic problem or
a recurring problem. It was just a bad part. That happens sometimes.
As a whole, the system is great and the overall design is very good.”
“The full rack cost a million-something, but I don‟t have exact numbers.
It changes some things; it gives the database people more
responsibility, and it takes some responsibility away from the systems
administrator. So if you asked the SA, they may say they don‟t like it
because it takes away their job responsibility although no one has lost
their jobs yet. But there is some stuff the DBA can do now so we don‟t
need the input of the SA.”
“There is nothing to compare [Exadata] to. I have not used the
Teradata or the Netezza, but I know that all of the other ones are for
data warehousing only. With Oracle and Exadata, you can use it for
anything. When it first came out it was for data warehousing, but now
you can use it for day-to-day jobs and transaction processing and
analyzing data. With Oracle and Exadata, you get more bang for your buck.”
“It costs a lot of money upfront, so in the short term it won‟t save a company any money. But in the long term it
should save money. The compression and rack do save storage space, so there may be some saving in soft
costs. But, overall, you are not going to save any money on it today.”
“I think the company will buy more eventually, and I would not be surprised if they had one on order now.”
CIO for a U.S. subsidiary of a global consumer technology company
This source bought a one-fourth of a rack roughly six months ago as part of an enterprisewide transition to Oracle
General Ledger accounting systems. He is happy with the hardware‟s power and environmental footprint, but not pleased
with the Oracle environment in general. He expects to expand the Exadata system to meet his data warehousing needs.
“It‟s extremely fast and seems well-integrated with the Oracle database architecture as well as the front-end
applications we now run. We will almost certainly scale up our initial investment as we continue to migrate our
systems to Oracle.”
“Exadata is unquestionably an expensive machine, but we have very strict zero-carbon-footprint guidelines to
adhere to, so the fewer servers we have plugged in and spinning, the better. And right now we are using it
tactically to support the departments that interact most closely with Oracle‟s applications in order to get the
maximum engineered efficiency out of the system.”
“It‟s hard to say whether it‟s saving us money because it‟s so new that we‟re still in the integration spend. That
spend is going on much longer than we‟d like, and headquarters is not happy with the delays. Eventually, I hope
it will make our people more efficient, allowing us to integrate our business functions more effectively and
streamline our technology footprint. But that‟s a long-term goal. Right now, I just want to get our configuration
running smoothly.”
“The machine is actually fine. It‟s the software and the changes we needed to make to integrate it into our
platform that is causing frustrations. We had to add a lot of custom features on a tight schedule. If it was up to
me, we probably wouldn‟t have done any of this, but here we are.”
“We‟re not throwing away our old servers, so it‟s not like this is saving space in the here and now. Down the
road, as those servers reach the end of their life and we need more capacity, we will probably buy more and
It costs a lot of money upfront,
so in the short term it won‟t
save a company any money.
But in the long term it should
save money. The compression
and rack do save storage
space, so there may be some
saving in soft costs. But,
overall, you are not going to
save any money on it today.
DBA for U.S. Cable TV, Telecom &
Wireless Company
Oracle Corp.’s Exadata
321 Pacific Ave., San Francisco, CA 94111 | www.blueshiftideas.com
7
slow our expansion, or replace a lot of racks with one of these. And, in the meantime, this slows my spend on
new boxes to expand our capacity since we‟ve essentially made those future purchases.”
“My hope is that pricing will eventually drop, so it makes sense to wait. Same as anything else in the storage
space. Granted, Exadata is a very sophisticated warehousing and processing box so it will be relatively resistant
to downward price pressure but not immune.”
“Teradata has something similar, and so does IBM. It wasn‟t really an option for us to shop around since we
wanted to integrate it into our Oracle applications to get the most efficient all-in-one performance we could.”
Senior VP of products/IT for an SAS-based software solutions/research company
This longtime Oracle customer said Exadata was the sensible and obvious choice when it came time to rebuild the
company‟s processing system. The quarter rack cost between $500,000 and $1 million, with annual support fees of
$87,000. Despite a few installation glitches, the firm has been impressed with Exadata‟s speed and ability to crunch
data reliably. Jobs that used to take several days now run in minutes. Its processing power has enabled the firm to accept
jobs that previously would have been too difficult, and its ability to create new data sets is leading to additional services
and revenue streams. He could not comment on competitors such as Teradata or IBM, but viewed the open-source
Apache Hadoop project as a potential threat. The source reported no immediate
plans to purchase more from Oracle, but he did not rule it out either. He believes
the Database Appliance has strong market potential as a gateway to processing
upgrades and a way to lure new customers into Oracle‟s stable.
“In general, we are happy with the experience and the Exadata
machine. We have been with Oracle for a long time, and our existing
solution was a regular server with Oracle/Linux. We decided to get the
Exadata because we were in the process of redesigning our processing
and rebuilding our system to improve our analytic offerings. We needed
more power to calculate a lot of information.”
“Because our business relies on software and is very focused on
database processing, we did not want to just add more servers. You
basically have two choices. You can go the Google route and have huge
server centers, but Oracle‟s way is much faster and more efficient.”
“We bought a quarter rack. I can‟t comment on the exact price, but it
cost us over half a million and less than one million. It will cost us
$87,000 a year for premium support. We don‟t have any immediate
plans to get another one, but we are not at all against getting another
one.”
“The increased speed has been impressive and the machine reliable,
which is important to us because we only have two database
administrators. We had one job that normally took us 20 days to run,
and with Exadata, we could run it in one hour. We are using it on a lot
more jobs than we originally intended because of its performance and
speed. Another job that took us multiple days before now runs in minutes.”
“In another case to test the speed differential, we had a job that required analysis of 10 million records. It was
not a simple job because it was recursive. To process the data on the Exadata took 14 days. The same job using
a dual-quad with 2.9 gigahertz and a Dell with 96 gigabytes took 74 days. And on a small system with 32
gigabytes of RAM and 2.6 gigahertz, it took 120 days. So you can see the speed of the Exadata is dramatically
faster than what we had before. And it‟s reliable.”
“We are not using it in the classic way a company might use it. We are using it as a data factory, and it also has
been able to create new data that goes into our system. When I say we are using it as a factory, I mean we are
using it to aggregate because we get data from maybe 33 different sources, like the U.S. Census.”
“We did at one point look at going with a shared memory system with NetApp [Inc./NTAP], similar to VMware
[Inc./VMW]. The Exadata was 25% more in cost, but we felt justified at the time in spending more. In hindsight, it
was worth it. There is not a lot of stuff to learn, so it‟s a small learning curve to change. We also ended up buying
the NetApp.”
“Is it saving money? Let‟s just say we would not be able to do without it. Since we are not using it as an order
entry system, I cannot speak for whether others are saving money, but in the right environment it could save
The increased speed has been
impressive and the machine
reliable, which is important to
us because we only have two
database administrators. We
had one job that normally took
us 20 days to run, and with
Exadata, we could run it in one
hour. We are using it on a lot
more jobs than we originally
intended because of its
performance and speed.
Another job that took us
multiple days before now runs
in minutes.
Senior VP of products/IT
SAS-based Software Solutions Co.
Oracle Corp.’s Exadata
321 Pacific Ave., San Francisco, CA 94111 | www.blueshiftideas.com
8
some companies money. But that is not how we are using it. We did
save some [electricity] power, space and cooling costs because we
didn‟t have the extra servers.”
“Does it save space and energy and cooling costs? Absolutely. But the
major reason we bought it was to build new and faster files. If buying
the Exadata only accomplished that, we would be extremely happy with
it. But it has opened up other opportunities for us.”
“Normally, we get such jobs and they have 30,000 to 40,000 records
and it takes 15 days. But we got offered a job with 2 million records
and they wanted it in 15 days. With Exadata we did it in three to four
days. This was a job we never would have been able to take before. In
another case, our online server system went down and there was a
screwed-up piece in the backup system because some hardware was
corrupted. So we shifted all of the data over to Exadata. Its ability to
handle workload and crank out data is incredible. So it has also bailed
us out in some cases while still handling big jobs.”
“As for challenges, we are a longtime Oracle shop, but there was some new technology we had to learn. We
didn‟t know how well we needed to know our data and there was a problem in the Unicode properties. So we
had to change some columns and fields because it was not loading properly. Glitches are generally a problem
with any new technology; they all have issues. But we weren‟t as prepared as we should have been and so there
were some problems because we wanted to do it ourselves. We didn‟t want to hand over our set-up to [Oracle].
Also, some of my people would say the support is not as good as it should be. We had some little problems and
called Oracle, but by the time they got back to us we had figured it out for ourselves.”
“At first, it did not seem to be running as well as we had hoped, but they sent a guy right away and he stayed for
four days to tune it up. But it was nothing that put us behind schedule. The only other issue was that they
shipped the Exadata machine to us on time, but something went wrong with getting the cables. We had to wait
three weeks to get the cables, and the machine was just sitting there idle. They were pretty upset because there
was some sort of a glitch in their internal ordering and supply system, and they didn‟t have cables on hand. But
overall, I would still characterize our experience as a relatively smooth install. Would we do it again knowing
what we know now? Yes.”
“Exadata is allowing us to really change our competitive landscape. Before, customers could buy [our biggest
competitors‟] products or they could buy our services and use us to do the analysis. But with Exadata, [our
competitor] doesn‟t have the capability we now have. Next April, at a conference, we will show customers that
we can do more for them with our system than they can with theirs. Exadata at some point will allow us to add
services and to do stuff that we haven‟t been able to do before. And we will be able to charge additional fees to
create a new revenue stream.”
“I‟m not an IT geek, so I don‟t spend time reading about Exadata competitors. I suppose everything that comes
along is a threat to them. There are a lot of people doing big data
storage. Behind the scenes at Google [Inc./GOOG] there is the Hadoop
server, which is free [open source]. That is probably the most serious
threat. The language is free, and the licenses are free. You just need to
buy the servers. But then you end up with a lot of servers that consume
a lot of power and space.”
“We think the Oracle Database Appliance is a great idea. For $180,000
or so, you get an entry-level system you can use with Exadata. The
Appliance is not Exadata, but you do get a lot of the database
technology that is in the thumb of Exadata. It‟s more of a plug-and-play
device. We would think about getting the Appliance as an interim
device that would take us from where we are now to the next step. If
you want a faster scalable system and just have the rack. The
Appliance uses the notion of flash memory because you are able to
store information and when you want quick access you can transfer it.”
“The people in my group and the CEO felt there would be a real market
for Oracle‟s Appliance. It does not take a lot complexity. I don‟t how big
Does it save space and energy
and cooling costs? Absolutely.
But the major reason we
bought it was to build new and
faster files. If buying the
Exadata only accomplished
that, we would be extremely
happy with it. But it has opened
up other opportunities for us.
Senior VP of products/IT
SAS-based Software Solutions Co.
Exadata is allowing us to really
change our competitive
landscape. … Exadata at some
point will allow us to add
services and to do stuff that we
haven‟t been able to do before.
And we will be able to charge
additional fees to create a new
revenue stream.
Senior VP of products/IT
SAS-based Software Solutions Co.
Oracle Corp.’s Exadata
321 Pacific Ave., San Francisco, CA 94111 | www.blueshiftideas.com
9
a thing it could be, but I think a lot of people could use it. It could have strong appeal, and it would reduce the
learning curve to get into the Oracle world. I suspect it will do very well, and it‟s at a good price point. We
reviewed it and it would have cost us $187,000, all inclusive with a support contract. I had to go to our board to
get approval to buy the Exadata but probably would not have to make the case for a device that only costs
$187,000.”
Database architect at a global hospitality company
This source views the Exadata as the future of data management, especially for organizations that prefer to host their
own data instead of going to the cloud. The transition to the Exadata requires patience, conviction and willingness to
change, but the payoff is more than worthwhile. He believes the Database Appliance will succeed as a less expensive,
less powerful option for smaller companies.
“This is the first true breakthrough in the database world in years. In a
lot of ways it is the salvation of companies like mine that are struggling
with an effective ceiling on the number of accounts and inventory we
have to track on a close to real-time basis.”
“Like any innovation, this one requires customers to demonstrate high
conviction and roll with the changes. It‟s not simply a faster version of
an existing box. It requires IT to rethink the role of the database in the
overall organization. That may initially slow the adoption, and I think it
has.”
“For those organizations that can adapt to the demands of the Exadata
environment, the rewards are huge. As I noted, some of us simply had
to adapt or face the prospect of failure in the near term. There are only
so many servers you can throw at a problem of matching global assets
to customers around the world in real time. We have that problem, the
airlines have that problem, logistics companies definitely have that
problem.”
“In some ways we‟re too big for the cloud. This is almost a third approach between cloud-managed database—
which runs into the same problems I laid out, only faster as far as the cloud manager is concerned—and
traditional storage-oriented database buildout.”
“I think the [Database Appliance] now available lets enterprises ease the fear factor of trying the new
technology. It isn‟t cheap at any level, so the smaller the initial investment needs to be, the more it helps.”
“Once you buy in, storage concerns go away. The big concerns become managing the way the Exadata boxes fit
into the larger network. You‟re really managing around the box and letting the box do its job.”
COO for a leading marketing affiliate network
This source bought two separate halves of Exadata racks about a year ago and has been more than satisfied. Oracle will
continue to expand its Exadata product line in order to make it more reasonable for smaller customers to migrate to the
platform. The new Appliance is only the latest example of this down-market expansion. Deployment was relatively error-
free because he allotted the proper amount of time, and he expects to continue purchasing half racks every few years.
“We bought two half racks last summer in order to split them between two of our data centers. The goal here is
to expand our infrastructure in a balanced way, avoiding situations
where an outage at one data center might end up knocking out all of
our Exadata boxes at once. Redundancy and backup capacity are a
must for our customers.”
“In terms of scale, a single half rack would have worked for us, but we
wanted the redundancy. We were running about 6 terabytes total on
our database then and are now at close to 10 terabytes, which would
theoretically fit on a single Exadata half-rack configuration.”
“Most of Oracle‟s customers are actually in our range. There aren‟t
many petabyte-level organizations out there, and I‟ve been told most of
the world is still running at well under 10 terabytes. That‟s just the
database, of course, but then again, Exadata is just the database
housing.”
This is the first true
breakthrough in the database
world in years. In a lot of ways it
is the salvation of companies
like mine that are struggling
with an effective ceiling on the
number of accounts and
inventory we have to track on a
close to real-time basis.
Database Architect
Global Hospitality Company
We will probably keep buying in
two half increments every few
years until something better
comes along. But in the
meantime our needs are more
than met.
COO, Leading Marketing Affiliate
Network
Oracle Corp.’s Exadata
321 Pacific Ave., San Francisco, CA 94111 | www.blueshiftideas.com
10
“Opening up the configuration to allow half and now fourth rack purchases helps people like us that are adding
massive amounts of data—200 gigabytes a month—to the database, but are still not growing exponentially. The
new version makes it even easier to bring the offering down to smaller organizations although it‟s a lot of power
for a small company—probably more than they need.”
“We will probably keep buying in two half increments every few years until something better comes along. But in
the meantime our needs are more than met.”
“Installation and integration were relatively painless. These things always take a few weeks to a few months
longer than you think, but we allocated plenty of time for overage. One thing to point out is we were one of the
first organizations to use a third-party service bureau to set up our systems. I think there‟ve been a few others
since. We like Oracle, but didn‟t need the full service bill direct from the „mother ship.‟”
Database architect for an emerging markets wireless carrier
This source has consolidated 11 full racks of x86 servers into three racks of Exadata boxes. He characterizes
performance improvement as 10 times what his old hardware provided.
“We are happy customers and vocal evangelists of the technology. It sped up our customer billing by about
tenfold, and with 34 million subscribers, that improvement in processing power pays for itself.”
“We knew there were other solutions out there, but none offered the integrated storage and data analysis that
the Exadata does. It‟s the difference between choosing between several general-purpose machines and a highly
specialized solution for a highly specialized function.”
“We might have had a bit of an advantage in that our previous configuration was aging quickly, so it made sense
for us to replace it and upgrade our capacity at the same time. At our size, the pricing was surprisingly attractive
compared to simply replacing the old servers and buying more. It let us jump a step in the upgrade process from
somewhat antiquated servers to the best out there.”
“We are one of the enterprises for whom the Exadata storage solution was made. That is our upgrade path.”
Chief Oracle architect at a global technology consulting company
This source uses a fourth-rack Exadata as a staging server for client engagements. It delivers better speed than his in-
house solution, while adding capacity and efficiency. He appreciates the technology‟s built-in integration with Oracle
software, but notes that this limits the effective market to Oracle users. He had some qualms about the future of the Sun
Microsystems architecture that runs the system.
“We compete with Oracle in some markets and cooperate with them in others. Obviously, I‟m a cooperator, and
for my practice Exadata can deliver better outcomes than our own in-house technology. Naturally, my practice
has already selected into an Oracle environment, so it‟s natural that their technology glide path would point
toward an Exadata deployment.”
“The engineered technology allows not only relative miracles of speed—
jobs that took weeks or even months now take days—but scale. We
have been reaching the limits of database scalability in the last few
years with social networking and CRM applications that generate
hundreds of millions of rich, multidimensional records. Exadata
extends the life of the database by adding capacity, but more
importantly, making the entire database more efficient.”
“For Oracle processing, Exadata is the obvious choice. I haven‟t
benchmarked it against our in-house technology, but our technology is
oriented toward providing a different class of solutions. Exadata is for
real database-intensive enterprises that have to perform more
automated analysis. In effect, their customer database becomes their
transaction platform. For traditional search and analysis, other
solutions may offer a cost-competitive alternative.”
“Some people are wary of the fact that this machine is built out of Sun
hardware. They don‟t mind being on a SPARC machine but worry about
the long-term viability of the architecture. Will Oracle support it beyond
the next three or four years? Given the price point here and the fact
that these machines need to last more than three or four years, it‟s an
important question.”
Exadata can deliver better
outcomes than our own in-
house technology. … The
engineered technology allows
not only relative miracles of
speed but scale. We have been
reaching the limits of database
scalability in the last few years.
… Exadata extends the life of
the database by adding
capacity, but more importantly,
making the entire database
more efficient.
Chief Oracle Architect
Global Technology Consulting Company
Oracle Corp.’s Exadata
321 Pacific Ave., San Francisco, CA 94111 | www.blueshiftideas.com
11
“We bought our Exadata as soon as the small-scale deployment became available since we really only needed a
proof-of-concept testing environment. Installation went smoothly since we work really well with their people and
needed a pure vanilla deployment. Customization would have only made it useless for our purposes. I‟ve heard
some customers are unhappy about the long integration process.”
Head of information management for a major billing services vendor
This source bought a half Exadata rack in order to woo potential utility customers. He is excited about the technology and
considers it the only way to make true smart-grid computing possible.
“We have a small investment in Exadata hardware, largely as a showpiece for our conversations with leading
utility companies looking for a way to implement the smart grid. In the meantime, the box hosts our internal
systems analytics and other higher-level functions we need for running our own databases.”
“The best way to characterize our deployment is as a version of the solid-state drive that runs the performance-
intensive functions while the bulk of the data lives on traditional hard drives. It can be slower because it‟s not as
performance-intensive or frequently accessed, so it can remain in the older and cheaper media.”
“The exciting thing is going to be engineering larger systems that run on an Exadata or other super-server but
are not built exclusively out of super-servers. Buying and linking three racks of these machines creates a small
and profoundly high-performance network, but it‟s also a profoundly expensive network. The analogy of the sliver
of high-grade solid-state flash driving the file server is appropriate here. That flash is incredibly expensive at the
densities you need, so it makes more sense to round out the system with older alternatives.”
“Smart grid needs something like this hybrid system because utilities are cheap. They operate under significant
capital constraints, so aren‟t interested in dropping $3 million or $10 million on an all-new Exadata network.
They‟re all about buying only what‟s truly critical. That‟s a problem with the smart grid because you need so
much scale to control all the meters and their data flow, not to mention the very sophisticated billing.”
“Ironically, of course, they don‟t actually care about the power footprint because they are the power company.”
Director of enterprise business solutions for a global IT firm
This source bought several Exadata boxes to incorporate into his company‟s cloud processing business. The technology
has shown a noticeable improvement in managing large amounts of data. The decision to go with Exadata was largely
customer-motivated as they wanted faster processing power. The purchase is only weeks old and integration is still going
on, but the source reported no problems to date.
“It wasn‟t a choice for us. We have quite a few enterprise customers
who wanted extremely fast and scalable database processing power,
and since their systems are remotely housed in our data centers, they
needed the ability to do complex searches from across the earth. They
suggested the Exadata on their own.”
“I think the rationale for them was that they use Oracle as the front
end, so wanted a vertically integrated solution all the way down to the
hardware. We were happy to oblige since at the end they‟re the ones
paying the bill.”
“It‟s not a true, enhanced warehousing solution. There are other
machines that excel at pure storage of mostly cold data. Exadata is
best at working with active accounts and manipulating large amounts
of more frequently accessed data. The performance gain there is very
noticeable.”
“Fewer machines mean less maintenance and more power
conservation, which is critical here given the state of the power grid
already. Each Exadata machine is more expensive, but that‟s the way
of server evolution. The best practices always require the most
advanced hardware, which is most expensive.”
“And the biggest enterprise customers need the best practices because they‟re already at the limit of what
standard practices can deliver.”
“We only accepted delivery a few weeks ago and are still integrating our racks into our cloud architecture. So far
there have been no problems, unlike what you hear about the earlier versions.”
We have quite a few enterprise
customers who wanted
extremely fast and scalable
database processing power,
and since their systems are
remotely housed in our data
centers, they needed the ability
to do complex searches from
across the earth. They
suggested the Exadata on their
own.
Dir. of Enterprise Business Solutions
Global IT Firm
Oracle Corp.’s Exadata
321 Pacific Ave., San Francisco, CA 94111 | www.blueshiftideas.com
12
DBA for a retail food/beverage chain with branded stores and grocery products
The company recently purchase its third half Exadata rack and now is able to process and analyze data and conduct
operations previously out of reach on its older, outdated system. Challenges include a slight learning curve, especially for
DBAs less familiar with Oracle. Exadata is unique and cannot be compared with competitors such as Teradata.
“Roughly one year ago we bought and installed two half Exadata racks, and then recently we added to it and we
now have one full rack and a half rack. We were already on an Oracle rack system and platform. It was pretty
standard with Oracle software and HP [Hewlett-Packard Co./HPQ] hardware [server] so Exadata was a logical
extension and it was not as big a task to make the switch. We are using it for data warehousing and analytics.
The other system [HP] is no longer in use.”
“Before making the purchase, we did consider other options because
we do have a multitude of systems that we use here. Oracle is just one
of our platforms.”
“As advertised, it can do things that previously we could not do on our
existing systems. With big data, you have billions of rows of
information/data and that‟s really where Exadata shines. Dealing with
billions of rows of data is right up its alley.”
“Almost anything runs faster on Exadata, and it‟s hard to quantify
because of the system we had before. The processing is such that you
have to know how to leverage its unique characteristics so that it
moves faster or as fast as possible.”
“With Exadata, you still have to know how to take advantage of its
special features and how to leverage its power. There are things you
can do that would make it operate less smoothly. At the storage layer,
there are things Exadata can do with processing and churning the data, but when you operate it you have to
know how to take advantage of the smart scan. You have to know how to customize somewhat. Almost anything
runs faster on Exadata.”
“We no longer use a SAN, but we have other hardware in its place. I have seen presentations by Oracle that
promote its compression and ability to save space. And it‟s important for every data center not to proliferate. But
we weren‟t really bringing it in to consolidate in this case. We chose it to do something we couldn‟t do before
analytically.”
“One benefit, for example, is that at night we have to load the processor for the next day. As soon as we turned
on the Exadata, we noticed a difference. Before we would load data from midnight and end at about 6 a.m. But
now we‟re finished at 4 a.m. So we immediately gained time without making any code changes and right out of
the box. That in itself took some real pressure off the staff.”
“There have been some challenges. With the adoption of any new technology, you have to figure out or
understand what to view as wrong or what to view as right. There is always some noise. So there is a learning
curve, but I would say the learning curve is about average. It does help if you have worked with Oracle before
because there is always some degree of learning. That‟s the way it is with Oracle.”
“Has it helped our business overall? Yes.”
“The only competition out there is between Teradata and Netezza. They
are the only other ones in the data warehousing space. There are other
competitors outside of that if you pitch Exadata also as a database. But
either way, there are differences and it is unique. It is a different
animal. No one is really doing the offloading to the storage system that
Exadata does.”
“I was reading a new book about Oracle and Exadata and in the very
first chapter they ask the question „Can you build your own?‟ And you
can‟t. Oracle locks others out of building their own. They have in there
what people are calling the „secret software‟ that can talk to the
storage layer and do its own offloading. That‟s why you can‟t go out and
do it yourself. There really is no competition out there with a way of
doing that.”
As advertised, it can do things
that previously we could not do
on our existing systems. With
big data, you have billions of
rows of information/data and
that‟s really where Exadata
shines. Dealing with billions of
rows of data is right up its alley.
DBA, Retail Food/Beverage Chain
There is a learning curve, but I
would say the learning curve is
about average. It does help if
you have worked with Oracle
before because there is always
some degree of learning. That‟s
the way it is with Oracle.
DBA, Retail Food/Beverage Chain
Oracle Corp.’s Exadata
321 Pacific Ave., San Francisco, CA 94111 | www.blueshiftideas.com
13
“I don‟t see how Hadoop is a competitor. It doesn‟t follow the rules of the ACID [atomicity, consistency, isolation
and durability] test. Although I did hear of someone who was running Hadoop on Exadata. But, still, you have to
have the Exadata.”
Secondary Sources
These five secondary sources were focused on the changing administration dynamic in IT departments as a result of Exadata,
praise for the new device, details on cost and payment structure, and inputs on Database Appliance for SMBs.
Oct. 4 InfoWorld.com article
Oracle‟s Exadata machine requires constant administration, necessitating the learning of new skills and a new form of
database implementation. For decades, database implementation has been done through somewhat segregated jobs,
with employees such a server technicians and networking experts playing individual roles. However, Oracle‟s Exadata
technology requires a role for someone to oversee the whole process.
http://www.infoworld.com/d/business-intelligence/oracles-exadata-means-changes-dbas-174953
“Oracle‟s Exadata database machine can deliver the performance improvements the vendor claims, but also
demands that IT shops and database administrators undergo a shift in thinking as well as attain new skills, a
number of experts said this week at the OpenWorld conference in San Francisco.”
“Oracle intends Exadata to be the new reality for its customers, with it serving as a consolidation point for large
numbers of disparate servers and data stores.”
“For decades, IT shops have been dealing with database
implementations through "somewhat segregated" jobs, with server
technicians, networking experts and database administrators playing
individual roles, said Andy Flower, managing director of Right Triangle
Consulting, during a session at the show.”
“But Exadata‟s tight integration between those components presents a
challenge to the status quo. „You have to have a role that manages the
whole thing,‟ he said. „The technology makes it as such that you have
to administer them in constant.‟”
“There aren‟t „clear answers, but there are indications‟ as to which type
of employee is best suited to oversee an Exadata installation, he said.
„People with DBA experience are more likely to put their head around
the whole problem space, because they‟ve been dealing with data
rather than dealing with machines.‟”
“Arup Nanda, principal global database architect at Starwood Hotels
and Resorts Worldwide, has willingly embraced his new role.”
“Nanda now refers to himself as a „DMA,‟ or database machine administrator, he said during a session that
explored Exadata‟s architecture in great detail.”
“Similar sentiments were expressed during another session by Vinod Haval, vice president and database
product manager at Bank of America.”
“The bank is running two critical applications on Exadata, Haval said. Overall, the project has been „a
tremendous success from the performance perspective,‟ and will also provide great savings on storage thanks
to Exadata‟s advanced compression capabilities, he said.”
“But Oracle „was walking with us hand-in-hand through the process,‟ he added. „We had to make sure we had
the right skills internally.‟”
“If one were to break down the skill set of a solid Exadata administrator, it would constitute 60 percent
database expertise, 20 percent with storage and another 20 percent or so with Linux and UNIX, Haval said.”
“Remote database administration provider Pythian Group has been aggressively moving into the Exadata
business. The Ottawa, Ontario, company was recognized by Oracle this week for its work implementing and
managing an Exadata system for online marketing company LinkShare.”
“Enterprise IT shops that decide against hiring specialists like Pythian to help them with Exadata can be
successful if the right elements are in place, said Paul Vallee, founder and executive chairman, in an interview.”
Oracle‟s Exadata database
machine can deliver the
performance improvements the
vendor claims, but also
demands that IT shops and
database administrators
undergo a shift in thinking as
well as attain new skills, a
number of experts said this
week.
InfoWorld.com Article
Oracle Corp.’s Exadata
321 Pacific Ave., San Francisco, CA 94111 | www.blueshiftideas.com
14
“Companies can train their DBAs on Oracle‟s Linux distribution, get them Exadata training certifications „and
accept the incremental risk,‟ he said. „You could also try to hire away an Exadata specialist, but good luck,‟
Vallee added.”
“The ideal target for an Exadata administrator is a solid DBA „with a
special interest in the systems side‟ as well as areas like data modeling
and an understanding of Oracle‟s various clustering technologies,
Vallee said. „Then I think the learning curve is manageable.‟”
“CCC Information Services, which offers a variety of software
applications that help auto insurance companies manage and evaluate
claims, is about to undertake an Exadata implementation.”
“CCCIS is doing some staff shuffling in anticipation of Exadata‟s
management responsibilities, said Patrick Traynor, vice president of
architecture, in an interview. „We‟re in the planning stages and we feel
pretty good about it.‟”
“CCCIS did not do a full proof-of-concept exercise for Exadata before it
bought the system, but had extensive conversations with existing
customers, according to Traynor.”
“The company is eagerly anticipating the performance boosts and
storage savings Exadata is supposed to provide, but there‟s more to the investment than that, said Chetan Ghai,
senior vice president of global marketing and product strategy.”
“Exadata should give CCCIS some headroom to roll out new applications, especially ones with predictive
capabilities that can save insurance carriers money and streamline claims processing, he said.”
July 21 TDWI.org article
An industry commentator reviewed version 2.0 of Exadata and praised the device for its ability to improve speed, lower
costs and offer a potential for tasks that have not yet been realized, including Enterprise Performance Management.
http://tdwi.org/articles/2010/07/21/oracle-exadata-v2.aspx
“Veteran industry watcher Merv Adrian recently took an in-depth look at Oracle Corp.‟s Exadata version 2.0—aka,
the Oracle Sun Database Machine.”
“Adrian liked what he saw. He says the revamped offering‟s combination of features—cutting edge storage (SSD
and Flash Cache), high-performance I/O (which exploits solid state storage to reduce latencies and increase I/O
operations), and a quasi-analytic database architecture (Oracle‟s „Hybrid Columnar Compression‟)—achieves a
kind of gestalt effect in which the Exadata V2 whole is considerably greater than the sum of its parts.”
“„The real „secret sauce‟ of Oracle Exadata V2 is the way in which these technologies complement each other to
deliver additional performance and scalability,‟ writes Adrian, a principal with IT Market Strategy.”
“„Traditionally, server, storage, and database technologies from different vendors achieved excellent
optimization within their own spheres, but that optimization often worked at cross-purposes with other parts of
the data-management architecture,‟ he continues. „[D]atabase and
storage vendors have traditionally optimized data storage for different
user needs, so that a [SAN] … solution aimed at remote-PC document
and video data could undercut the optimization of a data-warehouse
data store.‟”
“Exadata V2 serves up a more synergistic arrangement, Adrian notes.
This could help explain Oracle‟s extremely optimistic performance
claims.”
“„In querying, the [Exadata] database engine works in concert with the
storage solution, with server and storage being allocated query tasks in
a version of load balancing across CPU, SSD, and disk-array
processing,‟ he explains. „Storage allocation and compression are
integrated between the storage manager and the database engine. The
CPU can operate on less data, as retrieval is assisted by pushdown
processing in the storage layer.‟”
“Adrian also lauds Exadata‟s workload management capability. Data
warehousing stalwart Teradata Corp. likes to trumpet its own workload
The ideal target for an Exadata
administrator is a solid DBA
„with a special interest in the
systems side‟ as well as areas
like data modeling and an
understanding of Oracle‟s
various clustering technologies,
Vallee said. „Then I think the
learning curve is manageable.
InfoWorld.com Article
He says the revamped
offering‟s combination of
features—cutting edge storage,
high-performance I/O, and a
quasi-analytic database
architecture—achieves a kind of
gestalt effect in which the
Exadata V2 whole is
considerably greater than the
sum of its parts.
TDWI.org Article
Oracle Corp.’s Exadata
321 Pacific Ave., San Francisco, CA 94111 | www.blueshiftideas.com
15
management expertise, which it says permits its DW platform accommodate a mix of different workloads—and
prioritize certain workloads based on the roles, responsibilities, or needs of users. For a while now, rival Hewlett-
Packard Co. (HP) has been making similar claims about its Neoview DW platform.”
“More recently, vendors such as analytic database specialists Kognitio, Netezza Inc., and Vertica Inc. have
trumpeted their own mixed workload bona fides. Although none of these players (with the exception of HP)
claims to offer Teradata-like workload management, all claim to achieve good enough service (in some cases,
they claim, by virtue of the superior speed of their analytic database platforms) for most users.”
“Oracle, too, likes to claim that it can consider the goods—i.e., adequate query response times and availability
levels that are appropriate to user classes or roles—mixed query-wise. If
nothing else, Adrian writes, Exadata V2 seems to have the makings of a
mixed workload performer.”
“„[W]hile complex-query data-analysis solutions use hybrid-columnar
technology up and down the integrated stack to deliver deeper analysis
on smaller, compressed data sets that have been rapidly pre-filtered by
smart storage, Oracle Exadata‟s OLTP write-heavy solutions can take
advantage of the new SSDs to process transactions faster, with fewer
buffer flushes, and less forced swapping to disk,‟ he points out.”
“Adrian offers an assessment of Exadata V2 as part of a new wave of
category-inaugurating devices. „[T]he potential of Oracle Exadata lies in
its ability to do what is already being done, but faster and cheaper, or in
the assurance [for existing or prospective customers] that they may
now be able to keep ahead of ever-growing demands for more data,‟ he
comments. “But an equally significant—and perhaps more exciting—use
of Oracle Exadata is the promise of using its raw power to do
something that hasn‟t been done before. One example of this might be
Enterprise Performance Management.‟”
“EPM, according to Adrian, has a much more ambitious scope than
vanilla business or corporate performance management.”
“„Twenty years ago, it might take a month to do a yearly plan for a large-
scale enterprise, and a month to record the quarterly „actuals‟ and
come out with a quarterly set of balance sheet, income statement, and
cash analysis,‟ he explains. „Today, consolidation of weekly results from
a 150-line-of-business global enterprise, followed by comparison with
plan, replanning, and rebudgeting, can be done in less than a working
day.‟”
“The takeaway? New and hitherto unimaginable responsiveness, according to Adrian. „This speedup means that
enterprise-wide plans are not cast in concrete for a full year; they can be modified, drastically if necessary, on a
monthly or even weekly basis, when the organization changes strategy in midstream,‟ he continues. „But the real
new EPM application potential is in using deeper what-if analysis during the consolidation process to drive more
granular plan/budget modifications.‟ In other words, Adrian concludes, an offering like Exadata makes it
possible for „EPM to move surprisingly close to real-time reaction to events.‟”
Sept. 22 Silicon.com article
Oracle is launching Database Appliance, aimed at SMBs. The new product will offer the same general functions as
Exadata but on a smaller scale.
http://www.silicon.com/technology/hardware/2011/09/22/oracle-gives-exadata-a-little-brother-with-launch-of-
database-appliance-39747990/
“Exadata now has a younger sibling after Oracle launched its Database Appliance.”
“Like Exadata, Database Appliance is a combination of servers, storage and networking kit coupled with Oracle
software. And, like Exadata, Oracle‟s predicting it will be put to work for OLTP, consolidation and data
warehousing uses.”
“However, unlike Exadata, Database Appliance is aimed at the mid-market: small and medium businesses and
departmental systems.”
[T]he potential of Oracle
Exadata lies in its ability to do
what is already being done, but
faster and cheaper, or in the
assurance [for existing or
prospective customers] that
they may now be able to keep
ahead of ever-growing
demands for more data,‟ he
comments. But an equally
significant—and perhaps more
exciting—use of Oracle Exadata
is the promise of using its raw
power to do something that
hasn‟t been done before. One
example of this might be
Enterprise Performance
Management.
TDWI.org Article
Oracle Corp.’s Exadata
321 Pacific Ave., San Francisco, CA 94111 | www.blueshiftideas.com
16
“Database Appliance, which Oracle has dubbed a „database hardware cluster in a box,‟ comes with two servers,
12TB of total storage (4TB of usable storage, triple-mirrored) and is loaded with Oracle software including the
company‟s 11g Enterprise Edition database product, as well as Oracle Linux and Oracle Appliance Manager.”
“Oracle customers will be able to transfer existing [licenses] onto the system, according to the company.”
“While the Database Appliance will be sold in single a hardware configuration, businesses can [license] software
for it according to demand—from an initial two cores up to a maximum of 24. Equally, [licenses] can be scaled
back down again if cores are no longer needed.”
Sept. 19 ZDNet article
The Database Appliance could bring Oracle‟s products more mainstream and add $1 to $2 billion in revenue.
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/oracles-exadata-mini-would-aim-for-midmarket/58312
“Oracle is prepping an Exadata mini appliance geared toward mid-market customers, according to an analyst.”
“The company is expected to unveil this Exadata mini at its OpenWorld conference in October, said Piper Jaffray
analyst Mark Murphy. It‟s unlikely that Oracle would call its latest Exadata a „mini,‟ but Murphy said it‟s the best
he could come up with to highlight that the company is launching a lower end version of its database appliance.”
“In a research note, Murphy wrote:
o Our checks and analysis indicate Oracle will introduce an Exadata “mini” box at its OpenWorld user
conference in October. The device is a mid-market database appliance designed to be extremely easy
to manage and small enough to sit underneath a desk. We estimate a price point of $100K-$200K,
well below Exadata prices of $500K-$2.5M. This is an important strategic move for Oracle because
thus far, Exadata‟s price tag has created sticker shock for all but the very largest organizations.”
“If Oracle follows through on its midmarket Exadata box, Murphy estimated that the company would garner an
extra $1 billion to $2 billion in revenue.”
“More importantly, Oracle would be able to make its Exadata machines more mainstream. Among some of the
details via Murphy:
o The Exadata could fit under a desk;
o Customers wouldn‟t need a database admin to maintain the Exadata environment;
o The focus of the Exadata mini would be ease of management over running complex enterprise
applications.”
“Add it up and Oracle seems to be making a play for the SMB market, which has traditionally be Microsoft‟s turf.
In addition, this new Exadata box could expand Oracle‟s server market share, which is just above 7 percent
through the second quarter, according to IDC.”
Oracle Corp.’s Exadata
321 Pacific Ave., San Francisco, CA 94111 | www.blueshiftideas.com
17
Sept 18 Oracle Optimization article
Oracle has a list price of more than $1 million for its Exadata machine but prices software separately.
http://oracleoptimization.com/2011/09/18/exadata-pricing/
“A reader asked that we cover how Exadata is priced.”
“It‟s important to note that Oracle is somewhat unique in that list pricing for Exadata and the associated
software is publicly available. Not that it matters much since discounting makes millions of dollars of difference
between what is published and what you may end up paying. On that
note, each of the four Exadata flavors has been added to Simple Quote
via the new drop down menu. This makes assessing how software
discounts will affect your mileage significantly easier.”
“In any case, Exadata pricing is a lump sum for an integrated stack of
servers, storage, network and operating system. X2-2 Full Rack, for
example, has a list price of $1,100,000.00. A keen eye notices that the
three support fees add up to 22% of the machine price, which is the
standard software support fee structure. This reminds me of when
Oracle kept update and support fees separate.”
“Here‟s the important part: software is sold separately, as noted in the
marketing literature. This means that pricing software for Exadata is
the traditional method of applying core factors to calculate how many
Processors for the database and extra-cost options you want. Licenses
for Enterprise Database, RAC, Management Packs, etc., that are sitting
on the shelf or being freed up from retiring existing workloads may be
transferred to Exadata. The only new gotcha is Exadata Storage
Software that is licensed per Disk Drive.”
“Exadata is a clear picture of how Oracle likes to operate. First, it has
simplified the bill of materials. This same stack of gear in the best of
breed model would be dozens of SKUs; for Oracle, it is one. Second,
Oracle has protected it‟s maintenance revenues by not including the
database software in the stack pricing. Otherwise customers could terminate expensive maintenance
agreements in return for a better discount on new software. Finally, Oracle is promoting itself as the first to think
of engineering hardware and software to work together from the factory. In reality, Oracle works with HP, IBM
and Dell to optimize it‟s products on other stacks.”
Next Steps
Blueshift‟s next report on Exadata will include a silo of sources who have not adopted Exadata to learn if they are entertaining
plans to make a switch. This will provide insight as to whether Exadata is adding to Oracle‟s business or simply serving as a
migration pattern for existing customers. We also will speak with sources who have purchased the Database Appliance to
learn how the product is faring with its intended audience and if it is adding SMBs to Oracle‟s client list. Lastly, we will explore
whether Exadata is hurting former Oracle partners such as EMC, IBM, Cisco and Dell.
Additional research by Carolyn Marshall and Scott Martin
The Author(s) of this research report certify that all of the views expressed in the report accurately reflect their personal views about any and all of the subject securities
and that no part of the Author(s) compensation was, is or will be, directly or indirectly, related to the specific recommendations or views in this report. The Author does not
own securities in any of the aforementioned companies.
OTA Financial Group LP has a membership interest in Blueshift Research LLC. OTA LLC, an SEC registered broker dealer subsidiary of OTA Financial Group LP, has both
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OTA LLC, its principals, employees or clients may have an interest in the securities discussed herein, in securities of other issuers in other industries, may provide bids and
In any case, Exadata pricing is
a lump sum for an integrated
stack of servers, storage,
network and operating system.
X2-2 Full Rack, for example,
has a list price of
$1,100,000.00. A keen eye
notices that the three support
fees add up to 22% of the
machine price, which is the
standard software support fee
structure. This reminds me of
when Oracle kept update and
support fees separate.
Oracle Optimization Article
Oracle Corp.’s Exadata
321 Pacific Ave., San Francisco, CA 94111 | www.blueshiftideas.com
18
offers of the subject companies and may act as principal in connection with such transactions. Craig Gordon, the founder of Blueshift, has an investment in OTA Financial
Group LP.
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