IBM AIX vs. Oracle Exadata

IBM AIX is a very powerful and extremely stable operating environment. It is well suited for applications that are business critical and cannot tolerate outages. It is best used to address large enterprise level application needs where stability and scalability are of paramount importance. IBM AIX is less useful for small enterprises.

Incentivized

• First, get the database on Oracle. If you are in an Oracle stack, it would be much better to use the Oracle products. If you are driving a Ferrari, you wouldn’t put a Mercedes engine in it. If you are writing a query, you cannot rely on other brands. Since I'm an architect, when I look for a product, I look for performance.
• The installation is easy because it comes out-of-the-box and you just start using it.
• Previous to Oracle Exadata, we were using a normal Oracle RAC service. We were just waiting for this product to come out.
• I'm currently writing a data warehouse on Exadata. Before this solution, we were aiming for this to be completed by 8 a.m., when our ETLs would finish. With the help of Exadata's special features, this was reduced to 3 a.m. This solution allows us to bring more data within the same time period. It provides us with more subject areas that provide more reports to our users. Our ETL times reduced to 65%, then to 50%.

Incentivized

• IBM AIX is a very stable server product, and I can't recall a time when the server has crashed due to a hardware fault.
• If you have legacy software that can't run on the new-fangled Linux flavors, AIX might be the way to go.
• AIX has a host of built-in management tools that makes system configuration easy for a novice.

Incentivized

• Customize-able for specific functionality optimized for combination of online transaction or analytical processing.
• Ability to serve mix workloads with resource management feature enables prioritizing allocation for certain workload.
• Scale-able on-premise with compatibility for cloud deployment offers flexible solution for organization considering to transition from on-premise solution.

Incentivized

• While there are options to install some standard Linux tools like Bash, they are not always easy to procure
• Allowing easier flexibility in how some tools and CLI options work would make it easier for admins to float between operating systems.

Incentivized

• Patching can often become quite involved and convoluted. It should be more transparent and straightforward.
• Storage metrics can be difficult and time consuming to obtain.
• Basic administrative functions can be hard to repair when discovered.
• Vendor support can take a while to obtain. Generally several attempts are necessary to reach the right area of vendor expertise.

Incentivized

AIX is robust, helps the systems administrator, is built to prevent easily made mistakes. If you are used to other variants of Unix (in particularly Linux) there is no steep learning curve to get started with AIX. You need to learn the intricacies of the operating system, but that is true for any new operating system. AIX has built-in tools for almost anything you want and has the AIX Toolbox (on the web) for tools that are not included with AIX by default, but can be installed. Installation of AIX is modular, you can select with components and features you want to have installed. Installation of additional components (and usually also removal of installed components) is easy and straight-forward.

I am comparing Exadata with the Oracle RAC database experience. In addition to Oracle RAC features, Exadata provides automatic performance optimization through Smart Scan and storage indexes. Deep integration with the Oracle ecosystem and tight coupling with Oracle Enterprise Manager
for monitoring and management. Some downsides of Exadata are: a steep learning curve, concepts like cell offloading, IORM, and flash cache behavior aren’t intuitive initially. Operating
Exadata requires specialized DBA skills.

Incentivized

There is lots of documentation out there for AIX. On the times I've had to address a hardware issue, IBM's support has been great.

Incentivized

Compared to other Unix-like operating systems, IBM AIX is the one with a solid roadmap into the future and is likely to stay around for a long time (it is over 30 years old and still being updated with new features and components all the time). Compared to many Linux variants, the AIX operating system is more robust, easier to manage and well-supported by its vendor.

I couldn’t find all the options listed here, so I’m
summarizing the ones we considered during our evaluation before selecting
Oracle Exadata Service on AWS:


Continuing
to use the Oracle RAC on‑premise database
Running
Oracle Database on AWS EC2
Using
Oracle Database through the AWS RDS service


Since we wanted to retain Oracle RAC capabilities while
achieving high performance and maintaining our presence in the AWS public
cloud, we selected the Oracle Database @AWS Exadata service.

Incentivized

• IBM AIX is more expensive but its worth to have it for the features its embedded with
• It's not suited for small customers because of the hardware cost as the ROI will be less for smaller customers.
• IBM AIX is well suited for companies who has more customers so that ROI doesn't impact.

• One of the central critical systems was migrated from a large 4-node Oracle RAC running on legacy hardware. This application was experiencing severe performance issues literally causing loss of service for numerous customers. Once it was migrated to a 2-node Exadata server, its average performance improved almost by a level of magnitude, therefore eliminating any signs of application slowness.
• Numerous application databases were migrated to Exadata servers which reduced the overall cost of hardware due to Exadata's price structure.

Incentivized