IBM AIX vs. Oracle Exadata

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
IBM AIX
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
IBM AIX (for Advanced Interactive eXecutive) is a Unix operating system, developed, offered and supported by IBM.N/A
Oracle Exadata
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Oracle Exadata is an enterprise database platform that runs Oracle Database workloads of any scale and criticality with high performance, availability, and security. Exadata’s scale-out design employs optimizations that let transaction processing, analytics, machine learning, and mixed workloads run faster. Consolidating diverse Oracle Database workloads on Exadata platforms in enterprise data centers, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), and multicloud environments helps organizations increase…
$2.90
Per Unit
Pricing
IBM AIXOracle Exadata
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Database Server
$2.9032
Per Unit
Quarter Rack
$14.5162
Per Unit
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
IBM AIXOracle Exadata
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
IBM AIXOracle Exadata
Considered Both Products
IBM AIX
Chose IBM AIX
We used both types of servers: IBM AIX and Linux (RHEL). I think IBM AIX has an advantage when using large servers with virtualization.
Oracle Exadata
Chose Oracle Exadata
IBM AIX and HP-UX implementations of Oracle database solutions have a lot of performance issues. Both do not provide as much robust configuration customization as Exadata. Hardware support is limited. There is generally a long delay between hardware update being certified with …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
IBM AIXOracle Exadata
Small Businesses
Ubuntu
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Score 9.0 out of 10
Google BigQuery
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Score 8.6 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Score 9.2 out of 10
Cloudera Enterprise Data Hub
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Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Score 9.2 out of 10
Cloudera Enterprise Data Hub
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Score 9.0 out of 10
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User Ratings
IBM AIXOracle Exadata
Likelihood to Recommend
9.6
(11 ratings)
9.0
(21 ratings)
Support Rating
7.5
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
IBM AIXOracle Exadata
Likelihood to Recommend
IBM
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.
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Oracle
  • 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%.
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Pros
IBM
  • The newer version of IBM AIX allows to apply new patches without system restart
  • IBM AIX was the first operating system to have a journaling file system and have enhanced software features.
  • IBM AIX will have good vendor support 24/7 and will ensure reliability to the customers and more performance when compared to it peers.
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Oracle
  • 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.
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Cons
IBM
  • A lot of the built-in commands have not been updated in years. If you're used to some fancy CLI options in Linux, you may be out of luck with AIX.
  • Out of the box, you cannot run open-source Linux utilities on AIX. There is a toolbox you can install, however, it's not the same versions as you would get in different Linux flavors.
  • Tab completion for files and Up arrow to re-run previous commands don't work out of the box without running a Korn shell. A small annoyance, but one that catches me every time!
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Oracle
  • 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.
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Support Rating
IBM
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.
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Oracle
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
IBM
Standard Linux distributions which are used more as commodity servers do not offer the ease of scale and growth that we see with our Aix implementations. IBM owning the HW and SW portions of the stack allows for tighter integrations and better performance windows.
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Oracle
Oracle Exadata Database Machine had the best performance overall hands down. It clearly beat the competition and we were seeing 1000X improvement on SAP HANA. Oracle Exadata Database Machine beat that without us refactoring our code. To achieve that in HANA, we had to refactor the code somewhat. Now this was for our limited POC of 5 use cases. Given the large number of stored procedures we had in Sybase, we need to capture more production metrics but we are seeing incredible performance.
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Return on Investment
IBM
  • IBM AIX on Power hardware has been the backbone of our most critical applications.
  • The versatility of IBM AIX virtualization has been extremely useful, scalable, and provided configuration with redundant dual VIO servers.
  • IBM AIX is not Linux so special skill sets are needed to actually manage the systems. Finding qualified engineers can often be a challenge
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Oracle
  • Single support from a single vendor with both machine and database from Oracle, which is costing us less.
  • With Exadata, we need less technical manpower and less technical support. A business transaction with the integrated and centralized database helps us focus on other business needs.
  • We don't need to buy additional licenses and Hardware for the next 3 to 5 years.
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