Exadata - It's more than one could ever expect
Overall Satisfaction with Oracle Exadata Database Machine
We used Exadata across the entire organization. We needed a super high-performance database platform for Oracle - and Exadata was exactly what we needed. While the initial cost and learning curve were a bit steep, the performance improvements in all our database applications were nothing short of phenomenal. If we could have afforded to switch over entirely to Exadata we would have had stellar results. For those database applications we did not place on Exadata it was painful to know there's a better platform and way to go. If budget were not an issue we would have done so. It's almost impossible to value the smart scan technology and cell offloading until you see it in practice. The technology delivers on every promise and in general, is far better than one expects.
Pros
- The smart scan and cell offloading churn through massive amounts of data in a far more efficient and timely manner than any other Oracle database platform option available.
- We did not have to change any application code to deploy on Exadata. We never allowed optimizer hints in our application code so we had zero issues when we upgraded.
- We actually were able to consolidate many databases onto a single Exadata box - far more than we had ever expected.
Cons
- I wish Exadata costs were just a little lower to overcome new users initial price shock. But once you see it in action the issue disappears.
- I wish the Exadata technology were available on non-Oracle hardware/servers. In theory it should be able to be done on other servers, but it's blocked by Oracle it seems.
- The new Exadata Express in the cloud is misleading, it does not have full smart scan capabilities. So people who try to experiment with Exadata first on the cloud may not see the real benefit and not understand why.
- We did encounter some maintenance issues with higher parts costs. For example we had numerous server fans die and it costs like $400 per fan for the same server fans it seems as any server that costs like $30.
- You must train your Oracle DBAs for Exadata. It is not just simply an Oracle database with some minor extras. To best leverage its capabilities and to successfully manage Exadata you need about 3-4 weeks of special training (even for long time Oracle experts).
- Exadata updates are a little more complicated and take extra planning.
Exadata beats the competition because the smart scan and offloading technology is more about software than hardware, so you cannot just buy a beefy server and add flash disks to compete. The Exadata software is what makes it special.
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