With Exadata X9M, Oracle has a new version of its database machine Foot. These are preconfigured systems that consist of a server, database software, and management and control tools. Oracle started its hardware about ten years ago. The basis was server technology acquired through the acquisition of Sun Microsystems.
With the new database machine, the manufacturer promises its customers an additional increase in performance. Compared to the previous generation, Exadata X9M mainly accelerates OLTP (Online Transaction Processing) processes. IOPS (Input and Output Operations Per Second) rates will be up to 87 percent higher, and response times for SQL queries are less than 19 milliseconds. Analytical scans of data stores have a capacity of more than terabytes per second. With the system, users can reduce transaction workload costs by up to 42 percent, and for analytical workloads, the potential for savings is up to 47 percent.
Oracle uses the latest Intel CPUs and Optane Persistent Memory (PMem) from the same manufacturer in its hardware. The systems can be equipped with a maximum of 576 CPUs. Compared to its predecessors, this means an increase of 33 percent. Storage capacity has been expanded by 28 percent. Oracle executives announce that users can consolidate more databases into a single Exadata system. This reduces costs and complexity in the process. In addition to transactional operations, users can also run analytical and machine learning workloads. Any combination of application domains within a database machine is also possible.
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What’s new in upcoming Exadata systems is that users can now also run Oracle’s current generation of database automation, which was previously only available in the provider’s public cloud infrastructure, in their own data centers. “Cloud @ Customer” from Oracle is required for this. This infrastructure variant is based on the same set of technology as Oracle’s public cloud, but operates in the data centers of user companies. Customers rent these systems that are still owned by Oracle and also operated and managed by the manufacturer.
In addition to expanding database options, Oracle is also expanding the functionality of its Exadata systems. For example, individual database instances can now be mapped to specific CPU resources in a more precise manner. Encryption, the key of which is only under the control of the user, should ensure more security. According to Oracle, Access Control Lists (ACLs) ensure more transparency in managing licenses and database access. Oracle Autonomous Data Guard extends disaster recovery to multiple cloud regions. In the future, users will also be able to set up data replication and process data flow in real time across many areas of the provider’s cloud.
Oracle recently introduced “Zero Data Loss Recovery Appliance X9M”. The pre-built system should help users better secure their databases and arm themselves against ransomware attacks. Thus the processes related to backup and recovery can be largely automated.