Omar Hurtado - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Coordinator at Universal Electronics
Real User
Responsive support, easy to scale , and stable
Pros and Cons
  • "Oracle Database as a Service is stable."
  • "Oracle Database as a Service is difficult to set up. They should make it easier."

What is our primary use case?

Oracle Database as a Service is used for business and financial systems. It's an enterprise business solution.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Oracle Database as a Service for approximately six years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Oracle Database as a Service is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of Oracle Database as a Service is easy to do.

We have approximately 2,000 people using this solution.

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How are customer service and support?

I have had some incidences in the past months using Oracle Database as a Service and I used the support. The support escalation was in a timely fashion.

How was the initial setup?

Oracle Database as a Service is difficult to set up. They should make it easier.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I recommend Database as a Service to others over other similar solutions, such as Microsoft Dynamics or SAP.

What other advice do I have?

I recommend this solution to others.

I rate Oracle Database as a Service an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Senior Database Administrator at BCIE
Real User
Easily scaled, reliable, and simple setup
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of Oracle Database as a Service is its use as a provisioning database."
  • "I have had a hard time finding some documentation. There should provide easier accessible documentation for Oracle Database as a Service."

What is our primary use case?

We are using Oracle Database as a Service only development environments and QA or UAT environments. We do not have it in production.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of Oracle Database as a Service is its use as a provisioning database.

What needs improvement?

I have had a hard time finding some documentation. There should provide easier accessible documentation for Oracle Database as a Service.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Oracle Database as a Service for approximately three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Oracle Database as a Service is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have found Oracle Database as a Service to be scalable. It can scale easily.

We have approximately 30 people using this solution.

How are customer service and support?

I have never used the support.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of Oracle Database as a Service is easy. There were only a few things that needed to be set up.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price of Oracle Database as a Service could be better.

What other advice do I have?

My advice to others is that they need to know how to administer the solution.

I rate Oracle Database as a Service a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Oracle Database as a Service
April 2024
Learn what your peers think about Oracle Database as a Service. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
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Sr. Curiculum Developer at o9solutions.com
Real User
Top 10
They have availability domains in different regions, so you will never lose your data.
Pros and Cons
  • "The scalability and high availability are the most valuable features of Oracle DaaS."
  • "Earlier, the interface was continuously changing. Features you used would be moved somewhere else, so it was a little challenging to navigate, but now I think it's stable."

What is most valuable?

The scalability and high availability are the most valuable features of Oracle DaaS. 

What needs improvement?

Earlier, the interface was continuously changing. Features you used would be moved somewhere else, so it was a little challenging to navigate, but now I think it's stable. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Oracle for six or seven years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Oracle DaaS is highly stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Oracle DaaS is scalable.

How are customer service and support?

We created a curriculum from Oracle University to train our staff, so we don't need much support. 

How was the initial setup?

Setting up Oracle DaaS wasn't difficult. Most of the stuff was there. You only need to enter the name of the database, and that's it. However, you need a little more information to set up an on-prem database. One person can set up Oracle DaaS.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Oracle Database as a Service nine out of 10. It's easy to implement and use. Disaster recovery is easy. Oracle has availability domains in different regions, so you will never lose your data. Oracle has built expertise in database solutions for the last 35 years, and now they are offering this in a cloud service

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
IT Program Manager at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Good, reliable product for providing database as a service and helps manage the traffic on the network
Pros and Cons
  • "It is a product brought to you by a company that concentrates only on database solutions, so it is the best at what it does."
  • "The interface can be difficult and there may be so many features that users and even vendors are unaware that they exist."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use this solution for business applications. I was working for a company and they provided software as a service. We were serving applications to our customers.

For example, we were working locally on a system using Oracle. Then another company would need access to a different application and they would come to us to supply it. As a developer, I was using this solution to develop delivery systems principally as a convenience for our customers.

How has it helped my organization?

It does more of what a company like ours needs because it is a product that knows the business of data and data management.

What is most valuable?

The feature that was most valuable to me in this product — it will be different for different types of users — is that I could develop all the logic inside the database itself. There were no additional integrations.

The solution would also help manage the traffic on the network.

What needs improvement?

I don't believe that any product is a perfect solution. I believe that each product has some minor disadvantage about which customers need to be able ready to work with or workaround. It may not be the fault of the product but lack of compatibility, the preferences of the user or lack of knowledge of existing features. I think these can all be the case in not maximizing what Oracle already has.

Because of my preference for and knowledge of Toad and the way I work with Oracle, I am not up to date on all of the tools included in this product. But I think if we have all of the features needed as developers already in the product, Oracle will be much better. For example, something very important for all developers that could already be available now in Oracle products is weighting the data. This is a very important technical concern for data centers.

The code that developers use is built up in some instructions, so I need to understand how each instruction is executed and how the current state of the code or data application is affecting the transactions. I found that this type of analysis was difficult in Oracle itself, so I used another product — like Toad — that would give me the ability to debug all the code instruction by instruction to really understand what is going on. It's quite an important feature. If it is available in Oracle now it is not very good or well described. This is a problem that needs a solution.

If it is already there and the vendor does not know about it or understand it, I think there is a big issue. The difference is that to get the most out of the technology, the developers really need to know about the new features and how to find and use them. This is something about Oracle that I think is not very good.

Along with that idea, I think that Oracle might do a little bit improve their interface as it is not very user-friendly and I have heard other developers say similar things. I didn't use myself because it would not help me as much or as quickly as other products to develop functions and to develop other features like reporting. I would have to learn a whole different way.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using this solution for ten years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution has good integration with the hardware and it is a stable product.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

As a transactional database, I think this is quite a scalable product in a variety of ways. 

How are customer service and technical support?

Any time I have had the need to use the technical support, it was at least very good but mostly it was excellent.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I previously used Microsoft and if you compare Oracle to Microsoft SQL server, I believe Oracle is so much better than Microsoft SQL Server that they are not comparable. So, I obviously prefer working with the Oracle product. The reason for the difference is probably that Oracle is basically a database company and they focus on this aspect of their business. Microsoft, having many products, is not so focused on this competition with Oracle and they are more focused on Microsoft NET Frameworks and Microsoft Office. Oracle itself has many products right now, but all of them are database products. This concentration is why Oracle is number one in transactional databases.

How was the initial setup?

I am not the one who would be responsible for these installations alone. I would be doing the development. As it requires a team and customizations, I think it has to be considered somewhat complex to set up if you look at the whole picture. It is not as easy as starting an executable and waiting for it to finish running.

What about the implementation team?

We are a SaaS (Software as a Service) house, so we do our own installation, monitoring, and management.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We are a value add software as a service house so we are not really paying the cost of the licenses, the customer is the one who pays month-to-month. The customer is paying the money for their Oracle database in our case. We only use the product for development and testing to be able to deliver the services.

For the customer, our service becomes an advantage. So the price may seem high, but for them, it is reasonable and not so high as it could cost them much more to deploy separately. The price corresponds to the quality of the product and services they receive in return.

What other advice do I have?

We use the on-premises solution because the customer has to have their own environment. In our case, for our clients, that's one of the big advantages.

A potential issue might be getting used to the Oracle interface. Personally, I didn't use the interface provided by Oracle. In that way, the interface was not a problem for me because I used to use a third-party application like Toad that maybe more people are already familiar with and I think is easy for me to use already.

We are using the same server software application. I don't know if Oracle provided database software and SQL developer or not. But for myself, I needed an application to develop the features and functions on the Oracle Database.

While I prefer and recommend Oracle, many other factors are involved in making decisions. If all the factors are the same and there are no limitations for the cost or other issues for adopting Oracle compared with other products, I think Oracle would always be a better choice.  

A lesson I learned is that you have to always verify the virtual data when you are acting as a software as a service house for the customer. Oracle is part of our winning team. It may not be the only product that we use to achieve the result.

On a scale from one to ten, where one is the worst and ten is the best, I would rate this product as a seven to eight depending a little on how you use it. For us, it is an eight because it is very good at what it does and we use other tools to make it do what we want it to do. We don't fight with the one product to try and make it do everything.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.
PeerSpot user
Technical Consultant at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Top 20
An easy-to-develop and stable solution that provides good performance and better database handling
Pros and Cons
  • "I like the solution's performance and ease of development."
  • "It would be better if we could have a little bit of automation or a chance for autoscaling with Oracle Database as a Service."

What is our primary use case?

I have mostly used Oracle Database as a Service in the banks I have worked with.

What is most valuable?

I like the solution's performance and ease of development.

What needs improvement?

Nowadays, scaling is very easy with AWS, Postgres, or MySQL solutions. Also, AWS takes care of a few things. However, we need to do everything manually in Oracle. It would be better if we could have a little bit of automation or a chance for autoscaling with Oracle Database as a Service.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with Oracle Database as a Service for almost 15 to 20 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Oracle Database as a Service is a very stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

In my previous organizations, we had thousands of developers for Oracle Database as a Service.

How are customer service and support?

The solution's technical support is good.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Other than Oracle Database as a Service, I have worked with Microsoft and SAP. Oracle Database as a Service is better than other solutions because it is easy to work with, and we can use many tools to work with it.

What other advice do I have?

I would definitely recommend Oracle Database as a Service to users looking for performance or ease of tool handling and database handling.

Overall, I rate Oracle Database as a Service a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Chief Innovation Officer at Viscosity North America
Video Review
Real User
One of the benefits is the ability to use solutions you're familiar with and leverage the cloud.

What is our primary use case?

The primary use is the leverage DBaaS (Database as a Service) using the Oracle Cloud solution without having to build the database a step at a time.  Getting a pre-built Oracle database can be beneficial for testing for functionality, new development, but mostly the ability to quickly build different sizes of Oracle systems without a large effort.  The ability to resize things is also an advantage over other cloud solutions.  There is also an Autonomous Database.

How has it helped my organization?

I think some of the biggest benefits is if there's a consolidation potential, or putting things up in the cloud where I can consolidate many databases into one. Also a location potential is helpful; if I have customers in Germany and China and in the U.S. but my IT is located in Chicago, I could go to the Oracle Cloud and now maybe I can put replicas using Oracle's multi-tenant database. The cloud makes this a lot easier to actually do a clone of a pluggable database, but I could just take that pluggable database and clone it to China. I can clone it to Germany and then I could have one here in the United States. The data is closer to the person. There's also EU privacy laws that I have to keep and it makes it a lot easier to secure things in one location as well. Careful though, some laws require you to take responsibility for what you put in the cloud.  We also benchmarked Oracle ADW vs. AWS Redshift & Oracle was much faster.

What is most valuable?

Being able to go to go to the website: cloud.oracle.com/tryit and get $300+ in free trial credits is a great way to explore the technology (you can also go to cloud.oracle.com/database to just try database as a service (DBaaS). The cloud is something accelerates efforts to interface with Big Data and IOT, but it takes an educated buyer to implement the right pieces at the right time. The cloud gives people the ability to leverage big data from non-Oracle sources including Hadoop and Hive, quickly deploy a development test or simple application, and to leverage the interfaces to other companies and to use mobile apps. I think the downside is it's causing people pain as it compresses how fast they need to learn about it and effectively move the parts of their system that are better suited in the cloud. I think that's the biggest issue right now. Some of the features that are out there for database as a service on the cloud, if you want to have an encrypted backup in the cloud or a test database, it's nice to have a backup that's offsite or a system where you can test new features. Are you going to put your backup in a lock-box at the local bank or are you going to put it on some other cloud? With Oracle, you can send it with RMAN encrypted backup straight to the Oracle Cloud and it's there when you need it. If you had to fail-over for some reason when you use Oracle Cloud, and you have an Exadata in-house, Oracle has an Exadata in the cloud that you could fail right over to (this allows either a CAPEX or OPEX financial event). Maybe you have some big data where you don't have enough servers and you know exactly what you want hardware wise, well, you're familiar with that Exadata performance so you know exactly what you're going to get in the cloud since the hardware is similar to what you have on-site.

What needs improvement?

Features that people want the most are already there. One of them is Oracle In-Memory which allows you to put things in a columnar data store in memory with Oracle's 12c (12.1.0.2+). You could have an in-memory database. You could have columnar data, which is compressed and in-memory (in the in-memory column store) or if you're doing transactional data, it's in the buffer cache (memory) so it's very fast to do that transactions. It's a different memory area altogether. When I look at the cloud, you'll need In-Memory more, because you're going to be dealing with larger volumes of data. The second feature that helps is multi-tenancy; Oracle already has this as of 12c Release 1. It is the ability to clone and move things around and maybe do an exchange partition (PDB - Pluggable Database) with one of your vendors or one of your customers out there (given security needs are met). Non-PDBs (or not using multi-tenancy is being deprecated).  Leveraging and testing new features of 12.2 is also beneficial.  Oracle 18c will be beneficial with Snapshot Carousel, PDB switchover,  In-Memory External Tables and Polymorphic Tables.

I think the way that Oracle and other vendors can move people quicker to the cloud is by educating people on the capabilities of the cloud and some of the benefits of the cloud. I think as customers and vendors out there and partners of Oracle look at providing solutions for the cloud, I think people will be more likely to go there, but what I think right now is the biggest hesitancy is there are a lot of other cloud providers don't have any of the features Oracle has. Oracle must let people know that if you have on-site Exadata, now you can have Exadata in the cloud. Easy to move. You've got a lot of data you want to archive? You can move it to a slower, larger server or a faster, smaller server depending on what you want to do. Just the capabilities that they have in-house or in the cloud. Some cost more than others, so effective planning is one big key to success. The cloud is gaining momentum, but the key to success is evaluating it fully and using appropriately.

For how long have I used the solution?

Three to five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I did an estimate of all the servers that are out there and Google is obviously very large. Amazon Web Services is very large but if you take Oracle's cloud, which is over 1 exabyte now and then you take the compression that you can do with Oracle, it's actually, probably the largest cloud that's out there right now (many Exabytes). From a scalability standpoint, as big as the world is, as big as you can think, that's how large you can scale your applications.

How are customer service and technical support?

Oracle's technical support has almost every answer just by searching their support system. I always find what I'm looking for and more.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I think everybody knows that they need to move from on-premise to the cloud. They know the cloud is what's coming next. They know it's way to quickly interface with social media with Big Data very quickly. I think their hesitancy is: where does it fit? Give us the opportunity to do a hybrid cloud so that our staff can be up to date on exactly how this works and I think then they'll move there faster. There are other clouds with MANY hidden costs.  Please hire an expert to consult when evaluating hidden costs on the cloud.  Viscosity North America pays particular attention to these hidden costs.  Viscosity also has an Oracle vs. AWS whitepaper on our website.

How was the initial setup?

I thought it was very easy to setup database as a service (within hours - the second one will take minutes) for testing new features and familiarizing yourself with the flow of things.

What about the implementation team?

We brought a customer that was not in the cloud, all on premise and we put their EBS finances into the Oracle cloud and all their manufacturing was still on site. They were multi-currency. They were multi-country. Initially there was a lot of education that needed to happen. The more education you put forth at the beginning edge of that project, the more likely you're going to be successful in the middle of that project, but cloud projects tend to be shorter in duration and then when you get to the end of that, there's a lot of questions on things that people could do that they couldn't do before they got to the cloud. The 'what ifs' we'll say. What if I could extend my data to all these data sources with big data? Well, they never asked that before because they never could do it before. Now that they're in the cloud, their whole world opens up to what the capabilities are for their company itself. Some of those discussions are interesting after the fact.

What was our ROI?

It really depends how this is measured.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

There are different prices for different architectures - plan wisely and ensure that you look at all the pluses/minuses of each provider!

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Some of the criteria for when you're evaluating a cloud, to me, number one is cost, but after that it's SLA (Service Level Agreement - from the cloud provider). Is my data going to be there? Consider a credit card company. They have seven seconds until they're paying some other company because they didn't do the transaction fast enough. Usually it takes them one second to approve your transaction so time and speed is probably the most important thing.

What are some of the criteria people should be looking at? First of all is SLA. Will it be up? The second isL is it going to be on hardware and software that I'm used to? I have a tech staff of 100 people, are they going to be able to do their job when that data's in the cloud? Just being familiar with things. Can it scale? Is it large enough?

What other advice do I have?

Read my 12cR2 book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Oracle-...

How would Oracle rate on a scale of 1 to 10 with cloud solution? I think it depends absolutely on which Oracle cloud solution it is. Some are 10 and some are lower. It depends which architecture you evaluate.

Many people are looking at it now. The main key is get educated. Understand what's out there. I did three sessions at Oracle OpenWorld and Java World in 2017, all of them have cloud. I will do many at Collaborate earlier this year (April 2018) and all of them will have cloud. Why? Because I know it's important and where many things are going to some degree. Whether people are using the 12c database, 18c database, that's one of my talks, I know it's important to be ready for the cloud (the 11g database is also available on the cloud). How you would migrate each database and what multi-tenant does to assist you in that process is an important feature of Oracle. I also have regular sessions on the Internet of Things (IOT) which talks about all these devices that are going to be integrated with your database and big data and obviously cloud plays perfectly to that one.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor. The reviewer's company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We're platinum partners.
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Robin Saikat Chatterjee - PeerSpot reviewer
Robin Saikat ChatterjeeHead of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Solutioning Technology and Architeture at Tata Consultancy Services
Top 5LeaderboardReal User

An advantage the Oracle cloud provides over other clouds when using Oracle databases is that they include transparent data encryption free by default for all versions of the database and you do not need to license it separately. By default a cloud database uses encryption. That in effect makes your Oracle DBaaS cloud database more secure that your run of the mill Oracle database. So definitely Oracle is doing everything it can to enforce higher levels of database security in the cloud than on premise.

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Makrand Tare - PeerSpot reviewer
Enterprise architect at Tech Mahindra Limited
Real User
Top 10
High performance, user-friendly initial setup, but priced high
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of Oracle Database as a Service are the power, security, and performance."
  • "Oracle Database as a Service could improve by reducing the price."

What is our primary use case?

We use Oracle Database for web portals and applications.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of Oracle Database as a Service are the power, security, and performance.

What needs improvement?

Oracle Database as a Service could improve by reducing the price.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Oracle Database as a Service for approximately two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Oracle Database as a Service is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of Oracle Database as a Service is good.

We have approximately 1,000 to 2,000 using its solution in my company.

How are customer service and support?

I have not used the support from Oracle Database as a Service because that is a role of my business security.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of Oracle Database as a Service is easy and user-friendly. The full deployment took approximately two to three hours.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price of Oracle Database as a Service is expensive compared to other similar solutions.

What other advice do I have?

We do not need a lot of staff for the maintenance of the solution because we have an expert engineer.

I rate Oracle Database as a Service a seven out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
CEO at QUERIX (UK) LIMITED
Real User
Great security and database system resilience but needs to improve its documentation functionality
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable aspects of the solution are the general database system resilience and security."
  • "Documentation is difficult to find. Since we're experienced with Oracle technology, we have also found many errors in it. Not everything is 100% accurate."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily are using the solution for clients who want to migrate their applications. We have an on-premises version for testing to see how that would work.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable aspects of the solution are the general database system resilience and security.

What needs improvement?

The improvements we require are mostly regarding the documentation and compatibility with other systems or with other non-Oracle technologies. 

Documentation is difficult to find. Since we're experienced with Oracle technology, we have also found many errors in it. Not everything is 100% accurate.

The solution should add functionalities, like database system functions, to speed up the query processing type. Any sort of functions or commands that would give you a faster result would be a welcome improvement. Microsoft Azure, for example, has some building functionalities to fetch big chunks of data and in a very fast way. I haven't seen a similar feature from Oracle. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution since 2012.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is not very good. Oracle's attitude toward customers, with increasing prices and a general lack of recognition of other technologies, is not ideal.

How was the initial setup?

The level of difficulty in the initial setup varies. Sometimes it's very straightforward, but sometimes it is not. 60% of the time it's pretty straightforward.

Sometimes, for example, we might have previously installed the database in the same environment and there were some dependencies left which damaged the next installation because it was not a fresh install. If you want to uninstall the database, the cleaning of the database and everything associated with it gets a bit tricky. There is no automated process for that.

Deployment is quite fast. You can probably manage a deployment in an hour or less.

What about the implementation team?

We're an integrator. We implement the solution for our clients.

What other advice do I have?

We use the on-premises deployment model. We're currently experimenting with Oracle at the moment.

Currently, customers are looking for and experimenting with various databases. The clients that I've talked to have asked about MySQL or Amazon Aurora Database as well Microsoft Secret Server.

In terms of Oracle, what I've heard from some clients was that the cloud database was a disappointment for them compared to the on-premise database. Some of them were regretful about doing that sort of migration. They told me they were over-promised, and the cloud database didn't deliver. The on-premise databases are quite solid, however. They are very good.

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten. 

I'm personally not happy with Oracle, but from a technical standpoint, they have a very solid product.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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