What is our primary use case?
Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service is an excellent platform for consolidating various Oracle databases into one place. It provides high-performance levels and is the best solution for running databases at that level.
Additionally, it has a unique solution in the cloud, allowing for easy migration of Exadata databases to the cloud without significant changes. This makes it an ideal solution for anyone looking to improve performance, scalability, and security for any Oracle database that requires high-end performance. The built-in high availability feature of Exadata ensures that it is a reliable solution.
How has it helped my organization?
We are a solution partner who implements this solution for our customers. So far, we have implemented this solution for around thirty to forty customers.
What is most valuable?
One of the most valuable parts of the solution is the high availability within the system and the performance enhancement without making any changes or fine-tuning the databases. These are the two main valuable features.
What needs improvement?
They need to simplify the monitoring of the Exadata services. They have to make it more simple for the users to operate or manage.
And one more thing, I would expect that other databases of Oracle, like MySQL Enterprise Edition, if technologically, Oracle makes some advancement and allows MySQL Enterprise Edition to run on Exadata, I think that will improve their market share exponentially.
Today, on Exadata, you run Oracle databases, which is given. Apart from that, Oracle also has Oracle MySQL database, open source. If that open-source database also runs on Exadata, I think that will help a lot of customers.
In the next release, Oracle can provide a script-level solution to migrate or consolidate cross-platform databases from Unix platform to Oracle Exadata on Linux platform; if they can provide some migration tools, I think that will help.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have implemented Oracle Exadata-related solutions for the past few years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability a nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the scalability a nine out of ten. If we look at our customers, we have large banks using this solution with hundreds of users, some with seven or eight hundred users, and smaller data sets with around one hundred users. When large banks use it for customer-facing applications, those are unlimited users from the internet. We also have internal applications with around three to four hundred users.
How are customer service and support?
There is room for improvement in the support.
How would you rate customer service and support?
How was the initial setup?
I would rate the initial setup a seven out of ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy. The mid-level deployment took around four weeks. Once the Exadata machine is commissioned by Oracle, we basically take various Oracle databases running on different platforms, consolidate them into Oracle, migrate them, fine-tune them if required, test them, and then commission them. We ensure that the applications are running as intended. It's a very straightforward methodology. Sometimes we have to use tools like Oracle Golden Gate, but otherwise, the normal database migration methodology will work.
What about the implementation team?
We work with all three different deployment options for Exadata: on-premise Exadata, Exadata Cloud at Customer, and Exadata Cloud Service. We have experience with all three versions of Exadata machines.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The licensing cost is high. But the price-to-performance ratio is good. It is worth the price. There are different licensing models available. There are no additional costs.
What other advice do I have?
If you are using Oracle and your support and license cost is around 80k USD or more, you should seriously consider using Exadata from a pricing perspective. And, if you have any applications requiring high-end performance and scalability, especially for Internet-based applications, then there is no platform like Exadata, whether on-premises or on the cloud.
Overall, I would rate the solution nine out of ten because there is no comparison of this product anywhere else. Firstly, Oracle runs the fastest on this particular technology.It's based on Linux, specifically Oracle Linux, which makes portability from other Linux systems to Oracle Linux straightforward. Additionally, the high availability is robust, and the scalability is massive.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
*Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: reseller - implementation partner
