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Oracle Exadata vs VxRail comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Oracle Exadata
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
126
Ranking in other categories
Data Warehouse (2nd)
VxRail
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
129
Ranking in other categories
HCI (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

Oracle Exadata and VxRail aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Oracle Exadata is designed for Data Warehouse and holds a mindshare of 19.3%, up 18.6% compared to last year.
VxRail, on the other hand, focuses on HCI, holds 21.0% mindshare, down 21.3% since last year.
Data Warehouse
HCI
 

Featured Reviews

Guruprasad Gonjare - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers a variety of valuable features
The deployment depends on the Exadata options. There are primarily three options which include, Exadata, Exadata Cloud@Customer, and Exadata Cloud Service. Out of these, Cloud Service requires the minimum effort. The deployment takes around two to three weeks to complete. For the deployment purpose, we need information on the user base where the access is going to happen. We would also require around four to five engineers and admins for the solution’s deployment and maintenance. This estimation is based on the workflow.
Sushil MIshra - PeerSpot reviewer
Trouble-free architecture, we don't have to juggle multiple components like in a traditional three-tier architecture
I like the caching mechanism. Frequently used data is stored, so it definitely improves performance. VxRail's integration with VMware environments is very good. Our VxRail is built on VMware, and the integration is seamless. We haven't faced any challenges. We can migrate VMs between servers in real-time and replicate them to our DR site without any problems.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"We can use virtualization on Exadata."
"Oracle is easy to use for peripheral things, such as the data vault and the data firewall, data sync, and partitions. These are the features that give an edge to other databases."
"A very stable solution, which we have hardly any problems with."
"The product is flexible."
"The most valuable feature of Oracle Exadata is its capabilities for storing and processing data. It is very good for our domain."
"Oracle is known to be the number one in their industry; the help and support, the features they are giving the clients comparing to other databases, the new technology, the provide a good solution."
"The most valuable feature of Oracle Exadata is the smart scan. We have large TB sessions of approximately 100 per second for each of our three instances. The smart scan allows us the obtain data in time in the enterprise manager."
"The tool performs well with a large database."
"For me, VxRail's most valuable feature is its life-cycle management."
"For me, the most valuable feature is in relation to the software updates."
"The initial setup is simple."
"The product is very stable, and I rate its stability as nine out of ten."
"It is very powerful. We find that to be the most valuable aspect. The movement of devices between nodes is very easy."
"VxRail is an agile solution with easily scalable, simplify operations with software driven automation and lower operational cost."
"Offers zero-day deployment"
"With VxRail, we can manage the life cycle of a virtual machine."
 

Cons

"The technical support is in need of improvement."
"Oracle Exadata compatibility with the analytics could be better and the OBIEE could improve. Oracle BI to Exadata needs to be improved. Even if the full analytics practice for Oracle should be improved and when compared with other solutions it is weak."
"We used the support from Oracle Exadata to complete the implementation."
"Since the product is an appliance, it is very costly."
"Exadata would be improved with single dashboard visibility."
"There is one aspect to Exadata that I dislike, and that's the inconsistency with other databases. When you try to get Exadata to function with another type of database like SQL, or others, there should be reliable and consistent operation. When this is improved on, we should start to see more applications growing the market."
"I would like to see more database features and maybe more archiving features, because we need to do data archiving."
"I believe Oracle must improve its procedure to support the clients. The customer Ready Service must provide more use cases and benchmarks of their infrastructure to support client design decisions. Oracle must audit their partners regularly to guarantee they provide quality service even after been passed on partnership examination."
"My customers want more storage for university databases."
"A more containerized approach in regards to the interface would be better."
"Lacks integration of licenses so that it's an expensive solution."
"I would like an easier migration. This way, if a node fails like it did, the data would have been migrated and I would not have had to get up at three in the morning."
"Obtaining support was hindered by the frequent changes to the hotline numbers."
"If they can provide deduplication compression through the traditional hard drives, as Cisco does in the HyperFlex system, it will be very cost-effective, especially when it comes to archiving workload. VxRail doesn't allow the mixing of old flash clusters and hyper clusters. When I'm starting with an old flash cluster and it comes to archiving workload, I will also need to attend the new cluster. So, I either manage two different clusters, or I pay and upload my work with the archiving mobile hard drive, which is not cost-effective at all. The main key is to allow mixing between two types of clustering, like Nutanix, or allow deduplication of completion over the period of shared hard drive on SAV. It will be much better."
"What I find very valuable is VxRail's life cycle management. The life cycle management takes care of everything from firmware to the actual upgrading of the hypervisor and keeps everything up to level."
"I would like to see more solutions for satellite capabilities where we can put it into smaller locations and still have the redundancy that we have with a larger cluster."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the solution could improve, it is expensive."
"Oracle is always costly but it's fine."
"In the sizing phase, you can also decide whether to license all cores, or reduce the number cores using capacity-on-demand features of Exadata, as well. This has a direct impact on licensing."
"The licensing can be a bit expensive because you need to have certain tools enabled that require them."
"The pricing of Oracle Exadata is too high."
"Exadata is an expensive tool, but, considering the ROI, it's worth going for the solution."
"It is an expensive product and you pay more for certain performance enhancements."
"The cost of the solution is high."
"It is just as cheap to move over to an HCI solution as it is to maintain a legacy system."
"I do not believe that the price should be lower, as I feel it to be reasonable."
"The price of VxRail highly depends on your design and your configuration. For example, if I connect Pure Storage directly to ESXi hosts and bypass Fiber Channel switches and I will save on money. However, it reduces my redundancy and makes it not as robust of deployment and easy to manage. An HCI environment, it's more cost-effective than utilizing a traditional SAN. With storage and computing altogether, you don't necessarily have to involve the networking team as much. I don't necessarily need somebody that understands Brocade's or Cisco Fiber Channel Switches, because I have it all right there."
"VxRail has a subscription model usually tagged with the appliance box only."
"The solution is priced well for businesses."
"Most of hyper-converged solutions require additional licenses for the virtualization layer (like VMware)."
"Since VMware is detached from Dell, the solution's pricing is a bit higher than before."
"The price is rather on the high side."
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Answers from the Community

PX
Jan 18, 2022
Jan 18, 2022
Although the VxRail is considered as the #1 HCI solution for its reliability & performance, yet unfortunate when it comes to an Oracle solution ... it won't be considered as the best infrastructure choice ... and it's not due to the performance or the architecture, but in fact, the whole blame goes to Oracle license base (core base), as you may see ... VxRail is based on VMWare license, whe...
2 out of 3 answers
RI
Mar 3, 2021
First off I am biased I work for Oracle.  What I am sharing is my own perception and not the views of Oracle.  I don't sell Exadata, but have worked with more than a hundred Exadata customers over the years.  My answer - Not really.  The not so secret sauce in Exadata is the DB binaries are running in storage server and in the DB server, when SQL executes it only returns the part of the DB needed for processing by the DB server, saving a lot on IO and gaining processing speed.  I haven't seen a POC where Exadata wasn't 3-4x faster, even one where it was 15x faster for batch/DWH workload at a large bank.  Also Exadata has optimized memory and flash utilization within the binaries of the DB, making it tough to duplicate without access to source code by other HW developers.  In terms of licensing best to talk to sales at Oracle.  Generally if you have a ULA then you can get parity for licensing costs on each, however you will be running at least 2x as many cores for the same workloads so cost will be higher on VxRail.  Oracle standard architecture with 19c and forward is to use Multi-Tenant architecture - and it is only option starting with 21c.  Meaning you can manage many DBs as one, and avoid VM server sprawl you find with VMWare and VxRail.  If you have workloads that fit Exadata's smallest footprint then it really is the lowest TCO and highest performance - I have seen dozens of comparisons, even one with a major telco where the competing HW vendor through in free storage and was giving a 70% discount on servers - versus 25% discount on Exadata and Exadata still was lower cost TCO and matched the cost per core (cost per core is not a great compare since Exadata needs far fewer cores for the same workload - need to look at total solution cost).  
MM
Mar 4, 2021
Although the VxRail is considered as the #1 HCI solution for its reliability & performance, yet unfortunate when it comes to an Oracle solution ... it won't be considered as the best infrastructure choice ... and it's not due to the performance or the architecture, but in fact, the whole blame goes to Oracle license base (core base), as you may see ... VxRail is based on VMWare license, where Oracle condition when you are going to deploy it over VMWare, you will need to license the whole host cores (not only the assigned Virtual cores to the VM), so if you have a VxRail cluster that consists of 4 nodes for example, and each node have dual sockets 16 cores, then although you are assigning only 8 Cores for the Oracle VM, yet you will need to pay for the whole host cores (32 core) which a huge amount of money, and you will pay the double if you are going to deploy in high availability mood. So you see, the issue is from the Oracle side not from VxRail, Alternatively ... you can deploy all of your application over the VxRail cluster, including the Oracle application, yet for the Oracle database, use a physical server with high CPU frequency and low no of cores ... for example (Intel Xeon Gold 5222 3.8G, 4Core / Intel Xeon Silver 4215R 3.2G, 8Core), and you may use a single socket server which will allow you for upgrading later on.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
29%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Government
5%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Oracle Exadata?
It is the best solution for OLTP and data warehousing.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle Exadata?
The pricing of Exadata is high. It is more expensive than usual, making it suitable only for big enterprises or businesses that can afford it.
What needs improvement with Oracle Exadata?
I would like to add some features to run applications or microservices-based applications on Exadata.
How does HPE Nimble Storage compare to VxRail?
HPE Nimble Storage dHCI Vs. VxRail One of the best things about the HPE Nimble Storage dHCI is the three, two, one, zero rule. That means I need three copies of my data on two different types of me...
What Is The Biggest Difference Between vSAN And VxRail?
While both run on the vSAN technology from VMware, vSAN needs to be deployed on vSAN ready nodes while VxRail is an engineered system. The choice to choose which technology depends on two major fac...
What are the major differences between VxRail and Dell EMC PowerFlex?
VxRail vs. Dell EMC PowerFlex VxRail provides stable solutions for technical problems while at the same time not being too expensive for a company to invest in. Even if the user is working with a l...
 

Also Known As

No data available
VCE VxRail
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

PayPal, EBS, Organic Food Retailer, Garmin, University of Minnesota, Major Semiconductor Company, Deutsche Bank, Starwood, Ziraat Bank, SK Telecom, and P&G.
World Wide Technology Inc, Renault Sport Formula One Team, 8x8 Inc, Brownes, Canadian Pacific, Canopy, Denton, EDF, Unilin, Xerox
Find out what your peers are saying about Snowflake Computing, Oracle, Teradata and others in Data Warehouse. Updated: November 2024.
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