Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Reviews

OCI is primarily utilized by our company for our own internal solutions. However, we also offer it as a cloud service option to our customers as an alternative to traditional on-premises hosting. OCI is similar to other cloud service providers, such as Amazon AWS or Xero, and is mainly used for hosting solutions for our customers.

Our customers do not need to hire a whole data management team or buy new infrastructure. They can clean up what they need and then buy the services they need from OCI.

One improvement that would be helpful is the addition of a replication option on their Standard Edition OD service. Currently, this option is not available, which leads many customers to move to the Enterprise edition. However, other cloud service providers, such as Amazon AWS offer replication options at a similar tier. It would be beneficial if Oracle also explored providing this option for their Standard Edition service.

I have been using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) for approximately one and a half years.

We have not had any downtime using the solution.

I rate the stability of OCI a ten out of ten.

There are 10 people in my company using this solution and they use it approximately three times a month.

The OCI enterprise version is highly scalable. There is no limit to the scaling available.

I rated the scalability of OCI an eight out of ten.

We have not contacted technical support, but we have account managers we talk to for sales and they're very responsive.

Positive

I have used Amazon AWS previously.

The main differences between OCI and other solutions in the same category are the price, which is lower, the selection of databases, and the services offered. When compared to Amazon AWS, which has a wider selection of databases and more services available, OCI hasn't reached the same level of power yet. Additionally, OCI typically only offers Intel or AMD processors, whereas other providers may offer other options like Graviton services.

Another advantage of OCI is its flexibility when it comes to sizing. With OCI, you can move from 1 to 4 vCPU, whereas with Amazon AWS, you need to double the size of the previous instance. Overall, OCI has a lower price, and more flexible sizing options, but offers fewer services than Amazon AWS.

OCI is easy to set up. If you have prior experience with any other cloud provider, the setup process for OCI is easily transferable. Additionally, there are plenty of resources available to assist with configuring it.

I rate the initial setup of OCI an eight out of ten.

OCI is the cost-effectiveness compared to other similar services, assuming all compliance regulations are met. Additionally, they offer a number of things free of charge, which is particularly beneficial for smaller clients.

They meet the standard and the price is low. They do have a few limitations, specifically with their Standard Oracle Databases, the Standard Edition.

I rate the price of OCI a nine out of ten.

I rate OCI an eight out of ten.

We have been using it for HR use cases, typically in two spaces. One is analytics, and the other involves the Oracle digital assistant that is hosted on the Oracle Cloud. It involves a set of conversational layers for HR use cases. Typically, the use cases are for payroll, employee absence, and performance.

The Oracle Cloud integrates well with other applications from the Oracle stack. 

There is a lot of documentation available.

Oracle does well when it comes to data privacy and security, which are critical.

Specific to the Oracle Cloud; while they have been able to showcase inbuilt features for Oracle applications, what doesn't really come across clearly is what happens when you want to host, work with, or integrate with applications outside of the Oracle stack.

They do an okay job of releasing use cases within the stack, but I would like to see more features released outside of the stack.

The roadmap from Oracle is quite unclear.

Technical support from Oracle needs to be improved.

We have been using the Oracle Cloud Platform for approximately 12 months.

We have been using this product but not very much to this point. It's pretty much nascent but we've now started ramping it up.

Since our deployment, it has been fairly stable.

This is absolutely scalable, as long as they can provide integrations to external stacks. We have fewer than 2,000 users with varied roles in the organization.

Not necessarily as an Oracle Cloud user, but as a general Oracle user, the technical support definitely has room for improvement.

Our experience has been that the response time is poor, escalations are the norm, and things are tossed around without a direct response. I'm not sure where the issue is but that's the general experience.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward. Deploying it was seamless and it has been a good experience. End to end, it took us approximately three weeks to deploy.

Our implementation was a combined effort. We used an integrator as well as a consultant. The consultant knew more about the product.

The biggest lesson that I have learned from working with Oracle Cloud is that using other applications from the Oracle stack works well. It's a linear job to finish. However, if you are trying to integrate with Salesforce, for example, there are quite a few unknowns for which you don't really have any reference. You're primarily running it by trial and error rather than knowing what that involves. There is a lot of documentation and information available when dealing with the Oracle stack, but the rest of it seems to be a little hazy.

From the limited experience that we have with this product, I would rate it a seven out of ten.

The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is a cloud-based solution.

The solution's reporting part is not good and needs more development. We get unpredictable errors when we use it. OIC needs to be developed because it is limited. For example, you can't make huge data migrations and data integrations with it.

It is hard to make a report because you can't use an SQL browser. All the other third-party products are not free, and you need to pay for them. Using Oracle's internal reporting solution for running SQL statements is a waste of time.

I have been using Oracle Cloud for two years.

I rate Oracle Cloud a two or three out of ten for stability.

Oracle Cloud is a scalable solution, but we have many performance problems. For example, when we faced an important performance problem, the solution’s scalability did not work until the problem was resolved. We waited for a month or two for the problem to be solved. Also, there are some problems with the service desk part of the Oracle Fusion.

Most of our clients for Oracle Cloud are medium-level and enterprise businesses.

I rate Oracle Cloud a six out of ten for scalability.

The solution's technical support team responds late.

Negative

The solution is cheaper compared to Oracle E-Business Suite.

On a scale from one to ten, where one is expensive and ten is cheap, I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten.

Oracle Cloud has good security features that benefit our clients' operations.

Overall, I rate the solution a five out of ten.

The product helps us to use it as a central ERP and HCM.

The solution needs improvement in support, performance, and features. 

I have been working with the solution for four years. 

The solution is scalable. 

I would rate the tool's proactive support an eight out of ten. 

Negative

yUThe tool's implementation was straightforward and took around three months to complete. 

I would rate the solution a seven out of ten. 

We use the solution to build and run applications.

The most valuable part of the Oracle Cloud Platform is the ability to develop applications that help us migrate information from on-prem to the cloud.

I would like the Oracle Cloud Platform to have a more user-friendly UI similar to Microsoft Azure. I have used Azure, AWS, and Oracle, finding that the Azure UI is the best.

I have been using the solution for four months.

I give the stability a nine out of ten. We sometimes have connectivity issues but that is related to the internet connection with the on-prem hardware.

I give the scalability a nine out of ten.

The solution is for medium size companies.

The initial setup is straightforward as long as we have a working knowledge of Linux machines. The deployment time depends on the size of the project and the experience of the implementer. I am the lead architect for deployment.

The implementation strategy depends on a lot of factors including if it is going to be hot or cold, online or offline, and public or private.

The implementation is completed in-house.

The cost is based on multiple factors including which cloud service we are using, the size of data, performance, security, support contracts, and machine licensing.

Oracle has flexible licensing models. Oracle offers universal credit and pay-as-you-go options. We can also bring our own license.

I give the solution an eight out of ten.

Oracle Cloud is a very broad portfolio. They have a very good infrastructure as a service, IaaS portfolio, which has a core function of compute, storage, and networking.

I have been using Oracle Cloud for learning and certification. I have not yet used it in a project for one of our customers, but I definitely plan to increase my usage in the future.

The strength of this product is that they have many good database options, compared to other vendors. In particular, they provide various Oracle database options, which is a unique offering. They offer multiple versions of their own database so that customers have a lot of choices.

Another advantage to Oracle Cloud is the pricing. First, the cost of the basic service is not expensive. Second, the data-out pricing is very liberal. A lot of other vendors charge heavily for getting data out of the platform, but Oracle's policy is very attractive for many customers.

The global coverage in terms of the number of regions that are supported is very limited.  They should really consider improving the availability of this product in more locations. This would help customers to better serve their own clients across different regions. For example, I do not have a local region for coverage in Dubai. My understanding is that it will be coming within the next six months, but there are many other cities that don't have it locally available. Customers with data residency laws need to have their data stored locally, so better coverage is important.

Compared to providers like AWS or Azure, they do not have a large portfolio of services such as artificial intelligence, IoT, or blockchain. They offer some basic services but the choice is not as rich as other cloud providers.

I have been using Oracle Cloud for three months.

My impression of the stability is that it's good.

There are good options with respect to scalability. They offer fault domain, which is an option not available with other cloud providers. The high availability options are also good. The only problem with respect to scalability is that they do not cover too many regions.

I did not have to contact technical support with a problem, although I was receiving good support during my evaluation of the product. There were people from the Oracle support team who were calling to see whether I needed help, and trying to figure out why I had not been using the evaluation period to its fullest. For example, they were willing to extend the evaluation period.

Overall, my initial customer experience from the support team was good.

I am currently using Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, and Oracle Cloud. For specific workloads, we might use AWS, but when it comes to database-intensive workloads then Oracle definitely has an edge.

The first time I tried to set up the service, I found it a little bit complex because they had two separate logins for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and Oracle Cloud Platform. However, after a few months when I tried it a second time, these two were integrated and it was much better. They now have a combined experience for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and Oracle Cloud Platform.

The length of time required for deployment depends on the solution. In my case, I was trying different services so it is difficult to estimate. That said, I would say that generally, it is easy to deploy.

The subscription is a pay-as-you-go model, with fees that are dependent on usage. The monthly fee will vary based on how much compute, storage, and networking you use.

Oracle Cloud is definitely a product that I recommend, especially for existing Oracle customers. If you have an Oracle database then you should definitely look into it. Similarly, if you have an Oracle SaaS application then you should definitely consider using this platform because there are a lot of integration points.

I would suggest familiarizing yourself with the terminology that is used. This can be done by reviewing the content available on the Oracle website, learning the concepts and terminology that they use. This is important because some of it is slightly different from AWS and Azure, so it is good to have knowledge about topics such as fault domain, tenancy, and compartments.

There are certain things that are unique to Oracle and it would be a good thing to do a basic course, which is available on the website, to help speed up your learning curve.

I think that over the years, Oracle has come a long way and they have improved a lot. They are doing a lot of things the right way. That said, they do not have a breadth of services. More can be offered in terms of analytics, AI, IoT, and blockchain. Although I would expect more services to come in the future, AWS and Azure currently have the edge in this regard.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

Our primary use case is the delivery and implementation of Oracle Cloud Platform for customers.

I believe it's the platform as a service from Oracle that is the most valuable aspect. Normally, all the Oracle native workloads are the ones that are being pushed to the cloud.

One of the main areas that might be improved is not the Oracle product itself, but more like the infrastructure as a service. Big Oracle clients will also have several workloads with Microsoft, SAP, and so on and that's forced the clients to have multi-cloud options because Oracle does not have yet have an all-inclusive offering like Google or Azure. The systems are all interconnected and we deploy on different clouds, we have connectivity issues and so on. It also causes latency issues.

They need to interconnect between clouds worldwide. One of the things that Oracle announced recently is an ability to develop interconnection between it and with Azure's clouds. They are going to interconnect physically their own cloud centers to improve response time. The clients will be able to work with Oracle or Microsoft together more easily.

The main issue for the clients is that they need to understand the credit payments. If it's a currency that's not dollars or euros, Oracle will always convert it into credits and that's not easy for the customer to understand at the beginning.  

In the beginning, it wasn't very stable. We had a lot of downtime. At the moment it is much more reliable. We aren't facing any kind of issues around stability anymore.

The level of scalability depends on the products that you are using on the cloud platform. Most of them are already scalable. Others are always coming out with new offerings for scalability.

Technical support is good. We are partners with Oracle so we are always speaking with them.

The only issues we face occasionally are when we are dealing with new bugs. That's not relative to Oracle. We also have those issues when working with HP, SAP or Amazon, but Oracle has been around for many years and technical support is one of the areas that they have improved in the last ten years.

The initial setup is not complex, but we already know the Oracle technology very well and the Oracle Cloud platform has introduced new features and different ways of doing things. There's obviously a learning curve. It's quite small at the moment. They've already fixed almost all bugs. etc., so it's quite simple. 

Deployment times vary. It's not the deployment of the technology itself. It's not the landscape. It's more the development that we do on top of it for the specific customer or the specific project. The creation of the database and application is quite fast but then we need to deploy everything from the client and integration itself is what will determine how long it takes. 

The amount of people you will need for deployment and maintenance also varies, according to each implementation and its requirements.

We have some customers with private cloud services where they own the machines. We also work with customers that utilize the public cloud from Oracle for deploying applications and databases.

I would rate Oracle products overall at an eight out of ten but this product at a seven out of ten simply because of not being able to easily deploy to other technologies.

We are using the public model of this solution. We have a strong Oracle investment in data within our reporting platform. This was a logical extension because Oracle provides seamless integration. That's why we picked it.

In terms of features, upgradeability to the latest version of Oracle suites has been a good feature. All we have to do is just patching or an upgrade, it's pretty easy. Then, it gets regularly updated. That's what I like about it.

The packaging part of the software needs improvement. It lacks customization abilities for users. Giving them VMs for machine learning or running their own programs like Azure and Amazon, for example. Things like scalability based on the requirement of the tools. Oracle still lacks these kinds of things. For example, if you need a VM from Oracle, you need to pay for a monthly fee. They started developing containership but it's still at the initial stage and it's still lacking. They also need to develop integration between packages. 

In order for this solution to be a ten out of ten, it needs to be a little more customizable. Currently, it's not. Having said that, it's a cloud solution, but there is some rigidity when it comes to scaling up or scaling down. Oracle has to work on maybe better pricing models. If I need to run a program monthly one day in a month, I don't need to pay for a machine for the whole month. It should be a pipeline like Azure has where you just start with that pipeline. For that one or two hours when your program's running, you pay. Otherwise, you don't pay anything. If that gets added, I think it will be closer to ten out of ten. The other fact is that they need to have more data centers. Currently, we have only one in Australia. I think they should have more than one here. 

It's stable. We hardly see any issues related to stability. I don't have a benchmark to compare it to, but we do not see many issues with stability. 

I don't have a benchmark to compare it with anything, but the scalability part is still not as good compared to Amazon because you need to manually scale up the application. Although, once you select the upscale or downscale configurations, it's easy, it's smooth. It's not like Amazon where you can scale based on requirement and it's much more seamless. Here, it's not. Currently, the OCI package that we are on is customer managed more than actually Oracle managed. We do have backend access for those applications. We can modify that. Going forward, I think they will come up with a strategy where it would be more Oracle-managed rather than client managed.

We have more users on the Oracle Analytics Cloud platform, which is 50 people currently using out of a total set of 200, 250, 300 people. People are creatures of habit, so they go to the on-prem option rather than going to the cloud version. Slowly, we are migrating people to the cloud.

We hardly require any people for maintenance. In fact, we have only one guy who takes care of the maintenance part of it. For upgrading and patching, we require just one person, who is not full-time. He does his day job, this is a side job for him. 

We do have plans to increase usage. We're taking it slow and migrating. 

Their technical support is average. Oracle support staff are not up to the mark. They take their time. They are average in terms of support, quality, and timely in resolving issues. 

I have not previously used another solution. This is the first one. That's why I mentioned a few times that I don't have a benchmark to actually compare Oracle with. When I compare it with Amazon or a similar product it's from the knowledge that I got from researching online. I don't have the first-hand experience with other cloud platforms.

There is complexity when it comes to setting up cloud platforms when you set up the network part of it. After that, it is very easy compared to if you wanted to deploy an Oracle application on Amazon or an Azure platform, you have to do the installation and you have to do all the integration. Here, it's not the case. You choose the application that you want and that springs up. That gives you everything. That's a good part about Oracle. If you are an Oracle heavy company and you want to spin up OBIEE, which is Oracle Business Integrator Platform or Oracle Data Integrator Application, you don't need to do anything. You just select the whole package and it gets deployed. When it comes to Azure or Amazon, you need to build a VM. Then, deploy this on them, install that software on the VM. 

The setup takes 20 to 30 minutes.

I don't have that much information about pricing because I'm not at that level to know. It's not that expensive. I think it's maybe half or one-fourth of our actual on-prem cost, especially in Oracle Data Integrator. It's pretty cheap. Maybe around $30,000 or $40,000 per month. 

My advice would be, if you have enough to invest in Oracle, I would recommend going for it. If an organization has OBI, Oracle Business Intelligence reporting platform, which is quite mature, and they want to move into cloud, Oracle's a good fit for them because it's easier to move. If you don't have anything set and you don't have that much of investment in Oracle, I wouldn't recommend it. I would recommend Amazon because of the sheer fact that it's a much more stable integration. You get a lot more options. You can play a lot more in terms of upscaling or downscaling the solution. 

I would rate it a six or seven out of ten.