Oracle Database Appliance Reviews

End User response time for Core Banking Application

By adding ODA in our infrastructure, it helps to spare time for other Adminstration & Research activities..

The most valuable feature is the performance. Its a pre-configured device and you just plug and play..

It has limitations of Storage as well as network connectiivty over 10G Fiber. 

We have been using the Oracle Database Appliance for about six years, since 2014.

The appliance is pretty stable.

It is scalable, although it only has two storage shelves available.  The total usual storage after RAID dual parity is between 12 and 15 TB.

Technical support is very good and the people are nice.

Prior to using the appliance, we had our Oracle Database installed on a Dell server. We had some performance issues with the system, which is why we switched.

The initial setup is okay. We just have to plug in the machine and set up the applications.

Although, the purchase contract have engagement of the vendors for its deployment and in PAKISTAN we at ZTBL is the first who are deploying the ODA. since its a pre configured machine so no special training is required for its deployment. Moreover, the expertise level of the vendor is satisfied.

By deploying ODA in your infra, you can spare time for other activities instead of resolving issues of traditional system.

Should go wiht ODA , breakup the cost of hardware, setup & Licensing, you will find that ODA is much cheaper than any other solution in terms of setup and operational cost

we had reviewed traditional system configuration like servers attached wiht any SAN storage. But the performance benchmarks we have with ODA is not avavilabe in other options.

The Oracle Database Appliance is a product that I recommend. It is really good for small businesses where there are database-intensive applications that need high performance.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.

The Oracle Database Appliance offers a pay-as-you grow model for Oracle licenses. This model allows you to only license the CPU count that you need, rather than the entire capacity. When virtualized, this is supported for both the database and the application tier.

The solution has good stability and it is easy to work with. We quickly deployed both database and application workloads in a single appliance on a virtualized platform, based on Oracle VM

Customers cannot cluster multiple appliances together to create a larger cluster (beyond two servers), nor can they expand the internal disk storage of the system beyond two storage trays. This area can be improved.

I have used this solution for two years.

I did not encounter any issues with stability.

I would rate the level of technical support 8/10.

I previously used Fresh Install.

The initial setup was quite straightforward.

The pricing and licensing is worth it.

I did not really evaluate other options before choosing.

In my opinion, if your organization is constantly evolving and looking for less infrastructure support/planning for virtualization, then this solution is a one-stop-shop and a nice product. If you are a mid-pace organization and can handle regular databases or Exacta, then you can skip this step.

Oracle Database Appliance is for databases, specifically for Oracle databases.

My clients are experiencing benefits from the increase in functionality or productivity compared to their previous solution since they are running their RAC database on three dots. So, we migrated our referrals to Oracle Database Appliance as it is a good solution in terms of performance.

The main feature is the management and manageability of the tool. We can create a VM on a laptop within a couple of clicks. Additionally, regarding the graphical user interface, anybody can manage the VMs.

I feel that there are no features that need to be added to the tool since the tool is pretty much perfect the way it is.

I have been using the solution for five years. I am using Oracle Database Appliance Version 6 or 7.

In terms of stability, I rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Since we don't have the room to scale up, I rate this solution a six out of ten for scalability.

My experience with the support team of Oracle Database Appliance has been very good.

Compared to Oracle Exadata, Oracle Database Appliance is affordable. I don't think there are any extra features that you need to purchase to run the solution. Also, the solution is good for managing devices.

We always propose Oracle Database Appliance to our small and medium customers, so that they can run their Oracle Workflow from the Oracle Database Appliance while benefiting from Oracle licensing. I rate this solution a seven out of ten.

I use Oracle databases with multiple clients mainly for analyzing financial transactions. They use it to find the profit and loss for each and every day of trading activity.

Finding out out a single day's profit and loss used to take them almost seven days to calculate. For example, if they wanted to find out something new, they could find the profit and loss of the day's data only by the following week. So we introduced Oracle Database Appliance for the extra data and to gather all the information we have across all the systems. We built a warehouse database that will accommodate all the information and we reduced the time to determine the entire transactions of P and L into a single day.

The Oracle database is able to get the data, process it, and return it to the company's CEO's and CFO's within a single day, and thus they are able to find out yesterday's P and L by today. It has drastically reduced the amount and time of processing from seven days to one day. This is our main use for Oracle. The business intelligence and data warehousing features are the best part of Oracle Database Appliance.

It could be that we may not be using Oracle and GoldenGate in the way we are supposed to be using them. We have faced a couple of issues with GoldenGate. Whenever we have issues, the Oracle support will take the time to understand how GoldenGate works. The stability of the GoldenGate could be improved, although it is pretty stable.

In terms of Database Appliance, the important thing is how you design it. If the underlying design is good, then Oracle will perform exactly how we want it to perform. But if the underlying design or the underlying architecture is bad, then Oracle is not going to give the expert the results he needs. It all depends upon the developer who designs it. I haven't seen any drawback with the Oracle database assets, and for the past five years I've been using it in our team.

In terms of what can be improved, I'd say Artificial Intelligence, AI. It would be really helpful if AI was incorporated into the solution.

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate Oracle Database Appliance an eight.

I've been using Oracle Database Appliance for five years. I moved to AWS Cloud Platform and now we are migrating the Oracle appliances to the Cloud Platform, which is an AWS platform as a service.

Oracle Database Appliance is really reliable. The stability and scalability of Oracle Database are reliable. I would say that it is more reliable than scalable. With the 19c, I've seen that it is stable in most cases but we had certain issues when we tried to create scale on 12c. We had issues when we used the previous, older version of Oracle, 12c. It was not that easy to use 12c because we had to get certain hardware. 

In terms of scalability, it is not bad. It was not that easy to scale. I don't think it's easily scalable.

I think more than 400 or 600 people are using it in the company.

Their technical support is really good. It has really good products and I'm pretty satisfied.

The initial setup of Database Appliance is straightforward. But It depends upon the applications that you're using.

If you want to use it on top of the database, it's going to be straightforward. But if you want to do it at some other part of the process the third party client has to do an APA call. It depends upon the way they implement it. If it's going to be a third party vendor using it he'll have to make APA calls, then it's going to be a bit complex.

I would recommend Oracle Database Appliance. Oracle is the benchmark in the field. Still, I would recommend you doing a proof of concept with Oracle Database first and then consider the other databases.

In regards to licensing, it is cheaper to maintain for Oracle applications, and it's an all-in-one solution.

We had been using a separate server, separate storage, and a separate switch for our Oracle Database, which was costing us a lot of money, because you have to have licenses for each of those devices. But now we have all of them in just one box. We don't have to buy a separate switch. We don't have to buy separate storage. We have everything in just one box.

That's the advantage. It has been cost effective. They have really helped us on that line.

Currently in Ghana, where I work, there are just a few companies that can afford it, because the price is a little bit high. Even though for the private sector it's not that high, if this would come in much smaller boxes, and much cheaper, it would be much more affordable for SMBs, that's small and medium businesses. That would be helpful.

It's very, very stable. From the day of installation we did not have any challenges with this product.

Scalability is not limited. It's scalable because you can add a standard device to the storage space. You are just looking at storage space. You are not looking for memory, because the memory range is high enough. And the capacity is also very fast.

I've worked with HPE, I've worked with other vendors' support. In terms of phone support, I get faster response from Oracle. The support is the highest standard I've seen. They will get to you by all means, and attend to you, the challenges that you have, and in a timely manner. They have the expertise and they have the know-how. The first time we contact them, our issue is solved.

The reason for our switching is that we wanted an all-in-one solution across databases, and we need to implement an all-in-one solution for our customers' databases. This is very simplified, it's easy to use, you can be in production immediately when you buy the product. That's why we went that direction.

If you work with other companies, you often see a lot of challenges because the storage is usually separate. If they have all-in-one, the licenses are too expensive. What Oracle did was they reduced the price because we are buying their solution. They reduced the prices for the Oracle licenses.

I can set it up in a matter of a very short time. The worst case scenario is an hour, and that happens only if I don't have the information from the customer, That's when it would take an hour. But if I have all the information in front of me, the box can be set up and ready to use.

We had two products in mind. We had a product from HPE, but we did not go with that product because it required us getting extended storage. We were looking at space in the datacenter; we don't have a lot of rack space in the data center. So, we factored all of that into our decision, and then we decided on Oracle.

In addition, it was the licenses, because we use Oracle, and when you buy their product they reduce the cost for you. So, I could use an Oracle database and buy an HPE product where I will not have a reduction in price for licenses. You have to leverage that opportunity from Oracle.

I give it a nine out of 10 because it gives the customer easy access to a complete database solution within 30 minutes. That is, someone can go live with in 30 minutes of buying the product, it's very fast to use. For instance, if you have a small company that you want to set up, and you don't need to put your infrastructure on the cloud, you buy this product and you are ready to go in the next 30 minutes. That's one of the reasons why I give it that rating. 

As well, it's easier to manage, because you have a central point of management which is the Oracle ODA. You can manage it by using the browser interface. 

We are using it in our companies. We work with others, especially at the enterprise level.

The product is very light. By that I mean, in terms of response rate, it's light. 

Oracle can handle a lot of data.

The implementation process is easy.

There are more freeware options out there these days that are less costly if you are a company that can work in the cloud environment. They are much better than Oracle in the price to value ratio.

Even though the solution can handle a lot of data, it's just too expensive currently.

There should be more analysis for debugging. Right now, this is only available in the Enterprise Edition. If you have the Standard Edition, like us, you're stuck with some limited functionalities. In order to access the best features, you need to level up to the Enterprise Edition.

The software comes with only four cores, which is not really very advisable. It doesn't really help in terms of the modern way of working. While the machines are getting better, at the same time they tend to run a lot of test databases, like virtual machines, and Oracle doesn't work well with all of that. It's only JBM that they work well with.

Technical support is not very helpful if you only have the Standard Edition.

They should work ell with other machines. If it could integrate better, it might be more user-friendly for businesses. 

I've been using the solution for more than five years. 

It's stable. We've had hitches, however. We have been been using the Standard Edition, so there have been many hitches in that due to the fact that you need the Enterprise Edition and a diagnostic pack to do what we need in order to investigate. That's where we find most of our issues. It's very hard to populate. If you look at the other DBs in the same price range, the functionality is a lot more in terms of diagnostic tools, in terms of helping in resolving issues. The Standard Edition does not solve those problems.

The solution is scalable to an extent. If you look at the Enterprise Edition, yes, it's scalable at the cost, not scalable per se, just scalable at a huge cost. If you're meeting the revenues, if you're large enough to afford it, that's fine. Otherwise, no, it does not scale well.

We have three people, off and on, who work on the product. It doesn't have that many user requirements. We are still not such a huge company, so three people off and on are enough. We have one person on it during the day, one at night, and one extra that can cover.

We need technical support sometimes, however, not much help is covered with the Standard Edition. The best advice we get is "Move to Enterprise, then we can solve all your problems." That's where it is. I wouldn't rate technical support that high.

The implementation process was easy in terms of deployment, however, it's a physical installation which just adds to the overall cost of the solution. 

It's not just the solution that's expensive, it's the resources you need to think about that are expensive. In COVID times, these costs were especially rough. It's hard to justify a huge cost, especially in an enterprise. 

I'm a customer. I'm not a partner or a reseller of Oracle.

I would advise potential new users to make a good business plan. Think about the cost, especially the per-transaction cost. And what size of database that you're going to need. Oracle is a Ferrari. A Ferrari is an unreliable and expensive machine. It's an expensive purchase. As you scale, the Oracle costs will also go up. It's not like you have a fixed cost now and you not going to have a fixed cost later. You will have a fixed cost on the Oracle and it will keep on increasing. From that perspective, the business plan needs to be right. 

There are some regulatory areas that we happen to be in that means we can't move to the cloud. That is why we are still with Oracle. If we could move to the cloud, we would not be with Oracle. 

My biggest consideration is the price/value ratio, especially nowadays. Oracle was good when the only other alternative was IBM, and now, not so much. I would say if you're a large business then maybe it's a seven out of ten. If you're a small business then maybe a four out of ten. In general, I would rate it a six out of ten.

Offers easy deployment and setup.

It hosts many applications and deploys ODA quickly.

Patching cycles have many bugs that need to be addressed.

Report processing time has been reduced. We can use it in the future for our BI tool.

The performance due to the all-flash of ODA is very nice. 

The main thing would be to make ODA more affordable, to make it a more economical machine. Also, I would like to see virtualization, so you could implement all of your functions on one machine. Finally, improvement in the speed and performance would be good.

Stability is very good. There has been no downtime.

Scalability means you can increase the storage. 

ODA support is very good. Oracle support is very good. Online support is very good. Our local partner is also very good.

Previously I was using Exadata. Our technical team was already familiar with Oracle products so that's why we choose ODA. We had a license for Oracle Database.

When selecting a vendor the main criterion is support. Oracle support is very good.

The initial setup was very easy.

My advice would depend on the needs of the company. If the need is like ours, number of transactions per day, number of transactions per year; and whether the operation time is 24 hours, eight hours; these are the types of things to consider when deciding. Also, what is the downtime you can afford?

ODA performance has been very good for our requirements.

I would rate it at eight out of 10 because the product is stable, it has very low downtime, and the support of Oracle is very good.