Oracle Exadata Reviews, Competitors and Pricing

Senior Analyst ( Senior Oracle DBA) at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Mar 20, 2016

We're able to add more users, and queries get executed very quickly for data warehousing compared to our previous solution.

What is most valuable?

Smart Flash Cache
Storage Index
Smart Scan
Hybrid Columnar Compression
Oracle ASM
Security with encryption
Oracle platinum support

How has it helped my organization?

We were using a normal RAC on a Linux server for online applications and Oracle on the same platform for data warehousing. After moving to Oracle Exadata, we were able to add more users, and queries get executed very quickly for data warehousing, around one quarter to half the time when compared to our previous solution under normal conditions.

What needs improvement?

Shared RAM for multiple instances
Hardware update in terms of storage
Ability to migrate a database to Exadata from a normal environment

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using it for five years, including in my previous company.

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What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

During migration, we approached transportable tablespace and Oracle database along with GoldenGate.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There have been no issues with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's been able to scale for our needs.

How are customer service and support?

10/10 because we have Oracle Platinum Support.

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

Previously, we used SQL tuning, server tuning along with network tuning with huge storage and higher CPUs. It was a management decision, along with our recommendations, to move to Exadata.

How was the initial setup?

It was a complex setup because we were implementing the online application as well as data warehousing on the same machine. Lots of planning took place before moving to Exadata, and we did regression testing for each application on an Oracle provided Exadata machine. After verification from our application team and management, we verified our test results.

What about the implementation team?

We did it in-house with help from Oracle.

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

It's too costly.

What other advice do I have?

I have seen, and it's my personal experience, that if your application runs on half a rack don't go for a full rack. After all, you can upgrade from half a rack to a full rack if needed, and there is no point to move directly onto a full rack.

Check with Oracle and do testing on the lower version rack first. Although sales people from Oracle will convince you to go for a higher version, which is not needed unless your design, architecture, and applications needed .

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

it_user3309Presenter at a consultancy

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Mar 27, 2016

With regards to "Ability to migrate a database to Exadata from a normal environment" in Room for Improvement

What did you try? I found a simple CTAS worked just fine. The Transportable TS and GoldenGate were just too much trouble setting up. Going from AIX to Linux also was an issue with the Endian conversion.

As for shared RAM, what are you trying to achieve? Oracle 12 is likely what you are looking for.

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it_user270906

Project Manager at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jul 14, 2015

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In addition to greater scalability, better reliability, and a smaller datacenter footprint, the intelligent features utilize the storage layer in a way we've found valuable.

What is most valuable?

The intelligent features have been built to utilize the storage layer in a much better way.

How has it helped my organization?

It's one of the most stable, high-performing products I've used.

What needs improvement?

More control for database admins is needed for storage indexes and pricing.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used it for close to five years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

It's average.

Technical Support:

It's average.

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

We switched because we get better reliability and scalablity, as well as improved performance and a smaller footprint in the datacenter.

How was the initial setup?

It was straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented it in-house.

What was our ROI?

It's close to 40% in terms of cost saving.

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

Oracle's pricing and licensing is always costly.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

No issues encountered.

What other advice do I have?

If you are running Oracle databases, this is the best solution.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Platinum Partner

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it_user259878

Software Engineer with 501-1,000 employees

Jun 24, 2015

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In the past we used traditional RAC database architecture. The switch was straightforward using the OneCommand tool.

What is most valuable?

Exadata Storage Server software
Smart Scan

How has it helped my organization?

Sped up SQL response time
Easy to get support from the vendor

What needs improvement?

The ASR needs to be improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used it for three years, from 2012 to 2015.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Oracle support provided the necessary information to scale the system.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

It's good, 8/10.

Technical Support:

8/10.

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

In the past we used traditional RAC database architecture. We switched because this type of solution has many drawbacks, and Exadata is the best system for Oracle databases.

How was the initial setup?

It was straightforward using the OneCommand tool that is designed for Exadata deployment.

What about the implementation team?

We used an ACS engineer (advanced customer service) and the field delivery engineer did the implementation.

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

It is little bit expensive compared to other solutions, but very useful. You just pay for one license which covers all the components within Exadata.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

It is a new level of server designed for Oracle database software, so you cannot find any other options with Exadata storage software.

What other advice do I have?

If you have OLT and are working 24/7 on an Oracle database, Exadata is the best solution for you. Before implementing this product you need to define your requirements clearly as this will help you to avoid future issues.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Our company ITZone LLC is an Oracle Field Delivery Partner in Mongolia.

reviewer602496

System Admin at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees

Sep 17, 2021

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Very stable and mature; great at solving the I/O issue by offloading data to the SIM

Pros and Cons

"The offloading of data to the SIM is a valuable feature."

"The solution lacks a visualized console."

What is our primary use case?

I'm a system solution architect and we are Oracle customers.

What is most valuable?

The offloading of data to the SIM is the most valuable feature because it solves the issue of I/O.

What needs improvement?

I'd like to see a visualized console as part of the solution.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this solution for seven years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The product is very, very stable and mature. It's a strong and successful product.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup takes time and is complex. Implementation is generally carried out by the vendor.

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

The solution is expensive and the license is paid annually. It includes the database, clustering and the software for data, so you're paying for three or four software licenses plus the hardware license. If you activate any of the options, that will incur additional payment.

What other advice do I have?

It's important to be specific with your requirements, otherwise you'll be up for added costs. It's worth using the Capacity-on-Demand feature, start small and expand from there. It's easy to expand than contract so if you've taken on added resources that you don't need or won't use, it will cost you.

I rate the solution eight out of 10.

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

it_user693849

DBA - Oracle Exadata at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees

Jun 29, 2017

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Exadata comes pre configured, just need to create your databases and load your data.

How has it helped my organization?

Database consolidation driving hardware and licensing cost reduction.

What needs improvement?

Complexity comes from patching the whole stack (firmware to database). If you have subscribed to a platinum support contract, Oracle will do it for you.

For how long have I used the solution?

5 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No, the whole stack is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No, it scaled linearly as claimed by Oracle pre sales.

How is customer service and technical support?

The Exadata support team is good, they will never let you down.

How was the initial setup?

Exadata comes pre configured, just need to create your databases and load your data.

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

Public price is high, as usual with Oracle. You need to make a deal with Oracle sales.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

No.

What other advice do I have?

You should carefully plan your Gridisk/ASM disk layout, One big +DATA and +RECO, or one by database. Also think about your ORACLE_HOME: just one or many? Having several Oracle_Home gives you flexibility in patching (you can stop only one database) but increase DBA works, several Oracle_Home to be patched.

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

it_user3309

Presenter at a consultancy

Sep 16, 2014

It's not "one size fits all"

Whoever is the "Oracle Support" that does the initial setup seems to think that one-size-fits-all is the solution to every application environment. Still seems to be the approach of the 1980s that if the menu comes up then the setup is complete. For all the money and hoopla it is a disappointment to have to struggle with memory issues when doing simple tasks like adding large number of partitions.

There should be an option at install time to deal with DW and OLTP environments. I dont think that the training provided for "Exadata Support" persons is adequate to make the configuration modifications. So the "user" of the Exadata is left to deal with a machine configuration suitable for "oranges" when it is really "apples" that are needed.

Update
Once again it all boils down to how much the organization wants to own the Exadata environment. Not taking a hands-on approach to monitoring and fine tuning based on "experience" is not making the best use of the resources. But there appears to be a trend towards "leaving everything vanilla".

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

it_user3309Presenter at a consultancy

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May 5, 2013

I am not questioning the content and delivery of your training (cto6336)!. I am only questioning the observed outcomes from the Exadata training that I have experience with. If after the training, the "DBA" comes out with a fear and apprehension of doing anything other than compression to solve all known problems to mankind, then I think the training has failed. There have been many White Papers from non other than Oracle, which says things are different between a DW/BI and an OLTP environment. Also if there are partitions then there will be row movement. I am not sure if Exadata magically, if at all, deals with these when there is compression. Also if there is compression then there is a throughput penalty when we are doing migration from 10gR2 into Exadata. What happens when we have predefined tables with compression and we are trying to use transportable tablespaces. Do the predefined compressed tables remain on the target or will the whole thing fail? When we do data migration using simple CTAS having compression at the target will slow down the process. When there are only 6 hours of downtime available after which we have to resume data loading it becomes a crucial issue not to have anything take up more time.

The "fear and inability to think differently" after coming back from an Exadata Training ==> because Oracle Support will not allow it, is not the expected outcome from the course and neither is it going to make for the best deployment of Exadata expensive as it is.

Also to not even have the willingness (or perhaps in our case the knowledge) of making use to the Terabytes of ssd drives to put some high read tables is not what I would have expected from the Exadata training.

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it_user1011

Manager of Data Center at a insurance company with 51-200 employees

Jun 28, 2012

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Good for Data Warehousing and OLTP Applications

Valuable Features:

• Exadata provides great improvement in terms of read/write response time. The response time is approximately 10x the performance of a regular disk. • Tuning is automatic. • SQL operations run faster, because large I/O operations are replaced by group operations. • Ideal for data warehousing since it supports bulk load operations. • Good storage capacity

Room for Improvement:

• Licensing is per CPU and relatively expensive. • It is specifically designed for data warehouse and OLTP platforms; so, it is not cost effective when investing in it for low data transactions. • The hardware runs only Oracle Software Exadata is a proprietary system from Oracle, that combines both hardware and software requirements for data warehousing and OLTP applications. Oracle utilizes the improvement in disk technology, to produce one of the best machines, ideal not only for data warehousing, but good for private cloud.

Other Advice:

Smart Scan , Smart Flash, storage Index, Hybrid Columnar Compression, Resource Manager and Smart Scan of Data mining Model Scoring technologies are the features that places Exadata machine ahead of similar products. If you are looking for a data warehouse machine with large storage capacity, high performance, and manageability, Exadata is the best suite. But, you have to mentally prepare yourself for the fact that Exadata hardware only runs oracle software.

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

reviewer1031826

Analytics Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Nov 20, 2021

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High performance, good technology, and reliable

Pros and Cons

"The storage capacity and the performance of Oracle Exadata are good. When comparing the performance to other technologies it is very good. I am satisfied with the management of the solution."

"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."

What is our primary use case?

We are the first site in the Middle East that's using Exadata as a cloud service. My data is on-premise, but my service is on cloud.

What is most valuable?

The storage capacity and the performance of Oracle Exadata are good. When comparing the performance to other technologies it is very good. I am satisfied with the management of the solution.

What needs 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.

For how long have I used the solution?

I used Oracle Exadata within the last 12 months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is very stable and has good performance.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Oracle Exadata is scalable.

Our clients are mostly small to medium-sized companies.

How are customer service and support?

I have been satisfied with the technical support.

How was the initial setup?

The installation is a medium level of difficulty. You need a skilled person to do the installation.

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

The price of the solution has been expensive to implement.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Oracle Exadata an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner