Oracle Exadata

Oracle Exadata Database Machine

Oracle Exadata Database Machine

Oracle Exadata Database Machine (Exadata) is a combined compute and storage system optimized for running Oracle Database software. Exadata debuted in 2008 as the first in Oracle’s family of "Engineered Systems", defined as "hardware and software engineered to work together". New generations of Exadata are released roughly once a year.

Exadata combines scale-out compute servers, scale-out storage servers, InfiniBand networking and specialized software, packaged in one or more hardware racks, with various sizing options. Exadata compute servers use Intel Xeon processors and the Oracle Linux operating system to run Oracle Database software. Exadata storage servers perform block storage functions and also run Exadata Storage Server Software to offload data intensive database processing into storage, closest to the data.

It is Oracle’s claim that optimizing the entire compute/storage/networking infrastructure in Exadata for the Oracle Database allows it to become the best possible database server platform and that pre-integrating all the software and hardware simplifies configuration, management, and troubleshooting for customers. Critics of Exadata point out that this limits it to running Oracle Databases, and it cannot be used as a general-purpose server. Industry analysts at IDC classify Exadata as an "Integrated Platform" with Oracle Engineered Systems having over 50% market share as of March, 2015. Analysts at Gartner place Oracle Engineered Systems in the leaders quadrant of their "Integrated Systems Magic Quadrant" report for 2014, giving Oracle the top vendor ranking for "Integrated Stack Systems".