McNeely Tech sponsored the Dallas Oracle Users Group meeting last week, which was a presentation by Oracle Corporation about their souped-up Exadata product.
The first generation of Exadata was a combination of an HP hardware/operating system and Oracle software, each modified to work well with each other. That Exadata box pumped out some impressive performance stats.
The next generation, not surprisingly, is on Sun hardware, with a customized operating system and storage, and with modified Oracle software. This critter screams!
Have you seen a picture of the new Exadata box yet? It’s got a handsome enclosure, but it’s got a big “X” on the front. “X” to me means, it’s broken, don’t use it! Funny/odd.
“X” or not, an amazing machine.
It would be interesting to see what Oracle really brings to the table on this appliance. When Openworld had Netezza at a vendor booth exhibiting — the Exadata appliance was revealed. I giggled a little because it was presented in a Avast me hearties! prepare to be boarded type of gusto. I figure it’s all good.
Netezza uses Postgres and is MPP — the code being at the individual hard drive level wired in… the pairing of the math and the class A subnet. Netezza got the nut cracked and understands a Data Warehousing Appliance.
With Exadata… I haven’t heard of companies owning them nor DBA’s or UNIX admin’s getting their sleeves rolled up and into the innards of geekery and tuning that I would expect. I’d love to see more. I hope that Oracle takes it much farther than Unbreakable Linux. I’m still disappointed that RPM’s and spec management aren’t incorporated into bare metal provisioning packs for Grid. Maybe with sun packages they may instead go the Jumpstart route… (Still hoping)
I’m planning for some more Exadata content at one of the Dallas Oracle Users Group meetings this year. I think it will be received with interest.
If you travel to Dallas sometimes, take a look at the DOUG events calendar – http://www.doug.org; I’d enjoy seeing you at a meeting, maybe even the Exadata one.