2023 was an amazing year for Oracle Database services in the cloud. We continued to build upon over a decade of innovation with a new generation of Oracle Exadata that continues to be the best performing, highest available, and most secure platform for deploying Oracle databases in the cloud. We expanded our cloud region footprint and enhanced our multicloud strategy for Oracle databases. We maintained our focus on developing services that meet the requirements of enterprise customers moving Oracle databases to the cloud. And finally, we strengthened our commitment to Oracle database developers by simplifying application development and offering additional cost-effective cloud database deployment options.
The start of 2024 is a great time to look back and recap the key announcements as we prepare for more groundbreaking advances in 2024. In case you missed them, here’s a summary of 6 top announcements from 2023 for Exadata Database Service and Base Database Service.
- Exadata Cloud@Customer X10M
- Oracle Database@Azure
- Integration with Oracle Autonomous Recovery Service
- Oracle Database 23c released in OCI
- Support for Ampere A1 Shapes
- Exadata Fleet Update
Exadata Cloud@Customer X10M
In June 2023, we introduced Exadata X10M, the latest generation Oracle Exadata platform, delivering unrivaled performance and availability for all Oracle Database workloads. Exadata Cloud@Customer X10M, which runs Exadata Database Service, was updated with 4th Gen AMD EPYC™ processors to deliver substantial performance improvements with up to 3X higher transaction throughput and up to 3.6X faster analytic queries than the previous generation. To achieve this breakthrough performance, we implemented major optimizations to the entire software stack to ensure that database performance scales linearly on Exadata X10M servers with a high core count and large memory capacity. Exadata X10M’s high-capacity storage servers can now hold 22 percent more data and database servers now support 2X higher memory capacity—enabling more databases to run on the same system.
Oracle Database@Azure
In December 2023, we announced the general availability of Oracle Database@Azure, a joint Oracle and Microsoft solution that lets customers easily provision, access, and operate Oracle Database services as native resources directly in Microsoft Azure. With Oracle Database@Azure, we deliver the same Oracle Exadata Database Service, on the same OCI managed Oracle Exadata Cloud Infrastructure, but physically in Microsoft Azure data centers. By collocating OCI database services in Azure data centers, Oracle Database@Azure offers the low latency of native Azure services, and the same high levels of database performance, scale, availability, and security that is only available with OCI. Cloud native applications and Oracle databases run with the same security and compliance across the entire solution in Azure data centers.
Integration with Oracle Autonomous Recovery Service
In April 2023, we integrated Oracle Database Autonomous Recovery Service with Exadata Database Service and Base Database Service in OCI to offer database-optimized backup and recovery capabilities. Recovery Service uses the incremental backup forever strategy, eliminating weekly full backups to dramatically shortening backup windows. Recovery time is reduced by using virtual full backups to immediately restore instead of having to apply multiple days of incremental backups in a traditional recovery. Real-time data protection can be enabled to support sub-second Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) by using redo logs that are continuously transferred from the protected database. With Recovery Service, ransomware risk is greatly reduced through end-to-end security controls, including mandatory encryption and ability to set backup retention lock on a per-database level. And, with improved operational efficiency and deep visibility into database-level storage consumption, overall backup costs can be more effectively controlled.
Oracle Database 23c released in OCI
In September 2023, we announced the general availability of Oracle Database 23c on AMD and Intel flexible virtual machine shapes for Oracle Base Database Service in OCI. Developers can quickly benefit from the new Oracle Database 23c features in the cloud with automated deployment, simple management, and pay-as-you-go pricing.
Oracle Database 23c is focused on empowering database developers along with offering numerous enhancements highlighted by innovations such as AI vector search and JSON relational duality views in a database renowned for its unparalleled support for high availability, industry-leading performance, and robust security. This new release also continues to enhance Oracle Database’s industry-leading converged database approach, supporting any data type and workload while allowing developers to choose any development style.
Support for Ampere A1 Shapes
In June 2023, we announced that Oracle Database 19c Enterprise Edition, is now certified and available on the popular ARM architecture for both cloud and on-premises deployments. You can now subscribe to Oracle Base Database Service on OCI using Ampere Altra processor (OCI Ampere A1) compute instances in flexible VM shapes.
The OCI Ampere A1 database shape is based on the Ampere Altra processor with single-threaded cores, which means no sharing of the execution engine, registers, and L1/L2 cache between threads. Combined with OCI’s high-performance architecture and non-blocking networks, Ampere Altra processors deliver predictable performance and a low entry cost to Oracle Base Database Service.
Exadata Fleet Update
In August 2023, we announced Exadata Fleet Update, a free-of-charge enhancement to Exadata Database Service both in OCI and on Cloud@Customer. Exadata Fleet Update simplifies, standardizes, and enhances the Oracle Database and Grid Infrastructure patching experience by grouping multiple Oracle Databases and Grid Infrastructure deployments into collections that allow for updates to be performed together across the fleet. Exadata Fleet Update supports different patching options to accommodate varying availability and workload requirements, including rolling and non-rolling updates, using a standard out-of-place patching process and session draining for seamless operations.
Those were the highlights, but there’s much more…
In 2023 we also released dozens of additional features and enhancements. Take a look at the new features section in the documentation for more details. 2024 is shaping up to be an even bigger year with many great announcements planned.
I’d like to close by thanking the Exadata and Oracle Database cloud engineering and support teams for their tireless efforts in making Exadata and OCI the best place to run Oracle Database in the cloud and all our customers and partners for their trust and support.
Documentation Links
Kevin Deihl
Director of Product Management
Kevin has over 15 years of experience managing enterprise on-premises and cloud solutions including Oracle Database related technologies, Oracle Engineered Systems, and Oracle Cloud services.