Oracle last week introduced the Oracle Exadata Database Machine X2-8.
The new configuration extends the Oracle Exadata Database Machine product family with a high-capacity system for large OLTP, data warehousing and consolidated workloads.
With this announcement, there are now four configurations of the Oracle Exadata Database Machine: the new Oracle Exadata X2-8 full-rack and the Oracle Exadata X2-2 quarter-rack, half-rack and full-rack systems.
Offering customers a choice of configurations for managing small to large database deployments, the Oracle Exadata X2-2 and Oracle Exadata X2-8 full-rack machines can scale to multi-rack configurations for the most demanding database applications, says Oracle.
Secure, fault-tolerant, and offering 50% greater processing capacity, Oracle Exadata Database Machine X2-8 is a complete grid, or private cloud, featuring two 8-socket database servers with a total of 128 Intel CPU cores and 2 terabytes of memory; 14 Exadata Storage Servers with 168 Intel CPU cores and up to 336 terabytes of raw storage capacity; more than 5 terabytes of Exadata Smart Flash Cache to cache frequently accessed 'hot' data for extremely fast transaction response times and high throughput; multiple compression tiers to manage more data and reduce I/O requirements of OLTP and data warehousing data; 40 Gigabit InfiniBand internal connectivity; and, 10 Gigabit Ethernet external connectivity.
Customers will have the choice of Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel or Oracle Solaris 11 Express on Oracle Exadata Database Machines.
The Oracle Exadata Database Machine X2-8 provides the ability to query fully encrypted databases "with near-zero overhead" at hundreds of gigabytes per second, according to Oracle. This is done by moving decryption processing from software into the Exadata hardware.
"The data volumes now are huge, and they are going to keep getting bigger and as they grow rapidly, you will need more and more power," said Oracle president Mark Hurd, commenting on the new release during a keynote at Oracle OpenWorld. The newest Exadata system, the X2-8, offers all of the advantages of the current Exadata but more - "beefier" processors in the database to handle yet more users; 2 eight processor Intel servers - meaning that there are 128 cores in the system; the ability to hold large amounts of data in memory, the advantage of which is "speed, raw speed"; as well as full database encryption for security, Hurd emphasized. And, in addition, organizations now have a choice of Linux or Solaris. "We have now moved past warehousing, to OLTP, to mixed workloads, integrated system, optimized, fully supported service by us. One company accountable - we are doing everything."
Commenting on joining Oracle, Hurd, who had previously been with HP, also said, "I am really excited to be part of this. I have actually been coming to these events for a while and I am glad to be part of the team."
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