Backing up Exadata on the cheap

Mark Fontecchio — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 16:20:21 +0000

As consultant Eric Guyer puts it, “it’s not enough to buy one Exadata box.” And so the price point for many customers – especially those SMBs – may be out of reach.

That may explain why only 6% of respondents in SearchOracle.com’s recent survey have Exadata installed or plan to install it this year. A typical Exadata deal will easily set you back seven figures. From Guyer:

You kind of need three (Exadatas): one for production, another for standby and a third for development activities. This is because Oracle Exadata does not offer array mirroring and best practices dictate that development/test/QA be identical to–but not reside on–production servers.

But Guyer said a new report from NetApp may provide a way out of that. The report details how Exadata users can use NetApp technology to back up their Exadata. Guyer nicknamed the report Exadata for Less. Guyer details how a company can save money by avoiding licensing costs for RAC and Exadata Storage software on secondary and tertiary machines.

Could this development open up Exadata to the masses? Furthermore, is this Oracle’s way of opening up the platform so it can grab more users?

Eye on Oracle » NetApp

Backing up Exadata on the cheap