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Oracle is now offering its Exadata Cloud service on bare-metal servers it provides through its data centers. The company launched Exadata Cloud two years ago to offer its database services as a cloud service and has upgraded it considerably to compete with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure.

Exadata Cloud is basically the cloud version of the Exadata Database Machine, which features Oracles database software, servers, storage and network connectivity all integrated on custom hardware the company inherited from its acquisition of Sun Microsystems in 2010.

The upgrade to the Exadata Cloud infrastructure on bare metal means customers can now get their own dedicated database appliance in the cloud instead of running the database in a virtual machine, which is how most cloud services are offered. Bare metal means dedicated hardware, which should increase performance.

Exadata Cloud is the same as the on-premises device, and customers can allocate all the CPUs and storage they want. But its also compatible with its databases deployed on-premises, which makes it easy for customers with data centers to transition to the cloud or to deploy a hybrid cloud strategy.

With the power of Oracle Exadata, customers using our infrastructure are able to bring applications to the cloud never previously possible, without the cost of re-architecture, and achieve incredible performance throughout the stack. From front-end application servers to database and storage, we are optimizing our customers most critical applications, said Kash Iftikhar, vice president of product management for Oracle Cloud, in a statement.

Oracle claims customers can self-provision multiple bare-metal servers in less than five minutes, with each server supporting more than 4 million input/output operations per second (IOPS). Its cloud infrastructure also provides block storage that linearly scales by 60 IOPS per GB.

Oracle is targeting customers already using Exadata on-premises that want to migrate to the cloud, as well as organizations that want a hybrid solution, to split the load between on-premises and the cloud.

Oracle has beefed up its offering in recent years, pushing virtually all of its on-premises software into a SaaS model, as well as building its own massive data centers to offer cloud services such as Exadata Cloud. It recognizes the writing on the wall that the move to the cloud is inevitable, but it remains to be seen how much of what Oracle specializes in will go to the cloud.

Do companies really want to shuttle multi-petabytes of data around the cloud and their data center? Do they want sensitive data in the cloud? Or critical line-of-business apps?

There have been numerous stories of firms moving the cloud and then moving right back on premises, either in full or part. Dont get me wrong; Im sure some data will move to the cloud, and Oracle will be able to protect its business with cloud offerings. Just how much remains to be seen. I think some things will stay close to home.

Read more:
Oracle expands database offering to its cloud services - Network World