Oracle has released a new Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offering, expanded private cloud products, a modernised database and a new iteration of its Exadata server at its Oracle OpenWorld 2012 conference in San Francisco.

As a key component of Oracle Cloud, the new Exadata X3 Database In-Memory Machine will help the company compete against SAP and will expand the firm’s cloud services in a bid to include full Infrastructure-as-a-Service offerings for both public and private cloud applications.

According to Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, the new 12c database will allow customers move their computing jobs from data centres to the Internet.

"You can access all of these services across the network," Ellison said.

The company’s s new IaaS service is claimed to complete its cloud offerings, harmonising its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products.

"It took a long time to build a complete suite of cloud applications and the all-important platform, which we call Fusion middleware," Ellison said.

"We have a huge advantage in platform solutions in the cloud because we are the number one platform company in the world."
Oracle’s new Private Cloud, which would run on Fusion, allows operation of PeopleSoft and Siebel.

"It’s an extension of the Oracle [public] Cloud. You can’t tell the difference, the software is identical," Ellison said.

Finally, the firm’s iterated database, the 12c, which is claimed to be the first multi-tenancy database in the world and Oracle’s first new version for its flagship product in five years.

The new 12c comes with a concept of the ‘container database’ and will feature separate ‘pluggable’ databases, each of which will have a dedicated memory, and allows plugging multiple separate databases into the private container.

In order to realize the highest performance at the lowest cost, the Oracle Exadata X3 Database In-Memory Machine implements a mass memory hierarchy that automatically moves all active data into Flash and RAM memory, while keeping less active data on low-cost disks.

Oracle Exadata X3-2 Database In-Memory Machine and Oracle Exadata X3-8 Database In-Memory Machine claimed to store up to hundreds of Terabytes of compressed data in Flash and RAM memory.

Storing in Flash and RAM memory will eliminate the performance overhead of reads and writes which slow disk drives and the Exadata X3 systems is claimed to complete varied and unpredictable workloads of cloud computing.

Exadata X3 Database In-Memory Machines use scale-out servers and storage, InfiniBand networking, smart storage, PCI Flash, smart memory caching, and Hybrid Columnar Compression to offer enhanced performance.

With a new Eighth-Rack configuration, the Oracle Exadata X3-2 Database In-Memory Machine delivers a cost-effective entry point for smaller workloads, testing, development and disaster recovery systems, and is a fully redundant system that can be used with mission critical applications.