The Oracle Optimized Warehouse represents the first of deliverable of Oracle’s Optimized Warehouse initiative that aims to provide an out-of-the-box data warehousing system that pre-installs the Oracle database on Dell server and EMC storage hardware.
The Opimized Warehouse is made up of Dell PowerEdge servers, EMC Clariion CX3 networked storage systems (offered by Dell under the Dell/EMC brand), Red Hat or Oracle Enterprise Linux, and of course the Oracle Database.
The move is the result of a long-standing collaboration between the three IT providers and Oracle is targeting the integrated system at both large enterprise data warehouse and data mart installations.
Oracle said that Optimized Warehouse is available now through Dell channels.
Oracle has announced several reference configurations with Dell and EMC for data warehousing as part of its Information Appliance initiative, which now seems to have been re-branded as Optimized Warehouse. Plus its newly released 11g database comes with improved data warehousing features.
This is also the second data warehouse appliance-like play that Dell has been involved in. A couple of weeks ago Dell announced a tie-up with Microsoft to ship three integrated hardware-software business intelligence and data warehousing configurations based on its PowerEdge 6950 servers, PowerVault storage arrays and Microsoft’s SQL Server 2005 database.
Our View
Oracle hasn’t been particularly clear with its Appliance initiative to date; and the subtle switches in branding don’t help. The reference configurations it announced with Dell and EMC as part of its Information Appliance initiative earlier this year now seem to have gelled into a discrete Optimized Warehouse appliance-offering; though Oracle still seems loathe calling it that.
Nevetheless this move will please Oracle’s data warehousing customers that might have felt the database giant has neglected their needs. But is was probably the pressure of appliance startups like Netezza and Datallegro and appliance plays from Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard and IBM that probably forced Oracle to play its appliance hand now.
The release of Oracle 11g and its Warehouse Optimization initiative will broaden the options for companies seeking to lower their enterprise data warehousing costs. Oracle might have the hardware and software in place. But like all other appliance vendors, still has some work to do to iron out and simplify back-end data integration.
