UP FRONT: From the Editor

As Published In
Oracle Magazine
November/December 2010

  

United We Engineer

By Tom Haunert

 

Built together, hardware and software can do more, and do it faster.

The interdependence of hardware and software means that each component is built to the standards and requirements of the other components. But that same interdependence also means that when one vendor engineers both the hardware and the software, tightly integrated, standards-based systems can deliver better performance and results for your business. 

Every Port in the Data Storm

I started working at Oracle in a porting group. This particular group worked on porting the Oracle Database kernel software from its primary port to a variety of other ports—combinations of operating systems and hardware—from different vendors. The same software kernel was deployed for each of these ports, with whatever software customizations that were required by the particular operating system and hardware.

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One aspect of porting involved addressing limitations in the operating system and hardware of a port that affect the ported software’s performance and functionality. On more than one occasion, I recall porting developers wishing a hardware or software vendor would add some support or fix a bug that would enable the full functionality and performance of Oracle Database on that port. 
 

Engineered Together

At Oracle OpenWorld 2010 in San Francisco, California, Oracle announced many new hardware and software products and several combined hardware and software products that demonstrate the benefit of hardware and software engineered to work together.

Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud (“cloud in a box”) is the world’s first and only integrated middleware machine. It combines 64-bit processors with key Oracle Fusion Middleware components—including Oracle WebLogic Server, Oracle Coherence, and Oracle JRockit—to consolidate, manage, and run Java and non-Java applications at more than 1 million HTTP requests per second in an elastic and secure private cloud. And the combination and optimization of the included Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud hardware and software is key to this extreme performance.

Next Steps


REVISIT
Oracle OpenWorld
 

LEARN more about

Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud

Oracle’s Exadata Database Machine X2-8
Oracle’s new Exadata Database Machine X2-8 combines Oracle Database 11g, Oracle Real Application Clusters, Oracle Enterprise Manager, and Oracle Exadata Storage Software with two 8-socket database servers with 128 CPU cores, 14 Oracle Exadata Storage Servers with 168 CPU cores, and Oracle’s Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel for Oracle Linux or Oracle Solaris Express 11 in a complete private cloud. The combination and optimization of Oracle Exadata Storage Server hardware and software is key to the performance of this and all Oracle Exadata database machines. And the new Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel provides the scalability to support the 8-socket servers and 128 CPU cores of the Exadata Database Machine X2-8.
 

Not coincidently, the Exadata Database Machine X2-8 is the ideal database and data storage platform to integrate with and support the extreme application performance of Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud.

Tom Haunert, Editor in Chief
tom.haunert@oracle.com

 

 

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