The Oracle Optimized Data Warehouse

by Curt Hall

For some time now, Oracle has offered what it calls "Information Appliance Foundations," which are reference configurations that specify a recommended database, server, and storage mix for a customer's data warehousing requirements. These specifications, however, do not actually bundle the various software and hardware. Thus, they are not a data-warehousing appliance, per se. Rather, they are reference configurations intended to assist customers with choosing the most appropriate database/hardware configuration to meet their scale, price, and performance needs, and to help simplify the design and implementation of a data warehousing system. (Oracle offers reference configurations for Dell, EMC, HP, IBM, and Sun.) However, with the company's recently announced Oracle Optimized Warehouse initiative, Oracle has broadened its reach into the realm of data warehousing appliances.