Oracle has enhanced the Oracle Exastack Optimized program with the ability to achieve Oracle Exastack Optimized status for Oracle's SPARC SuperCluster T4-4. In addition, partners can now test their solutions on the SPARC SuperCluster T4-4 through the Oracle Exastack Labs, remotely accessible environments for the purposes of testing and tuning applications on the latest major releases of key Oracle Exastack components.
Part of the Oracle Exastack Program, Oracle Exastack Optimized enables independent software vendors (ISVs) and other qualifying members of Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) to optimize their applications to run faster and more reliably on Oracle Exadata Database Machine and Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud. According to Oracle, partners that have achieved Oracle Exastack Optimized status have seen application performance increases of more than 42x and data compression increases of more than 26x, leading to improved total cost of ownership and reduced storage costs.
Partners and Engineered Systems
The Exastack certification program which is now in its second year is resonating with partners for several reasons, says Chris Baker, senior vice president, Worldwide ISV and OEM Sales, Oracle. Historically, one of the issues that many ISVs have had to deal with is the time required to take technology components and engineer that technology to work, “when really what they wanted to do was focus all of their activity on their applications which is the thing that their customers are actually buying from them,” says Baker. The use of a standard architecture reduces the amount of time and effort that they have to spend in engineering the technology platform while getting the benefit of Exadata, Exalogic and Exalytics - having an engineered system “which gives them huge performance benefits - but most importantly, the architecture is exactly the same every time they want to use it.”
Customers are excited about the Oracle engineered systems, notes Kevin O'Brien, senior director, ISV & SaaS Strategy at Oracle. “As this business grows out and our customers see the benefits of running Exadata, Exalytics, Exalogic – Oracle’s engineered systems – they are looking for ISV systems that can run upon those architectures. The place for them to find those ISV applications is in the Oracle solution catalog. An Oracle customer can go into the Oracle solution catalog and very quickly find an ISV that has an application that is Exastack-ready or an ISV that has an application that is Exastack-optimized. This gives visibility to our ISVs that have made this commitment and it also gives value to our end customers at Oracle who are looking for these types of solutions.”
The certification program which was started in June 2011 has caught on, Baker adds, because it enables ISVs to direct more time and budget toward their own applications. “What we have decided to do as part of the Exastack program was to introduce the Ready program - which is making sure that our ISVs are ready to move toward an Exa environment by using Oracle Linux and Oracle Solaris, and also the latest version of the Oracle Database and WebLogic. And that leads to an Exa-ready environment where they know that they are ready and that their systems will work on an engineered system environment,” Baker explains.
Market Adoption
In less than one year, more than 100 ISV applications achieved an Oracle Exastack Ready status and more than 40 ISV applications achieved Oracle Exastack Optimized status and can be found by Oracle customers listed in the Oracle Solutions Catalog. “The Optimized program is where we work with the ISV to make sure that every time they deploy on an Exa platform, they know they are going to get the benefit,” says Baker. The Oracle Exastack Program also provides partners with direct access to global Oracle Exastack Lab environments, technical enablement resources and performance engineers who can help partners optimize their applications on Oracle Exadata Database Machine and Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud.
Since the program was launched, Exalytics has also been introduced. “Exalytics is our analysis and business intelligence engineered system and we see that as a really big play for our ISVs and OEMs,” Baker says. “Again, the Exalytics platform is about standard architectures and, by combining the in-memory database and the OBIEE analytics engine, they can get the benefit of standard architectures,” he emphasizes. “We see the Exalytics as a very exciting part of the future as we are moving forward in the Exastack program.”
Beyond Performance
People focus on the performance but the performance is not the only story, points out Baker. “It is about agility, and about the speed of deployment, and it is about the ISV being able to provide benefit to their end user customer much quicker than they have ever done before. Nobody would take part in the program if they didn’t see any value in it and clearly by us explaining the market advantage they get and how they can extend the market that they are in, that is why we have had the commitment. We are very pleased with what we have achieved in the last 12 months.”
Oracle has more than 25,000 partners and ISVs and OEMs are an important part of that ecosystem, adds O'Brien. “With the ‘Ready’ and the ‘Optimized’ designations, we are providing a clear path for these ISVs to get recognition within Oracle that translates to benefits specifically within the partner program that are usually aligned with our specialized partners. Specialized partners are typically systems integrators and resellers so Ready and Optimized and the Exastack program allows ISVs and OEMs to unlock benefits within the OPN program and also allows them to get a tremendous amount of awareness with our end customers as well as our field.”
For information on the Oracle PartnerNetwork, go to www.oracle.com/partners.
For information about Exastack, go to www.oracle.com/partners/en/opn-program/oracle-exastack/index.html.