Oracle's affair with ExaLove

If anyone is following the press around Oracle, it is hard to miss Oracle’s infatuation with Exa. It started with ExaData, the database machine that was so fast it supposedly improved the collective productivity of the human race by 300%. (Of course, these claims are still waiting to be independently validated by IBM).

The Exadata release was followed by “Exalogic”. It is now customary to expect at least 5 mentions of Exalogic in even the simplest of conversations that anyone would have with an Oracle representative. I have a sense that Oracle employees greet each other with “Exalogic, Exalogic, Exalogic” in the corridors at work. (Imagine bowing 3 times while saying those words).

I had the opportunity to evaluate Exalogic (at close range) recently and I think I am starting to understand the reason behind this excitement. It is not Exadata or Exalogic alone that has got the Oracle Universe a-buzz, it is the possibilities that Exa brings to the IT and business landscape.

Exalogic is a sister offering to Exadata, and is an “application” machine. It is ENGINEERED from hardware on up to provide an application platform that is built like a tank, and computes at the speed of thought. This makes it an extremely attractive platform for organizations looking to build a cloud environment.

I anticipate that post-Exalogic, Oracle will start coming up with a whole host of pre-built appliances that are specialized for a niche area (think data warehouse appliance, BI appliance, sector-specific appliance) while continuing to provide an as-you-want platform in Exalogic.

I can see where the infatuation for “Exa” comes from, and look forward to seeing the vision materialize.