If you’ve browsed the Cornerstone website, you’re probably well aware of the Oracle database appliances that we sell, implement, and maintain.
The latest release of the Oracle Database Appliance family – including the X6-2S database appliance – are extremely powerful, advanced, and robust database technologies that address the cost/performance needs of the SMB market.
The performance, price, and scalability of these database appliances are most the compelling when deploying Oracle Database (11g/12c) – and any company interested in replacing an aging database infrastructure would be wise to invest in a database appliance such as the X6 Oracle Database Appliance family of database machines.
That’s why we recently set up a benchmark comparison test using the X6-2S (the entry level model) – which out performed the competition by orders of magnitude. Curious about the details? Read on, and learn more about this experiment.
The Devices And Their Details
To perform a true benchmarking test of the X6-2S database, we decided it would be best to compare it to a fairly standard database that may be used in a midsize business.
Accordingly, we chose a database built using 2 HP GL360 (eight cores) nodes on a Dell EMC Clariion SAN Disk Array. This Oracle commodity-built cluster can store 7TB of data, provisioned over high-performance, 10,000 RPM HDDs.
While this particular product is no longer being manufactured, it’s a fairly reasonable representation of the database performance found in many companies.
Now, let’s compare this database to the X6-2S database appliance. The X6-2S features 10 Intel cores for speedy performance, 128gb of RAM, and 6.4GB of raw Non-Volatile Memory (NVMe) SSD storage.
At a glance, you can probably already tell which device is going to win – by merit of having solid state storage alone, the X6-2S database is the clear favorite.
But what you will be surprised by is how much faster the X6-2S database appliance is – even compared to other enterprise servers. Find out how much faster the X6-2S is by reading the next section of our article.
The Benchmarking Test
The benchmarking test itself was relatively simple. Both the X6-2S database appliance and the Dell EMC-based Frankenstein server cluster were provided with the same exact task – loading 9.5gb of total data. This data consisted of more than 146 million rows.
After setting up an environment for both devices on the Oracle Database Appliance (ODA), we began the import of the data on the Dell server. After about 30 minutes of running the custom built cluster, about 7.1GB of data had been imported to the server – meaning a fairly reasonable transfer rate, and this was in line with our initial expectations.
We ran the Dell server import for approximately 30 minutes, we then began the process of benchmarking the X6-2S database appliance. We provisioned the environment in ODA, created all the tablespaces required for the import, and began loading the data, alongside our Dell environment.
The results were, in a word, astonishing. After beginning the data import, the X6-2S surpassed the the Dell environment – which, we’ll remind you, had been running for over 30 minutes – within 30 seconds.
The entire data import of 146 million rows was performed on the X6-2S database in a little over a minute.Watch the video, seeing is believing. If you like we can demo for you!!
The Oracle X6-2S database appliance, therefore, represents an absolutely dramatic performance increase compared to other leading enterprise database appliances – even from leading manufacturers like Dell. Not only will the ODA outperform many other solutions, it will also save you a lot of time and money. With the ODA you only license the cores you need to use, leaving you with capacity on demand should you need to scale up and use more cores.
Though we certainly expected the X6-2S to blow our other server out of the water, the sheer scale of the performance gains provided by this Oracle appliance is truly mind-boggling.
The Results Speak For Themselves
Our benchmarking test serves to illustrate a single point – by choosing the right hardware, your company can dramatically increase overall database performance and efficiency. And if you choose the wrong hardware, you risk low performance, a sluggish database, and poor overall IT infrastructure.
Beyond its sheer speed, the Oracle X6-2S offers a wide range of other benefits. It’s affordable – clocking in at around $18,000 MSRP. Not only that, it’s upgradeable and scalable. If desired, users of the X6-2S can add an additional 6.4TB of NVMe storage – doubling the IOPS performance of the unit to 240,000 write IOPS and 480,000 Read IOPS, respectively.
Another benefit of the Oracle X6-2S is that it’s scalable, even for smaller companies. In contrast to other servers – such as the Dell server used in our benchmarking example – Oracle allows you to license your database appliance by the core – you only have to pay for licenses for the cores that you’re using.
This allows you to scale more effectively, and reduces the overall cost of running a dedicated Oracle database appliance. Whenever you need more performance, you can simply license an additional core – providing maximum business agility to your company, and reducing the burden on your IT team.
Contact Cornerstone Today – And Learn More About Oracle Database Appliances.
The Oracle X6-2S is only the tip of the iceberg. Other Oracle Database Appliances such as the X6-2M and X6-2HA can offer even greater performance of the X6-2S.
So don’t rely on outdated hardware to run your business. If you’re interested in the benefits of Oracle database appliances, contact CDSI today. We have a deep and thorough understanding of Oracle database support, and we can help you find the perfect database appliance for your needs.
And with our customer-focused, boutique business model, you can be sure that you’re getting the service you deserve. We pledge to always help you choose what’s best for your company – not just for our bottom line. That’s what makes Cornerstone different.
Contact us now, and see how Oracle database appliances can change the way you do business.
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