Oracle Database Service options for Azure Customers

We saw Larry Ellison visit Redmond for the first time to make an important partnership announcement with Satya Nadella. Yesterday’s announcement shows we have two similar-sounding Oracle database services on Azure. Oracle Database Service “FORAzure (ODSA) and Oracle Database “ATAzure (OracleDatabase@Azure).

Here is a quick note to understand the differences between these services – this blog is based on the limited information available for Oracle Database@Azure – my understanding may be incorrect. The good news is that I am headed to Oracle Cloud World, and we have everyone from Oracle there to answer any questions.

Oracle Database Service for Azure (ODSA)Oracle Database@Azure
ODSA is an Oracle-managed service that automatically configures the network between your Azure and Oracle accounts. It provides an Azure-like portal to create and manage your Oracle databases running in OCI as if they were Azure resources.The hardware is collocated in Azure’s data center (similar to Exadata Cloud@Customer).
Dependency:
– Available only in regions with OCI-Azure Interconnect.
Interconnect regions located around the world
Dependency:
– No dependency on OCI-Azure Interconnect.
– According to FAQ, Oracle Database@Azure previews will be available in early 2024 in regions in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, with plans to expand globally.
Benefits:
– Split stack architecture – run applications and databases in different clouds.
– Oracle License advantages of using OCI for Oracle products.
– Easy configuration and setup.
Benefits:
– Azure customers can provision databases on Exadata in Azure without latency concerns.
– Oracle License advantages of using Oracle Engineered system for Oracle products.
– No infrastructure configuration is required.
Tenancies required:
– Azure tenancy and Subscription.
– OCI Tenancy.
Tenancies Required:
– Azure tenancy and Subscription  

Note: The control plane may be in OCI, and thus, a tenancy subscription might be needed, but I’m not sure.
Provisioning:
– Services are provisioned from an Azure-like portal managed by OCI.
Provisioning:
– Provision service directly from the Azure portal.
Available Database Services:
– Oracle Base Database (DBCS)
– Oracle Autonomous on Shared Exadata Infrastructure (ADB-S)
– Oracle Exadata Database (ExaCS) on dedicated infrastructure
– MySQL Heatwave
Available Database Services:
– Oracle Exadata Database (ExaCS) on dedicated infrastructure (including autonomous database ADB-D cluster)

Note: Just like ExaC@C.  
Physical location:
– Oracle databases are provisioned in the OCI tenancy (OCI Data Center).
Physical location:
– Exadata hardware is provisioned in an OCI-dedicated area in the Azure Data Center.
Latency:
– In single digits between OCI and Azure
Latency:
– No latency concerns as all services are in Azure DC and under one network.
Provisioning Steps:
– Link Azure tenancy and OCI tenancy (Account Linking) 
– Azure subscription linking
– Provision desired DB services from the multicloud portal.
Provisioning Steps:
– Purchase from Azure Marketplace.
– Create Oracle Exadata Infrastructure from Azure Portal.
Management:
– Through an OCI-managed multi-cloud portal http://multicloud.oracle.com/azure
Management:
– Managed using Azure Portal along with other Azure services.
Support:
– Support portal in Oracle DB for Azure home page (Multi-cloud Portal).
FAQ: You request help directly from within the Oracle Database Service for Azure portal; this allows you to create an OCI Service Request and get the help you need from OCI.
Support:
– Support through the Azure portal
FAQ: Oracle and Microsoft have developed a joint support model to ensure rapid response and resolution for mission-critical workloads. Customers can reach out to either Microsoft or Oracle support teams.
Billing:
FAQ: Microsoft bills customers for the Azure resources they use. They are billed by Oracle for the Oracle Database services they deploy on OCI.
– OCI Universal Credits managed through OCI tenancy subscription.
– There are no charges for the Interconnect ports or ingress/egress network traffic over the Interconnect.
– Eligible for support rewards (25% of OCI spend towards active Oracle technical support contract renewal – 33% for ULA)
Billing for Microsoft Customers:
– Purchase Oracle Database@Azure towards your Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC).
– Receive one bill for consuming Oracle Database@Azure and other Azure services.
– Eligible for support rewards.

Billing for Oracle Customers:
– (No mention of how to use OCI Universal Credits.)
– Use unlimited license agreements (ULAs) or bring your own license (BYOL), just like you can with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
– Eligible for support rewards
Read more:

https://www.oracle.com/cloud/azure/oracle-database-for-azure/
Read more:

https://www.oracle.com/cloud/azure/oracle-database-at-azure/
Oracle Database Service for Azure (ODSA)Oracle Database@Azure

These visualizations from the above reference URLs explain these services to us.

Oracle Database Service for Azure

How Oracle Database Service for Azure works

How Oracle Database Service for Azure Works

Multicloud deployment with applications on Azure and databases on OCI

Migrating on-premises workloads to public cloud

Oracle Database@Azure

How Oracle Database@Azure works

How Oracle Database for Azure works diagram, description below

Modernize and innovate on-premises workloads with Oracle Database@Azure

Migrating on-premises workloads to Oracle Database@Azure diagram, description below

The Oracle and Microsoft partnership is moving in the right direction to help customers running Oracle databases. Though the OCI IaaS services are cheaper than Azure, there may be reasons for you to run the services in Azure (or use Azure front-end services that are not yet available in OCI). The Oracle Database@Azure helps such customers to manage only one Cloud (Azure) and reap the Oracle license and Exadata performance benefits available only in OCI.

Footnote: You can install and run Oracle databases on Azure VM. The drawbacks are it will not give you Exadata-like performance, and licensing rules are different. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/workloads/oracle/oracle-reference-architecture

Oracle Autonomous Database: A DBA Perspective

When more people started using Autonomous Database services, more Admin tools are made available as well. When ADW was introduced, all the DBA had for monitoring or diagnosis or utilization was only the Service Console. Here are some administrative enhancements in ATP/ADW we saw in the past 1+ year.

  • July 2018: SQL Developer 18.2.0 and later allows for setting up connections without the need for Keystore passwords.
  • September 2018: Autonomous Data Warehouse allows users to create partitioned tables, indexes, and materialized views. 
  • March 2019: Autonomous Database provides cloning where you can choose to clone either the full database or only the database metadata. 
  • April 2019: A simple way to secure your autonomous database instances using network access control lists. Specifying an access control list blocks all IP addresses that are not in the list from accessing the database. 
  • May 2019: Oracle Management Cloud supports monitoring Autonomous Databases via its Oracle Database Management console. This provides both monitoring and alerting for your Autonomous Database instances. 
  • May 2019: It is possible to create a database link from an ADW instance to any database that is accessible from an ADW/ATP including other ADW/ATP instances.
  • June 2019: You can select auto-scaling during provisioning or later using the Scale-Up/Down button on the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure console.
  • June 2019: Oracle Rest Data Services (ORDS) is included with Autonomous Database. ORDS maps HTTP(S) verbs (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.) to database operations and returns any results formatted using JSON. 
  • June 2019: Oracle SQL Developer Web provides a browser-based integrated development environment and administration interface for Oracle Autonomous Database. 
  • June 2019: Autonomous Database includes Oracle’s premiere low-code development platform: Application Express (APEX). 
  • July 2019: Customers can get a real-time and historical view of performance data directly on the OCI console using Performance Hub.
  • August 2019: Autonomous Database supports multiple directories which makes it even easier for customers to migrate their existing applications to ADB.

Oracle Open World 2019 announced that there are two autonomous databases included in the Always Free tier! Great news!! Now, DBAs and developers have no reason not to get into Autonomous Database and start playing. Maybe you can develop an application using APEX and ATP for your favorite local charity 🙂

I will be comparing the traditional DBA activities against the activities you can do on ATP or ADW of Autonomous Database service in my talk “Autonomous Database: What’s the Admin’s Role?” on Sep 27th at the Arizona User Group meeting.

Oracle Autonomous Database “What’s the Admin Role?” & “Let’s Talk AI, ML, & DL”

Friday, Sep 27, 2019, 12:00 PM

Republic Services – 2nd Floor Conference Rooms
14400 N 87th St (AZ101 & Raintree) Scottsdale, AZ

13 AZORAS Attending

REGISTER NOW FOR AZORA’S FALL MEETING — with Oracle Ace Director Biju Thomas! Learn about Oracle’s Autonomous Database focusing on the Admin’s role, talk a bit more about AI, ML and DL and get the highlights from Oracle Open World #OOW 19 — all of this in one afternoon with lunch. AZORA’s Meeting Agenda: 12:00pm -1:00pm Lunch – Sponsored by OneNe…

Check out this Meetup →