Virtualizing Oracle Databases -The Time Has Come!

Overall, virtualization of IT applications and databases is quite pervasive.  Estimates from industry analysts show that some applications and databases have virtualization penetration rates of 80 to 90%.  Overall the estimates for datacenter virtualization range from 60 to 70%.  One curious exception is the rate of virtualization for Oracle Databases.  Some estimates put the Oracle Database virtualization rate below 20%.  The big question is why so low for Oracle Database?

While I have never seen any formal research documenting the reasons, ad-hoc discussions with many DBAs and Architects and other Oracle users indicates that some of the major reasons for their reluctance to virtualize include:

• Fear of performance degradation
• Concern over availability and stability
• And an "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" view

And for mission critical Oracle Databases those are valid concerns.  Any outage or performance degradation is costly.  Status quo is the safest approach.  But what I am hearing from customers and the Oracle community at large is that the time has come for virtualization.  The improvements in configuration flexibility, reduced deployment times, dramatically improved disaster recovery and cost savings are great motivators for virtualization by themselves. One of the early adopters for virtualizing and Oracle infrastructure was EMC. lets hear what EMC's Chief Database Architect, Darryl Smith, has to say about the benefits of EMC's virtualization efforts with EMC's Oracle Infrastructure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=473SLIk7XQc

So EMC found great performance, improved availability and a reduction in database licenses all because of their move to virtualize their Oracle infrastructure. Here is more of Darryl talking about Oracle virtualization and the cloud.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgCxJiC2cxs

EMC took the next logical step from initial virtualization and moved their Oracle infrastructure to a full cloud implementation with even more benefits thanks to the improved Oracle workload mobility.

EMC is a great example of why there appears to be a growing tide of Oracle users who are ready to ride the wave of virtaulization.  To learn more about EMC's virtualization efforts and results, these two whitepapers on Cisco.com will provide a more complete overview of their journey:

EMC Transforms Their Oracle Infrastructure

EMC's Journey to the Cloud

For more information on Cisco's Oracle Solutions and how Cisco Unified Computing can accelerate your virtualization plans, please click here.