Before you start talking about Oracle cloud databases, you need to agree on terms - what is cloud technology and what are cloud architectures and services. And also why the "clouds" are so popular and who exactly they are needed. Let's start with this.

What is cloud technology?

Cloud technologies are an approach to hosting and delivering applications and computer resources, in which they exist as services available on various platforms and devices.

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Why are cloud technologies so popular?

Because it is convenient. Or, more specifically, due to scalability (which allows you to withstand growing loads and process large amounts of data), elasticities (you can increase infrastructure capacity without investing in equipment and software), pay as you use (cost optimization, further rejection of capital expenditures) and self-service (consumers request and receive the required resources in minutes).

What are the types of cloud services?

There are two main types - public cloud (provision of cloud services and resources to a large number of clients using publicly accessible large data centers) and private cloud (the organization’s own cloud infrastructure). The public cloud allows you to translate all relevant costs into operating costs and provides a quick and inexpensive launch of an IT solution. In the case of a private cloud, capital investments are preserved - but there is also full control of the IT infrastructure.



Oracle's approach is based on the concept of a hybrid cloud - the union of private and public clouds, in which the cross-controlled use of data and applications between them is realized (Fig. 1). Oracle implements the cloudbursting concept in a hybrid cloud - the ability to prevent the consequences of overspending on the capacity of a private cloud at peak load through the use of a public cloud. Hybrid cloud is very convenient for development and testing, integration of B2B solutions, implementation of products demanding IT resources, trial operation of new systems.



It is important to remind once again that the cloud is not just a certain number of files on a certain server. A cloud is a cloud when the provision of services, their administration and payment are automated. That's why we say that a private cloud is the automation, deployment, and management of IT systems. Companies with a large, complex IT infrastructure understand this especially well, because it is impossible to manage such infrastructures without automation — which is why private cloud is especially important for such companies.

Who needs it?

The categories of users who benefit most from the private Oracle cloud are:

• Developers — they can deploy development environments quickly and without bureaucracy.
• Testers - they can quickly clone large databases.
• Oracle administrators - they can spend less time on routine tasks.
• Financial directors - thanks to the pay-as-you-go system, they have a transparent picture of IT costs.
• CEOs of companies that receive flexible IT infrastructure that is easily adaptable to change.
• Units that constantly need a massive deployment of jobs - for example, training centers (each new student gets a virtual machine).

Good candidates for using DBaaS are companies that

• use many Oracle databases and can take advantage of consolidation;
• database cloning is performed regularly;
• need detailed monitoring of the use of IT resources by consumers;
• experiencing problems at peak times and need the option to increase computational power for such situations;
• wish to reduce the complexity of IT infrastructure administration, standardize it, transfer costs from maintaining the infrastructure to its development;
• want to provide a high level of reliability and security of applications, but do not have sufficiently experienced database administrators in the state;
• do not want to have a large IT department;
• they want to increase the efficiency of using a large fleet of equipment;
• IT service providers whose customers are interested in hosting databases, application servers and Oracle virtualization;
• use IT hosting;
• provide cloud services like telecom providers.

How is cloud architecture built?

What are the main options for building cloud architecture? Usually they are distinguished by three:

• On-Demand Infrastructure (Infrastructure as a Service, IaaS): Customers rent computing power to deploy and use virtualized instances of operating systems and software products.
• Platform on Demand (Platform as a Service, PaaS): a cloud provider provides access to hardware and software infrastructure: operating systems, software development and maintenance tools - in which customers create and use their own information systems.
• On-demand program (Software as a Service, SaaS): a cloud provider provides access to an application or to an entire software package.

What is the difference? We look at the pic. 2. The IaaS user is a IT professional, enterprises choose IaaS to consolidate their IT capabilities and save on capital investments. Of course, a developer works with PaaS, a platform on demand is needed to significantly facilitate the creation of a comfortable development environment in the enterprise. The business user only needs ready-to-use cloud applications.

But what about the database on demand?

It is to her - Database as a Service, or DBaaS - we now turn. To make automated creation and provision of a database possible, you need an integrated solution for deploying and managing services. Actually, everything that we call “cloud technologies” is based on a whole complex of software products. The entire Oracle private cloud is responsible for the product Enterprise Manager 12c, which manages the performance, life cycle, configurations, and application quality (Figure 3).



By providing access to software and infrastructure on demand in self-service mode with the ability to scale and measure, Enterprise Manager provides the following benefits.

• Improving the quality of service. IT organizations are striving not only to reduce costs, but also to find solutions that improve productivity, availability and security. Cloud customers enjoy the benefits of using high-availability tools built into the cloud.
• Resource flexibility The ability to increase and decrease database capacity (storage size and computing power) makes applications flexible and easily adaptable to changing workloads.
• Expedited delivery. Databases in the cloud can be provided very quickly. This reduces overall deployment time for production applications and development platforms and speeds the creation of debug configurations.
• Reporting - the ability to quantify the use of database resources in the cloud for budgeting, planning and allocation of administrative resources, depending on the use of resources.

The DBaaS database retrieval service works like this: you enter the self-service portal and order the required database in the required version, configuration and with the required degree of consolidation (Fig. 4) - in a virtual machine, inside Oracle virtualization installed directly on the operating system any configured configuration, from a regular database to a fault-tolerant configuration with various options, and also (thanks to the innovations of Oracle Database 12) - a pluggable database within the container. These approaches can be used not only separately, but also in parallel, Oracle provides similar flexibility and appropriate capabilities.



In fact, only an Enterprise Manager is required to create an Oracle cloud. New equipment, new settings, new approach to the access control system or to workstations is not required. Enterprise Manager configures DBaaS database pools, WebLogic pools, or virtualization pools. Then you can use the private Oracle cloud to connect to external systems.

What is the benefit?

First, in saving time and resources of technical specialists. Secondly, in the automation and standardization of processes that reduce the possibility of human error. Third, the number and variety of tasks that the private Oracle cloud helps to solve, including:

• Rapid deployment of new databases (with and without data).
• Cloning large databases.
• Reducing the routine load, automating and accelerating the work of database administrators.
• Standardization of databases.
• Database consolidation.
• Detailed accounting of the use of computing resources.
• Improving the efficiency of the use of computing resources (including disks).
• Improving the reliability of existing databases (clusters, multi-tenant databases).
• Building a flexible, easily scalable IT infrastructure.

You can quickly deploy any configuration with any options — a single database, a cluster, a main and a backup database, an empty database, a clone of an existing database, a database of any size, a database in a virtual machine, a database for a container database, a schema, a database data of any version of Oracle Database from 10 to 12, including a full-fledged Oracle EE database with available options. You can deploy databases on any hardware and on any certified operating system - x86, AIX, HP-UX, Solaris, Exadata, ODA, Supercluster.



Rapid deployment of databases is possible thanks to a convenient self-service portal, and a template directory that stores a set of deployment procedures as service templates and offers different template options for different DBMS versions, configurations, etc. The Database Provisioning procedure allows you to capture database configurations and save deployment procedures for future use.



It is important how the database is cloned. The traditional file system treats data as files and copies files — all data blocks and descriptors with pointers to data blocks are copied; this is efficient and simple, but expensive! More efficient is the copying method, in which only the descriptor is duplicated, and the data blocks remain in place if there are no changes, and are written again when changes are made. The Clone Snap Clone procedure analyzes storage utilization and is implemented in both software and hardware Oracle DBaaS solutions.



Consider an example. In organizations, this process always begins with the approval of the project. Suppose that your company issues are resolved quickly, and the approval will take one day. Then you need to install the database software and server setup - and this is at least a week. After the server is connected, you can perform cloning, but it will create a serious load on the network, and you have to wait for the night - another day is lost. The next day will take the data depersonalization - a total of one and a half weeks went to the cloning of the database (Fig. 5).



A solution that performs automated cloning works this way - the customer makes a request for DBaaS cloning on the self-service portal and retrieves the database, depending on its size, in a few minutes or tens of minutes. Modern technologies make it possible to obtain databases of several terabytes for an hour (Fig. 6).



Standardization tools allow you to limit the set of available configurations, versions, patches and supported operating systems, which simplifies maintenance and support and allows you to guarantee service levels.



Consolidation tools allow you to take advantage of multi-tenant databases, perform automatic consolidation, plan consolidation, define zones and policies, and consolidate on shared server pools and shared storage systems.



Means of accounting for the use of computing resources allow you to measure the use of any resources - from the disk and virtual machine to the application, to bill for the use of services and optimize their use.



To provide such services, you must first configure the equipment, i.e. perform actions that are quite familiar to the administrator on any hardware (x86 servers, Unix servers, Oracle hardware and software complexes). Next, you run a standard installation of the Oracle software, which you can perform from the single Oracle Enterprise Manager 12C console. Finally, a standard private cloud configuration is made — the cloud logical structure is configured, with roles and quotas, a database deployment procedure catalog is established, and services are published on the portal.

What is the difference?

How does the Oracle cloud approach differ from competitors? The fact that Oracle is as wide as possible. Most manufacturers offer either IaaS, or PaaS, or SaaS; either public cloud or private. Oracle also supports all options for building a cloud infrastructure and all ways to build cloud systems. Oracle does not equate the cloud and virtualization. For Oracle, the cloud is not only virtual machines, there are tasks in which you can do without virtualization and save on overhead. Oracle offers powerful standardization tools, rapid database creation and deployment, powerful resource metering and billing plans, and tools to manage the entire cloud technology stack — from hardware to applications — from a single console.



I also emphasize that the current versions of Oracle software are designed specifically for the cloud, and - most importantly! - that Oracle offers full support for the entire cloud computing lifecycle for different implementation models.





That is all I wanted to say in a short article. Have a nice day!