Oracle advances AI, OLTP, and analytics database performance with the launch of its latest Exadata platform, the Oracle Exadata X11M. Purpose-built to optimize the performance of Oracle Database, including Oracle Autonomous Database, X11M is a significant leap forward in speed and efficiency compared to previous generation Exadata systems for cloud, multi-cloud, and customer data centers.

The X11M's design is the product of Oracle's deep expertise in database development, with deep engineering between the database software and the hardware optimized to support it. No company other than Oracle can optimize the performance of Oracle Database at the source-code level with net incremental capabilities such as AI Smart Scan, RDMA-based IOs, and In-Memory Columnar Compression.

Benefits for Enterprise Database Customers

The Exadata X11M builds on Oracle’s engineering expertise to address the evolving needs of database customers. It provides a robust platform that supports high-demand workloads such as artificial intelligence, online transaction processing, and analytics.

Key benefits of the new offering over the previous generation Exadata include:

  • Performance Improvements: Data-optimized hardware components and data-intelligent software enhancements allow quicker transaction processing, accelerated analytics, and AI workloads that can see up to a 30 times speedup, according to Oracle.
  • Scalability: Exadata can be configured to match current operational needs and scaled elastically as those needs grow, ensuring customers can optimize their infrastructure investments over time.
  • Cost Efficiency: Customers can save by consolidating more workloads onto fewer systems. New power-saving features and optimized resource usage contribute to reduced operational costs.

Key Platform Enhancements

The Oracle Exadata X11M introduces a range of technical enhancements that deliver exceptional performance, scalability, and efficiency for Oracle Database workloads. These advancements reinforce Exadata’s position as the leading database platform for AI, OLTP, and advanced analytics workloads.

The new X11M is based on the latest generation of AMD EPYC processors, supporting up to 96 cores and powered by Exadata System Software, delivering what Oracle promises is up to 25% faster per-core performance over previous generations. A 33% increase in memory bandwidth is equally critical to its overall performance improvements.

Exadata's intelligent storage architecture has always been a key differentiator. Oracle has improved its implementation with its storage servers, enabling a 21% reduction in RDMA read latency. Flash throughput has more than doubled to 100 GB/s, and combined flash and memory throughput for analytic scans reaches up to 500 GB/s per storage server.

Enhanced AI Capabilities

Oracle's Exadata X-series database machines were initially designed for analytics and OLTP workloads, where the platform continues to set the bar for performance and reliability. Over the past several years, however, AI has grown to equal prominence. The X11M and the new AI-targeted capabilities in recent Oracle Database releases recognize this expansion.

The X11M accelerates AI workloads by offloading complex vector processing to storage servers, reducing data transfers and improving efficiency. AI queries are up to 32 times faster using binary vector formats, while optimized vector distance functions reduce CPU usage and improve query performance by up to 4.6 times.

AI workloads using hierarchical navigable small-world, HNSW, indexes see performance improvements of up to 43%, while inverted file flat indexing on storage servers delivers up to 55% faster query execution. These are remarkable numbers.

OLTP and Analytics Updates

Oracle isn’t ignoring the needs of its traditional OLTP and analytics customers. The Exadata X11M supports up to 1.25 times more concurrent transactions, up to 21 percent lower SQL 8K I/O read latency — now only 14us, achieving up to 1,000,000 write IOPS on storage servers to increase the throughput for transactional workloads.

For analytics, Exadata X11M uses faster processor cores, memory, and flash in storage servers to increase overall analytic query performance by 25%. Enhanced Exadata System Software also enables Oracle’s Smart Scan technology to scan data in both flash and RDMA memory, enabling analytic SQL throughput of up to 500 GB/s per storage server and multiple TB/s in even small configurations.

Sustainability and Efficiency

Sustainability is top-of-mind for nearly every enterprise, which Oracle addresses in the X11M with its new intelligent power-saving features. These features can cap CPU power consumption, adjust CPU usage based on workload demands, and reduce energy consumption during periods of low activity. Unused processor cores can also be turned off to conserve power, lower operational costs, and enhance sustainability.

Exadata X11M's extreme performance levels also allow customers to consolidate workloads further, reducing their hardware footprint and operational overhead, enabling organizations to achieve even greater cost and environmental efficiencies.

Day One Cloud Integration

Oracle's strategy for deploying Exadata has shifted over the past several years to keep up with the evolving requirements of its enterprise customers, who increasingly rely on cloud services for business-critical applications.

Oracle initially brought Exadata to its own Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). More recently, they surprised many industry watchers by making the platform natively available on OCI within the data centers of its competitors, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and Amazon Web Services.

The new X11M solution is available at launch across all of its deployment options: public cloud partners, its own Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, its Oracle Cloud@Customer as-a-Service offering, and traditional on-prem deployments.

Competitive Environment

The database and cloud infrastructure market remains highly competitive, with CSPs like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud each offering robust solutions. AWS provides services like Amazon Aurora and Amazon RDS that are designed for scalability and ease of use. Microsoft Azure’s SQL Database and Synapse Analytics integrate data processing with a focus on analytics and machine learning. Google Cloud’s BigQuery is widely recognized for its high-speed analytics and pay-per-use pricing model.

Oracle Exadata X11M combines data-optimized hardware and data-intelligent software engineered with Oracle Database to support all workload types. Unlike competitors who provide general-purpose solutions, Exadata X11M is tailored for high-demand Oracle Database workloads like AI, OLTP, and analytics processing.

For example, compared to AWS, Oracle's solution provides deeper database-specific optimization to reduce latency and improve throughput for mission-critical applications. Compared to Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, Exadata X11M offers superior integration of AI capabilities and database performance enhancements, making it a compelling choice for enterprises focused on complex and high-performance database operations.

Analyst’s Take

Being available on leading public cloud providers at launch lets the X11M meet customer demands where they operate. Enterprises can now leverage Oracle Database and Exadata capabilities within their chosen cloud ecosystems, optimizing costs and simplifying IT infrastructure.

The flexibility to run Exadata in multi-cloud configurations enables organizations to balance workload demands, manage data sovereignty requirements, utilize existing cloud service commitments, and access data in Oracle databases more easily from their chosen cloud applications. This powerful approach makes the Exadata X11M affordable to nearly every enterprise and Oracle Database customer.

The Oracle Exadata X11M is a significant step forward in database technology, delivering performance and scalability that meet the demands of modern enterprises. It offers customers flexibility and operational efficiency while supporting the continuing strategic shift by enterprises toward hybrid and multi-cloud architectures. For database customers seeking to optimize workloads and future-proof their operations, the Exadata X11M presents the perfect solution.

This may sound like hyperbolic praise, but once you look at what’s under the hood of the new X11M, you'll see that Oracle has earned it. Running Oracle Database on anything other than the Exadata platform means you’re not getting the optimal business results for your organization. Your business-critical AI, OLTP, and analytics applications deserve better. After all, Oracle just delivered the fastest database machine ever made — again.

Disclosure: Steve McDowell is an industry analyst, and NAND Research is an industry analyst firm, that engages in, or has engaged in, research, analysis and advisory services with many technology companies; the author has provided paid services to every company named in this article in the past and may again in the future. Oracle provided technical fact-checking for this article. Mr. McDowell does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned.