Oracle Corporation, the database technology giant, recently launched the Resilient Low-Cost Storage Initiative to promote the use of affordable hardware for data storage and recovery. Apple’s Xserve RAID is one of the first systems in Oracle’s program to be made available for high-availability data storage, at an affordable price. With Xserve RAID, Oracle users can store and back up valuable data for about one-third the cost of traditional systems.

Oracle has a long history of exploring ways to reduce the cost of database deployments, and the Resilient Low-Cost Storage Initiative is an important part of that effort. The advanced availability and manageability features of Oracle Database 10g, coupled with low-cost ATA disk-based arrays, enable the development of low-cost database storage grids with high levels of scalability and availability. The initiative helps Oracle customers build low-cost storage grids by providing recommended storage configurations that have been carefully evaluated and tested.

Given that Oracle purchases between 1 and 2 petabytes (a petabyte is equal to 1024 terabytes) of data storage capacity for internal use annually, the company was as eager to use low-cost storage internally as it was to recommend the technology to its customers. When Oracle’s development group needed additional capacity to streamline development-related collaboration, the group chose Xserve RAID for its versatility, performance, and unmatched affordability.

Based on our own experience with Apple technology, Xserve RAID is a great match for applications running Oracle. The additional capacity is helping out development team collaborate and be more productive.

According to Juan Loaiza, Vice President of Oracle’s Systems Technology Group, “Lowering storage costs without sacrificing performance helps us as both a provider of database solutions and a purchaser of data storage hardware. Based on our own experience with Apple technology, Xserve RAID is a great match for applications running Oracle. The additional capacity is helping our development team collaborate and be more productive.”

More capacity for collaboration

Oracle’s development group uses the Oracle Collaboration Suite to manage its email, voicemail, calendars, shared files, and web conferencing. Oracle wanted to expand the system from 1000 users to 4000 users. After scoping the expansion using its existing storage technology, the development team felt that the cost per gigabyte was too high.

“We wanted to purchase enough storage capacity to add 3000 users and to back up the systems,” explains Paul Tsien, a product manager with Oracle. “Doing that with traditional Fibre Channel — based storage would have been expensive. So we began looking at lower-cost solutions such as Xserve RAID.”