Oracle launches Exalytics, an appliance for big data

Exalytics machine not only handles relational data, not only multidimensional data, [but] also analyzes unstructured data at the speed of thought. Nothing is faster, according to Oracle CEO Larry Ellison.

GigaOm, By Barb Darrow Oct. 2, 2011,

Oracle Exalytics, a server appliance for near-real-time business intelligence applications and a big part of Oracle's big data response, debuted Sunday night at Oracle OpenWorld 2011.

The Exalytics box - the younger sibling of the Exadata database machine and Exalogic middleware-and-application server - was front and center during Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's opening keynote.

"I've been reading about this [unstructured data] in the press," Ellison said. "I'm proud to say our Exalytics machine not only handles relational data, not only multidimensional data, [but] also analyzes unstructured data at the speed of thought. Nothing is faster. There is no response time."

Exalytics is powered by 40 Intel Xeon cores and relies on Infiniband pipes to connect it as needed with Exadata. The secret software sauce is in-memory database technology that came with Oracle's acquisition of TimesTen six years ago and the multi-dimensional database expertise from Essbase, which Oracle acquired with Hyperion two years later.

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