What is our primary use case?
We use the solution as a database, basically. We do not use it for the data warehouse. It's just a few databases.
What is most valuable?
We're satisfied with the solution. The performance is great.
We find the solution to be stable.
The scalability is very good. You can expand it if you need to.
We don't have any concerns with the data activity and recovery capabilities.
The initial setup is easy.
What needs improvement?
The cost of Oracle is far too high. They should work to make it less expensive. We're going to stop using it for this reason.
They could improve the scalability a bit. There are other options that are more scalable, for example.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for almost 10 years now. It's been a decade. I've used it for a while.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is very good and it has very good performance. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We don't have an issue with the solution's scalability. It's expandable.
What we see is Mongo and Cassandra, and many other databases that are extremely scalable and distributed. With Oracle, obviously, there are other types of databases that are performing better in this area. Obviously, they could improve scalability from a scalability perspective.
How are customer service and support?
I've never contacted technical support. I cannot speak to how helpful or responsive they are.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We are using DB2 on mainframes and we do have Microsoft SQL, and then we started using PostgreSQL as well.
How was the initial setup?
We haven't had a problem with the initial setup. It's very simple and straightforward.
I haven't installed it in recent times, however, from what I recall, the actual production upgrade took us probably less than four hours.
Currently, the database team is around 40 or more people from engineering and from operations. It's a full database engineering and operations team so it's covering other databases as well - such as DB2 and SQL and Cassandra and other databases. You can take three to six engineers and have them handle deployment and maintenance, although everyone works on other things.
What about the implementation team?
We handled everything in-house. We did not need the assistance of integrators or consultants.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It's CPU-based licensing. The cost is far too high. We're looking into other options to avoid having to pay so much. There are both licensing and support costs you need to consider.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We have been looking at less expensive options such as Azure SQL and PostgreSQL.
What other advice do I have?
We're a customer and an end-user.
We use both cloud-based and on-premises deployments.
While I might have recommended Oracle in the past, due to the cost factor, it's hard to recommend it these days.
I'd rate the solution at a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.