Oracle RAC is sold as a high-availability solution, but its real cost – in licenses, complexity and the hidden assumption that losing a node doesn’t count as an outage – is rarely made explicit.
The Real Cost of Oracle RAC
Category: Databases
Databases are the systems of record at the centre of the enterprise. They exist to ensure correctness, durability, and control over critical data.
For decades, they have been optimised around human interaction – predictable query patterns, bounded concurrency, and clear operational ownership.
That assumption is now under pressure. As AI systems begin to interact directly with data, the database remains the point of truth… but the way it is accessed is starting to change.
The Real Cost of Enterprise Database Software
Oracle database licensing is eye-wateringly expensive per CPU core – and storage costs, often seen as prohibitive, represent a surprisingly small fraction of the total three-year spend.
Storage Myths: Put Oracle Redo on SSD
Putting Oracle redo logs on SSD is a common reflex response to slow databases – but it usually misdiagnoses the problem, and SSDs handle write-heavy sequential workloads worse than you might expect.
Storage Myths: IOPS Matter
IOPS figures dominate flash storage marketing, but for databases latency is the metric that matters – high IOPS at unpredictable latency deliver no real-world value.
The Role Of The DBA
I'm back at work today after a week's travelling around Europe followed by a week's holiday sailing around the Ionian Sea. I have to say that I'd rather still be on holiday. It's not that I don't enjoy my job (I love it) but... Today, I need to install some database software - and it … Continue reading The Role Of The DBA
SLOB2: Testing The Effect Of Oracle Blocksize
Using SLOB2 to measure how Oracle's database block size affects physical I/O performance – with results that challenge some common assumptions about blocksize tuning.
SLOB: PL/SQL Commit Optimization
A curious SLOB result reveals how Oracle's PL/SQL engine optimises commits in ways that affect benchmark results – and what it means for workload testing methodology.
SLOB2: Essential for Every DBA Toolkit
SLOB2 – the Silly Little Oracle Benchmark – is the most reliable way to generate controlled physical I/O on Oracle. Here's why every DBA should have it and how to get started.
Does My Database Need Flash?
Not every database benefits from flash storage – knowing when it matters requires understanding how much I/O your workload generates, how random it is and how much latency is already costing you.
Understanding I/O: Random vs Sequential
Disk I/O forces a choice between random and sequential access – and that choice defines whether latency compounds or disappears. Flash makes the distinction irrelevant.
