Oracle Database 23ai - Reasons to Upgrade

23ai has just been released, and there are more reasons to upgrade than ever! In fact, if you were to upgrade and migrate into the 23ai Autonomous database, that would be the last upgrade you ever need to do.

So, to get started, where can you get the 23ai release, and how much will it cost to run it?

• Free Options
  • Via an Autonomous DB Container
  • Via local Virtual Box
  • Via Linux RPM
  • Via Autonomous Database (Free Tier)
  • https://blogs.oracle.com/datawarehousing/post/23ai-autonomous-database-free  
    

• Paid Option
  •  Oracle Base Database Service
    • 23ai Standard Edition 1 OCPU, 16GB RAM, 256GB Storage
    • £161 per month 

Now, there are other ways of deploying it, like Exadata and an On-Premises download. However, I suggest looking at the capabilities that would be free or paid with Oracle Base Database Service.

When I look at the new features guide for Oracle 23ai, it’s 126 pages long, nearly as long as the URL: https://docs.oracle.com/en/database/oracle/oracle-database/23/nfcoa/oracle-database-23c-new-features-guide.pdf. That just shows the number of engineering dollars that have gone into the latest release.  As always, I encourage people to lean into the investment and innovation that Oracle pushes into its products – it will pay dividends.

This new release focuses on AI for data, dev for data and mission-critical data. These are the core pillars, and the showcase announcements within them, such as Vectors, JSON Duality, ONNX Support, Oracle True Cache and Globally Distributed Database, are impressive.  But, from day 1, you may not be loading ONNX AI models into the database (although it is worth giving it a go), but there are some other operational and day-to-day features which are pretty cool.  Here is a pick of five:

• Read-Only Tablespaces to Object Storage; this will help you build a better data lifecycle management policy and reduce storage costs - win-win! This can be done transparently as well, so optimise your data storage without impacting business continuity.
• PDB Start Order; this will allow you to prioritise the order of PDBs automatically. This is a great feature when you’re starting to run 20+ PDBs, and business criticality is important, especially on converged data platforms running thousands of PDBs.
• CPAT (Cloud Pre-Migration Assessment Tool); any tool that supports the migration to Cloud is a good thing. This will make it more efficient, enable automation and reduce the risk, ideal if you have a sprawling database estate.
• SQL Firewall; another layer in the security onion, this further enhances your security posture by providing context-based security rather than just RBAC (Roll Based Access Control) - very cool
• IP Rate Limit in Connection Manager; think of this as DDOS protection for your database 

This list could go on and on, if you would like to learn more about 23ai, then please keep an eye out for our 23ai webinar coming soon.

Find out more about Oracle Database and Autonomous Database on our website or contact our experts today.

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