Oracle Corp. may have kept HeatWave in its vault for over a decade, but the database management company has worked quietly to reinvent its MySQL offerings in an effort to address the shifting demands of hybrid cloud computing. It’s led Oracle to become a cloud giant, gaining new recognition and market opportunities in a fierce battle alongside Amazon Web Services Inc. and Snowflake Inc.

In a special series, theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, explores the database revolution driving Oracle’s emerging status as a cloud giant. With exclusive one-on-ones with analysts and open-source visionaries, theCUBE sets out to learn more about the research and development evolving Oracle’s databases and market position.

Recent months have seen a number of updates from Oracle to facilitate more agile scaling, migration and an overall reduction of operating costs when it comes to database management. Embedding automation deep into its latest HeatWave offerings, Oracle aims for quicker workloads and more seamless data migrations to tap faster analysis and application deployments.

From detailing the technical aspects of its new in-memory query accelerator to making the case for converged databases and multi-tenant architectures, Oracle executives provide firsthand insights to the dedicated contributions underlying such an enormous shift in the company’s product portfolio. 

Nipun Agarwal, vice president of MySQL, HeatWave and advanced development at Oracle

“With MySQL HeatWave, customers get a single database that can be used both for transactional processing and for analytics,” said Nipun Agarwal, vice president of MySQL, HeatWave and advanced development at Oracle, in a recent interview with theCUBE. 

“There’s no need to move the data from one database to another database, and all existing tools and applications, which are compatible with MySQL, continue to work as is. The in-memory query accelerator for MySQL is significantly faster than any version of MySQL database and also much faster than specialized databases for analytics,” Agarwal explained.

It’s been a lengthy process, as Agarwal’s team designed HeatWave from the ground up, for the cloud.

“As a part of that we had to invent new algorithms for distributed query processing for the cloud. This has taken us close to a decade; it’s been hundreds of person years of investment and dozens of patents. It takes time, patience and talent,” Agarwal said.

This series spans over a dozen articles and exclusive interviews with Oracle executives, including Agarwal; Christian Craft, senior director of product management; Wim Coekaerts, senior VP of software development; Juan Loaiza, executive VP of mission-critical database technologies; Neil Mendelson, VP of big data and advanced analytics; Andy Mendelsohn, executive VP of database server technologies; and Steve Zivanic, global VP of database and autonomous services product marketing.

The series also includes analysis from Holger Mueller, VP and principal analyst at Constellation Research; Dave Vellante, chief of research and co-CEO at SiliconANGLE Media; David Floyer, chief technical officer and co-founder of SiliconANGLE sister market research firm Wikibon; Marc Staimer, president of Dragon Slayer Consulting; and Tony Baer, principal with dbInsight.

Charting an automation path for databases

Wikibon: Enterprises must embrace real-time analytics

In time for Wikibon’s research study “Real-Time Analytics Revolutionize Data Warehousing,” David Floyer, co-founder and chief technical officer of SiliconANGLE Media’s sister market research firm Wikibon, stated that in order for the enterprise to keep up with today’s data-driven economy, it must conduct a data pipeline audit. The enterprise should also turn to converge databases, among other things, to solve the complexities of data warehouses.

Oracle’s HeatWave database query accelerator gives MySQL a turbo boost

Worth the wait? According to an exclusive interview with Agarwal, Oracle spent a decade enhancing MySQL by writing new cloud-optimized codes that allow it to be scalable and fast.

Wim Coekaerts, senior VP of software development at Oracle

New version of Enterprise Manager helps Oracle customers connect the hybrid dots

The latest release of Oracle Enterprise Manager features a unified management center to connect the key elements of cloud and on-premises operations. In an exclusive interview on theCUBE, Wim Coekaerts, senior VP of software development at Oracle, discussed how the new features help customers with data monitoring, automating cloud migration and enhancing security standards.

Oracle bridges data replication and cloud-based services with new GoldenGate release

To address data replication, Oracle released GoldenGate, which the company will build into its Autonomous Data Warehouse​​. In a one-on-one interview on theCUBE, Juan Loaiza, executive VP of mission-critical database technologies at Oracle, also discussed the importance of autonomous and elastic tools in database management and how it is expanding the market for data replication solutions.

Factory for the cloud: Oracle outlines key differences with database competitors

Oracle’s share of the cloud market is small compared to its competitors, but things are starting to turn. In an exclusive interview with theCUBE, Neil Mendelson, VP of big data and advanced analytics at Oracle, shares how more customers are turning to them because of the agility offered by their Autonomous Data Warehouse.

Oracle’s Andy Mendelsohn makes the case for a converged database, multitenant architecture and autonomous tech

Oracle has made some great strides in 2021 with back-to-back releases and updates. Andy Mendelsohn, executive VP of database server technologies at Oracle, joined theCUBE for an exclusive interview where he discussed some of the latest updates to its flagship database, 21c, that includes new features to data management.

Juan Loaiza, executive VP of mission-critical database technologies at Oracle

Analysts break down Oracle’s Autonomous Data Warehouse as the cloud wars escalate

In a feature analysis about Oracle’s cloud strategy, David Floyer, chief technology officer at SiliconANGLE’s sister market research firm Wikibon, commented on its unique strategy with its Autonomous Data Warehouse. Floyer noted that the improvement on its cloud strategy shows that Oracle is now focusing on end-user capabilities.

Constellation’s Holger Mueller on Salesforce, Oracle, AWS and the future of cloud software

Holger Mueller, VP and principal analyst at Constellation Research Inc., discusses how Oracle has been differentiating itself from competitors. Oracle’s focus has always been on databases, and Mueller sees them staying on top as long as they are able to retain their customers.

Oracle’s long play reveals deep investment in MySQL

Oracle raises the temperature for its MySQL HeatWave database offering

Oracle announced enhancements for its MySQL HeatWave database technology, including automated machine learning, price/performance advantages, and elasticity for scaling. The company also published new benchmarks that it said would demonstrate HeatWave’s edge over MySQL services provided by other vendors in the market. Nipun Agarwal, senior vice president of MySQL Database and HeatWave at Oracle Corp., talks with theCUBE analyst Dave Vellante about these topics and more.

Oracle announces Exadata Cloud@Customer X9M enhancements by extending Autonomous Database features

Oracle’s new extended Autonomous Database capabilities allow much smaller configurations so customers can start small and grow with its Exadata Cloud@Customer platform. Juan Loaiza, executive vice president of mission-critical database technologies at Oracle, sat down with theCUBE for an exclusive interview discussing the new features that will deliver flexibility to Exadata customers at a lower price. Coupled with the announcement of the expansion of its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, the company is showing that it’s responding to customer demands for products with less complexity, more flexibility and more security.

A 10-year journey with MySQL brings Oracle’s HeatWave into the query database discussion

In an exclusive interview with theCUBE, Nipun Agarwal, VP of MySQL, HeatWave and advanced development at Oracle, discussed how the company is competing with others in the query database processing segment. Oracle differentiates in that HeatWave can do both transactional processing and analytics.

Oracle MySQL champion Nipun Agarwal explains the challenges of scaling up algorithms for data migrations

For Oracle, listening to customer needs has worked in its favor. With impressive benchmarks in hand, Oracle hopes to siphon customers away from other popular choices, such as AWS Aurora and Amazon RDS, with HeatWave’s simplified migration offerings. Automation is critical to streamlining this process, according to Agarwal.

Oracle targets data warehouse rivals with automated features for HeatWave MySQL service

Oracle has added machine learning-based automation to HeatWave, which, according to Agarwal, enables better customer service. Meanwhile, Steve Zivanic, global VP of database and autonomous services product marketing at Oracle, reiterated that MySQL won’t be competing with its flagship database as it opens new opportunities, especially for cloud native companies.

David Floyer (left), chief technical officer and co-founder of SiliconANGLE sister market research firm Wikibon and Dave Vellante (right), chief of research and co-CEO at SiliconANGLE Media

New benchmark data shows Oracle HeatWave gaining traction for speed, cost savings

An independent benchmark test may have proven Oracle’s MySQL HeatWave delivers faster performance than competitors, but customer experience is what matters. Customers who have migrated to HeatWave claim 85% improvement in performance workload and a significant reduction in cost. In a feature analysis, David Floyer, chief technical officer and co-founder of Wikibon, concludes Oracle’s broad range of services allows them to efficiently consolidate analytics and transactional processing for their clients.

Oracle ups the ante in MySQL competition while others maneuver for market share

In a feature analysis, Marc Staimer, president of Dragon Slayer Consulting, commends Oracle’s approach with HeatWave. MySQL used to require data to be moved via extract/transfer/load or ETL process for analytics, but Oracle removes the need for ETL with HeatWave, facilitating a faster and more cost-effective process.

Managing the database: Oracle focuses on failure protection, speed, scalability and cost

Everything will eventually fail, and that’s a law of nature Oracle considered with Exadata, the hardware/software platform optimized for Oracle databases. In an exclusive interview with theCUBE, Christian Craft, Oracle’s senior director of product management, explained how Oracle has built Application Continuity to Exadata to provide failure protection, as well as database management, which ultimately reduces the cost for clients.

Customer adoption of MySQL could lead to ideal forecast for Oracle HeatWave

Oracle is betting big with HeatWave as MySQL has become one of the most popular databases today. In a feature analysis, Tony Baer, principal with dbInsight, stated that Oracle has turned up the heat in the MySQL space with HeatWave, which not only provides analytics but also hardware and software optimizations.

Exadata celebrates 13 years

Oracle marked Exadata’s 13th birthday with the release of X9M. In an exclusive interview, Juan Loaiza, executive VP of mission-critical database technology at Oracle, shared the latest improvements in OLTP and analytics, while reducing the cost.

Photos: SiliconANGLE