New Oracle Enterprise Manager release advances hybrid cloud
Oracle updates its Enterprise Manager platform to version 13.4, bringing new hybrid management capabilities to database users across on-premises and cloud deployments.
In a bid to meet customers' needs for hybrid cloud deployments, Oracle has injected its Oracle Enterprise Manager system with new capabilities to ease cloud migration and hybrid cloud database management.
The software giant unveiled the new Oracle Enterprise Manager release 13.4 on Wednesday, with general availability expected by the end of the first quarter.
The release includes new analytics features for users to make the most of a single database and optimize performance. Lifecycle automation for databases gets a boost in the new release. The update also provides users with new tools to enable enterprises to migrate from an on-premises database to one in the cloud.
"Managing across hybrid on-prem and public cloud resources can be challenging in terms of planning and executing database migrations," said Mary Johnston Turner, research vice president for cloud management at IDC. "The new Migration Workbench addresses this need by providing customers with guided support for updating and modernizing across platforms, as appropriate for the customer's specific requirements."
Beyond helping with migration, Turner noted that Oracle Enterprise Manager 13.4 supports customer choice by enabling consistent management across Oracle Cloud and traditional on-premises resources, which is a recognition that most enterprises are adopting multi-cloud architectures.
The other key addition in Oracle Enterprise Manager 13.4 is advanced machine learning analytics, Turner noted.
"Prior to this release the analytics capabilities were mostly limited to Oracle Management Cloud SaaS [software as a service] solutions, so adding this capability to Enterprise Manager is significant," she said.
Oracle Enterprise Manager dashboard
Oracle Enterprise Manager 13.4 features
Nearly all large Oracle customers use Enterprise Manager already, said Mughees Minhas, vice president of product management at Oracle. He said Oracle doesn't want to force a new management tool on customers that choose to adopt the cloud, which is why the vendor is increasingly integrating cloud management features with Oracle Enterprise Manager.
Managing across hybrid on-prem and public cloud resources can be challenging in terms of planning and executing database migrations.
Mary Johnston TurnerResearch vice president for cloud management, IDC
As users decide to move data from on-premises deployments to the cloud, it's rarely just an exercise in moving an application from one environment to another without stopping to redesign the workflow, Minhas said.
Migrating to new databases with Enterprise Manager 13.4
Helping organizations migrate to new database versions is one of the key capabilities of the latest version of Oracle Enterprise Manager.
"Normally, you would create a separate test system on-prem where you would install it and then once you're done with the testing, then you'd upgrade the actual system," Minhas said. "So we are promoting these use cases to Enterprise Manager through the use of real application testing tools, where we let you create a new database in the cloud to test."
Intelligent analytics
The new Oracle Enterprise Manager release also benefits from Exadata Warehouse technology, which now enables analytics for Oracle database workloads.
"The goal of a great admin or cloud DBA [database administrator] is that they want to avoid problems before they happen, and not afterwards," Minhas said. "So we are building analytical capabilities and some algorithms, so they can do some forecasting, so they know limits and are able to take action."
Minhas said hybrid management will continue to be Oracle's focus for Oracle Enterprise Manager.
"Over time, you'll see us doing more use cases where we also let you do the same thing you're doing on premises in the cloud, using the same APIs users are already familiar with," Minhas said.
