Exalytics T5-8 is here

While I fully expected my boss (Edward Roske) to blog about the new Exalytics box on his blog Looksmarter.blogspot.com, he has been silent about it. Rather than leave you in the dark about this, I decided I can’t wait for him spew the details so I’ll do my best to give you the info.

Prior to Oracle Open World (Sep 12th to be exact) a new price list was available and in the Exalytics section was this entry that we had not heard of before Exalyytics T5-8. There was no press about it, but at Oracle Open World a few weeks later, they talked about the box.

Here is what I found out.  Prior versions were labeled X2-4 and X3-4. Apparently the X stands for Intel , the 2 or 3 for the Chip generation and the last 3 or 4 for the number of sockets.  As Edward mentioned when the X3-4 came out earlier this year, there is an upgrade kit available for the X2-3 to really turn it into a X3-4.

So what is the new machine? It is listed as a T5-8. So T instead of X. Yep it is not intel chips but Sparc T5 processors. This machine runs on Solaris operating system instead of Linus and includes 4 TB of DRAM, 3.2 TB of Flash Storage and 7.2 TB of hard disk. This box comes with up to 128 CPUs, much more than the 40 you can get with the X3-4.

I’ve not had a chance to play with this box but have been told the main reason for is is scalability. It is meant for a large number of concurrent users. What I’ve not heard (officially) is how it performs vs. the X3-4.  Historically intel chips have been faster for Essbase than Sparc chips, and the paperwork says nothing about a performance comparison. I’m guessing it is a little slower, but with the ability to consolidate 3-4 X3-4 machines into one, the user scalability should be really good.

So how much will this box set you back? According to the price list, the box itself is $330K, pretty cheap. You do have a cost per CPU and user, which makes it much more, but that is not all that different from the older models.  It sounds worth it to me.  If/when I have a chance to test it out, I’ll let you know more.

If you like my brief summary here, I’ll be talking about Exalytics in more depth at the OAUG Connection Point Conference in our beautiful Capital , Washington D.C. on Oct 23rd. If the spending limit isn’t fixed by then, traffic in the city should be light! (This is not a political statement, just an observation).

Edward or I will also be talking about it at the Hyperion Solutions Road Show in So Cal on Thursday Oct 17th. It is downtown LA, so there will be traffic. If you want more info on that event email Danielle White at dwhite@interrel.com or register at So Cal Road Show registration  This event is limited to current and potential Oracle clients and not to partners, Sorry.  I hope to see you at one of the events.