Comparing FlashGrid Cluster and Oracle Database@Azure for running mission-critical Oracle databases on Azure cloud

Well suited for mission-critical transaction processing workloads that require 99.99%, 99.999%, or higher database uptime targets.

Active-active Multi-AZ database clustering can protect against data center and Availability Zone outages.

Reduced operational complexity by using native and elastic Azure resources such as Azure VMs, Azure managed disks, Azure Virtual Network, Microsoft Entra ID, and Azure Monitor.

All-flash Azure managed disk storage and Oracle ASM mirroring provide predictable storage performance without dependence on caching.

Available in all Azure regions since 2017.

Strong fit for very large Exadata migrations, analytics/DWH workloads, and workloads that benefit from Exadata-specific capabilities such as Smart Scan and Hybrid Columnar Compression.

Lower cost per TB may be possible for capacity-heavy workloads because the primary storage consists of high-capacity spinning disks (with flash cache acceleration).

Exadata infrastructure managed and supported by Oracle.

Software-defined virtual cluster appliance hosted on native Azure Virtual Machines and Azure managed disks.

A jointly delivered Oracle/Microsoft service that provides OCI-managed Oracle Exadata infrastructure inside Azure data centers.

Customer manages database software, Grid Infrastructure, OS, FlashGrid software, and Azure VMs.

Customer manages database software, Grid Infrastructure, OS, and VMs, with Oracle cloud automation.

Azure infrastructure software updates are managed by Microsoft Azure and are transparent to the customer.

Exadata infrastructure software updates are managed by Oracle. Exadata infrastructure updates may require patching or upgrading Grid Infrastructure and/or Oracle Database software; Oracle documents this dependency in the Oracle Release Schedule of Current Database Releases (Doc ID 742060.1) footnote 1.

Deployed using native Azure resources such as Azure VMs, Azure managed disks, Azure Virtual Network, Microsoft Entra ID, and Azure Monitor.

Uses Azure resources plus OCI-managed Exadata infrastructure, OCI parent/child site concepts, database networks, delegated subnets, Azure Virtual Network integration, and cross-service identity/access-management.

Yes

Yes

RAC One Node

Single-instance Enterprise Edition database failover

Standard Edition HA (SEHA)

RAC One Node

A single active-active Multi-AZ database cluster protects against data center and Availability Zone outages within an Azure region with zero RPO and near-zero RTO.

A single Exadata VM Cluster is deployed within one Azure Availability Zone. For protection against AZ failure, Oracle’s recommended architecture uses two separate Exadata infrastructures/VM clusters in different AZs (with synchronous Data Guard replication for zero RPO) or in different regions (with asynchronous Data Guard replication and non-zero RPO).

Some functionality, such as control plane operations and OCI-managed backup services, also depends on OCI parent region availability.

Predictable storage performance with all-flash Azure Premium SSD v2 disks, without dependence on caching.

Full-table scan acceleration with Smart Scan and storage offload. Random-access acceleration with Smart Flash Cache and XRMEM cache. Performance may depend on how much of the active dataset is served from memory/flash versus high-capacity spinning disks.

All-flash Azure Premium SSD v2 disk storage combined with additional 2-way or 3-way Oracle ASM mirroring across Availability Zones.

Azure locally redundant managed disks provide at least 99.999999999% durability over a year before additional Oracle ASM mirroring across Availability Zones.

Exadata High Capacity storage uses Oracle ASM mirroring across three storage servers and a tiered architecture with disk, flash, and memory acceleration. Oracle does not publish a directly comparable per-volume durability percentage for Exadata Database Service.

Flexible capacity from 1 TB to 1000+ TB usable.

With very large (>100 TB) databases, higher cost per TB may result from the exclusive use of flash storage.

Minimum Exadata X11M infrastructure configuration is 2 database servers and 3 storage servers, with 240 TB total usable disk storage capacity.

Lower cost per TB may be possible for very large (>100 TB) databases because high-capacity spinning disks are used with flash/memory acceleration and because Hybrid Columnar Compression can reduce storage consumption for suitable analytics/DWH data.

On-demand deployment, usage, and resizing using native Azure VMs and Azure managed disks.

Requires provisioning of Exadata hardware resources, with a minimum of 2 database servers and 3 storage servers. Storage scale-down is constrained: removing storage servers is subject to Oracle service limitations and whether the added storage has already been allocated for VM cluster consumption.

In production use since 2017.

Available in select Azure regions since December 2023.

Yes, in all Azure commercial regions.

Yes, in select Azure commercial regions. See Microsoft’s current regional availability list.

Yes, in Azure Government regions.

No.

Yes, in Azure China regions.

No.

Supported.

No. Current documentation lists Oracle Database 19c and Oracle Database 26ai for Exadata Database Service.

Azure expertise only.

Oracle Cloud expertise in addition to Azure expertise.