A couple of interesting directions brought together: 1) Oracle compatible DB startup, and 2) a cloud-based implementation.

The Oracle compatible offering is EnterpriseDB. They use the PostgreSQL code base and implement Oracle compatibility to make it easy for the huge Oracle install base to support them.  An interesting approach.  I used to lead the SQL Server Migration Assistant team so I know that true Oracle compatibility is tough but, even failing to be 100% compatible makes it easier for Oracle apps to port over to them. The pricing model is free for a developer license and $6k/socket for their Advanced Server edition.

The second interesting direction is offering is from Elastra.  It’s a management and administration system that automates deploying and managing dynamically scalable services. As part of the Elastra offering is support for Amazon AWS EC2 deployments.

Bring together EnterpriseDB and Elastra and you have an Oracle compatible database, hosted in EC2, with deployment and management support: ELASTRA Propels EnterpriseDB into the Cloud. I couldn’t find any customer usage examples so this may be more press release than a fully exercised, ready for prime-time solution but it’s a cool general direction and I expect to see more offerings along these lines over next months.  Good to see.

                                --jrh

James Hamilton, Windows Live Platform Services
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