Oracle University Podcast

In this episode, hosts Lois Houston and Nikita Abraham are joined by special guests Samvit Mishra and Rashmi Panda for an in-depth discussion on security and migration with Oracle Database@AWS. Samvit shares essential security best practices, compliance guidance, and data protection mechanisms to safeguard Oracle databases in AWS, while Rashmi walks through Oracle's powerful Zero-Downtime Migration (ZDM) tool, explaining how to achieve seamless, reliable migrations with minimal disruption.
 
Oracle Database@AWS Architect Professional: https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/oracle-databaseaws-architect-professional/155574
Oracle University Learning Community: https://education.oracle.com/ou-community
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/oracle-university/
X: https://x.com/Oracle_Edu
 
Special thanks to Arijit Ghosh, Anna Hulkower, Kris-Ann Nansen, Radhika Banka, and the OU Studio Team for helping us create this episode.
 
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Episode Transcript:
00:00
Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we'll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let's get started!
00:26
Nikita: Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast! I'm Nikita Abraham, Team Lead: Editorial Services with Oracle University, and with me is Lois Houston, Director of Communications and Adoption with Customer Success Services.
Lois: Hello again! We're continuing our discussion on Oracle Database@AWS and in today's episode, we're going to talk about the aspects of security and migration with two special guests: Samvit Mishra and Rashmi Panda. Samvit is a Senior Manager and Rashmi is a Senior Principal Database Instructor. 
00:59
Nikita: Hi Samvit and Rashmi! Samvit, let's begin with you. What are the recommended security best practices and data protection mechanisms for Oracle Database@AWS?
Samvit: Instead of everyone using the root account, which has full access, we create individual users with AWS, IAM, Identity Center, or IAM service.
And in addition, you must use multi-factor authentication. So basically, as an example, you need a password and a temporary code from virtual MFA app to log in to the console. 
Always use SSL or TLS to communicate with AWS services. This ensures data in transit is encrypted. Without TLS, the sensitive information like credentials or database queries can be intercepted.
AWS CloudTrail records every action taken in your AWS account-- who did what, when, and from where. This helps with audit, troubleshooting, and detecting suspicious activity. So you must set up API and user activity logging with AWS CloudTrail. 
Use AWS encryption solutions along with all default security controls within AWS services. To store and manage keys by using transparent data encryption, which is enabled by default, Oracle Database@AWS uses OCI vaults. Currently, Oracle Database@AWS doesn't support the AWS Key Management Service.
You should also use advanced managed security services such as Amazon Macie, which assists in discovering and securing sensitive data that is stored in Amazon S3. 
03:08
Lois: And how does Oracle Database@AWS deliver strong security and compliance?
Samvit: Oracle Database@AWS enforces transparent data encryption for all data at REST, ensuring stored information is always protected. Data in transit is secured using SSL and Native Network Encryption, providing end-to-end confidentiality.
Oracle Database@AWS also uses OCI Vault for centralized and secure key management. This allows organizations to manage encryption keys with fine-grained control, rotation policies, and audit capabilities to ensure compliance with regulatory standards. At the database level, Oracle Database@AWS supports unified auditing and fine-grained auditing to track user activity and sensitive operations.
At the resource level, AWS CloudTrail and OCI audit service provide comprehensive visibility into API calls and configuration changes. At the database level, security is enforced using database access control lists and Database Firewall to restrict unauthorized connections. At the VPC level, network ACLs and security groups provide layered network isolation and access control. Again, at the database level, Oracle Database@AWS enforces access controls to Database Vault, Virtual Private Database, and row-level security to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data. And at a resource level, AWS IAM policies, groups, and roles manage user permissions with the fine-grained control.
05:27
Lois Samvit, what steps should users be taking to keep their databases secure?
Samvit: Security is not a single feature but a layered approach covering user access, permissions, encryption, patching, and monitoring.
The first step is controlling who can access your database and how they connect. At the user level, strong password policies ensure only authorized users can login. And at the network level, private subnets and network security group allow you to isolate database traffic and restrict access to trusted applications only.
One of the most critical risks is accidental or unauthorized deletion of database resources. To mitigate this, grant delete permissions only to a minimal set of administrators. This reduces the risk of downtime caused by human error or malicious activity.
Encryption ensures that even if the data is exposed, it cannot be read. By default, all databases in OCI are encrypted using transparent data encryption. For migrated databases, you must verify encryption is enabled and active. Best practice is to rotate the transparent data encryption master key every 90 days or less to maintain compliance and limit exposure in case of key compromise.
Unpatched databases are one of the most common entry points for attackers. Always apply Oracle critical patch updates on schedule. This mitigates known vulnerabilities and ensures your environment remains protected against emerging threats.
07:33
Nikita: Beyond what users can do, are there any built-in features or tools from Oracle that really help with database security?
Samvit: Beyond the basics, Oracle provides powerful database security tools. Features like data masking allow you to protect sensitive information in non-production environments. Auditing helps you monitor database activity and detect anomalies or unauthorized access.
Oracle Data Safe is a managed service that takes database security to the next level. It can access your database configuration for weaknesses. It can also detect risky user accounts and privileges, identify and classify sensitive data. It can also implement controls such as masking to protect that data. And it can also continuously audit user activity to ensure compliance and accountability.
Now, transparent data encryption enables you to encrypt sensitive data that you store in tables and tablespaces. It also enables you to encrypt database backups. After the data is encrypted, this data is transparently decrypted for authorized users or applications when they access that data.
You can configure OCI Vault as a part of the transparent data encryption implementation. This enables you to centrally manage keystore in your enterprise. So OCI Vault gives centralized control over encryption keys, including key rotation and customer managed keys.
09:23
Lois: So obviously, lots of companies have to follow strict regulations. How does Oracle Database@AWS help customers with compliance? 
Samvit: Oracle Database@AWS has achieved a broad and rigorous set of compliance certifications. The service supports SOC 1, SOC 2, and SOC 3, as well as HIPAA for health care data protection. If we talk about SOC 1, that basically covers internal controls for financial statements and reporting. SOC 2 covers internal controls for security, confidentiality, processing integrity, privacy, and availability.
SOC 3 covers SOC 2 results tailored for a general audience. And HIPAA is a federal law that protects patients' health information and ensures its confidentiality, integrity, and availability. It also holds certifications and attestations such as CSA STAR, C5.
Now C5 is a German government standard that verifies cloud providers meet strict security and compliance requirements. CSA STAR attestation is an independent third-party audit of cloud security controls. CSA STAR certification also validates a cloud provider's security posture against CSA's cloud controls matrix. And HDS is a French certification that ensures cloud providers meet stringent requirements for hosting and protecting health care data.
Oracle Database@AWS also holds ISO and IEC standards. You can also see PCI DSS, which is basically for payment card security and HITRUST, which is for high assurance health care framework. So, these certifications ensure that Oracle Database@AWS not only adheres to best practices in security and privacy, but also provides customers with assurance that their workloads align with globally recognized compliance regimes.
11:47
Nikita: Thank you, Samvit. Now Rashmi, can you walk us through Oracle's migration solution that helps teams move to OCI Database Services?
Rashmi: Oracle Zero-Downtime Migration is a robust and flexible end-to-end database migration solution that can completely automate and streamline the migration of Oracle databases. With bare minimum inputs from you, it can orchestrate and execute the entire migration task, virtually needing no manual effort from you.
And the best part is you can use this tool for free to migrate your source Oracle databases to OCI Oracle Database Services faster and reliably, eliminating the chances of human errors. You can migrate individual databases or migrate an entire fleet of databases in parallel.
12:34
Nikita: Ok. For someone planning a migration with ZDM, are there any key points they should keep in mind? 
Rashmi: When migrating using ZDM, your source databases may require minimal downtime up to 15 minutes or no downtime at all, depending upon the scenario. It is built with the principles of Oracle maximum availability architecture and leverages technologies like Oracle GoldenGate and Oracle Data Guard to achieve high availability and online migration workflow using Oracle migration methods like RMAN, Data Pump, and Database Links.
Depending on the migration requirement, ZDM provides different migration method options. It can be logical or physical migration in an online or offline mode. Under the hood, it utilizes the different database migration technologies to perform the migration.
13:23
Lois: Can you give us an example of this?
Rashmi: When you are migrating a mission critical production database, you can use the logical online migration method. And when you are migrating a development database, you can simply choose the physical offline migration method.
As part of the migration job, you can perform database upgrades or convert your database to multitenant architecture. ZDM offers greater flexibility and automation in performing the database migration.
You can customize workflow by adding pre or postrun scripts as part of the workflow. Run prechecks to check for possible failures that may arise during migration and fix them. Audit migration jobs activity and user actions. Control the execution like schedule a job pause, resume, if needed, suspend and resume the job, schedule the job or terminate a running job. You can even rerun a job from failure point and other such capabilities.
14:13
Lois: And what kind of migration scenarios does ZDM support?
Rashmi: The minimum version of your source Oracle Database must be 11.2.0.4 and above. For lower versions, you will have to first upgrade to at least 11.2.0.4. You can migrate Oracle databases that may be of the Standard or Enterprise edition.
ZDM supports migration of Oracle databases, which may be a single-instance, or RAC One Node, or RAC databases. It can migrate on Unix platforms like Linux, Oracle Solaris, and AIX. For Oracle databases on AIX and Oracle Solaris platform, ZDM uses logical migration method.
But if the source platform is Linux, it can use both physical and logical migration method. You can use ZDM to migrate databases that may be on premises, or in third-party cloud, or even within Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. ZDM leverages Oracle technologies like RMAN datacom, Database Links, Data Guard, Oracle GoldenGate when choosing a specific migration workflow.
15:15
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15:35
Nikita: Welcome back! Rashmi, before someone starts using ZDM, is there any prep work they should do or things they need to set up first?
Rashmi: Working with ZDM needs few simple configuration. Zero-downtime migration provides a command line interface to run your migration job. First, you have to download the ZDM binary, preferably download from my Oracle Support, where you can get the binary with the latest updates.
Set up and configure the binary by following the instructions available at the same invoice node. The host in which ZDM is installed and configured is called the zero-downtime migration service host. The host has to be Oracle Linux version 7 or 8, or it can be RCL 8.
Next is the orchestration step where connection to the source and target is configured and tested like SSH configuration with source and target, opening the ports in respective destinations, creation of dump destination, granting required database privileges. Prepare the response file with parameter values that define the workflow that ZDM should use during Oracle Database migration.
You can also customize the migration workflow using the response file. You can plug in run scripts to be executed before or after a specific phase of the migration job. These customizations are called custom plugins with user actions.
Your sources may be hosted on-premises or OCI-managed database services, or even third-party cloud. They may be Oracle Database Standard or Enterprise edition and on accelerator infrastructure or a standard compute.
The target can be of the same type as the source. But additionally, ZDM supports migration to multicloud deployments on Oracle Database@Azure, Oracle Database@Google Cloud, and Oracle Database@AWS.
You begin with a migration strategy where you list the different databases that can be migrated, classification of the databases, grouping them, performing three migration checks like dependencies, downtime requirement versions, and preparing the order migration, the target migration environment, et cetera.
17:27
Lois: What migration methods and technologies does ZDM rely on to complete the move?
Rashmi: There are primarily two types of migration: physical or logical.
Physical migration pertains to copy of the database OS blocks to the target database, whereas in logical migration, it involves copying of the logical elements of the database like metadata and data.
Each of these migration methods can be executed when the database is online or offline. In online mode, migration is performed simultaneously while the changes are in progress in the source database.
While in offline mode, all changes to the source database is frozen. For physical offline migration, it uses backup and restore technique, while with the physical online, it creates a physical standby using backup and restore, and then performing a switchover once the standby is in sync with the source database.
For logical offline migration, it exports and imports database metadata and data into the target database, while in logical online migration, it is a combination of export and import operation, followed by apply of incremental updates from the source to the target database. The physical or logical offline migration method is used when the source database of the application can allow some downtime for the migration.
The physical or logical online migration approach is ideal for scenarios where any downtime for the source database can badly affect critical applications. The only downtime that can be tolerated by the application is only during the application connection switchover to the migrated database.
One other advantage is ZDM can migrate one or a fleet of Oracle databases by executing multiple jobs in parallel, where each job workflow can be customized to a specific database need. It can perform physical or logical migration of your Oracle databases. 
And whether it should be performed online or offline depends on the downtime that can be approved by business.
19:13
Nikita: Samvit and Rashmi, thanks for joining us today.
Lois: Yeah, it's been great to have you both. If you want to dive deeper into the topics we covered today, go to mylearn.oracle.com and search for the Oracle Database@AWS Architect Professional course. Until next time, this is Lois Houston…
Nikita: And Nikita Abraham, signing off!
19:35
That's all for this episode of the Oracle University Podcast. If you enjoyed listening, please click Subscribe to get all the latest episodes. We'd also love it if you would take a moment to rate and review us on your podcast app. See you again on the next episode of the Oracle University Podcast.

If you've ever wondered how Oracle Database really works inside AWS, this episode will finally turn the lights on.
 
Join Senior Principal OCI Instructor Susan Jang as she explains the two database services available (Exadata Database Service and Autonomous Database), how Oracle and AWS share responsibilities behind the scenes, and which essential tasks still land on your plate after deployment.
 
You'll discover how automation, scaling, and security actually work, and which model best fits your needs, whether you want hands-off simplicity or deeper control.
 
Oracle Database@AWS Architect Professional: https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/oracle-databaseaws-architect-professional/155574
Oracle University Learning Community: https://education.oracle.com/ou-community
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/oracle-university/
X: https://x.com/Oracle_Edu
 
Special thanks to Arijit Ghosh, Anna Hulkower, Kris-Ann Nansen, Radhika Banka, and the OU Studio Team for helping us create this episode.
 
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Episode Transcript:
 
00:00
Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we'll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let's get started!
00:26
 
Lois: Hello and welcome to the Oracle University Podcast! I'm Lois Houston, Director of Communications and Adoption with Customer Success Services, and with me is Nikita Abraham, Team Lead: Editorial Services with Oracle University. 
Nikita: Hi everyone! In our last episode, we began the discussion on Oracle Database@AWS. Today, we're diving deeper into the database services that are available in this environment. Susan Jang, our Senior Principal OCI Instructor, joins us once again. 
00:56
Lois: Hi Susan! Thanks for being here today. In our last conversation, we compared Oracle Autonomous Database and Exadata Database Service. Can you elaborate on the fundamental differences between these two services?  
 
Susan: Now, the primary difference is between the service is really the management model. The Autonomous is fully-managed by Oracle, while the Exadata provides flexibility for you to have the ability to customize your database environment while still having the infrastructure be managed by Oracle.  
01:30
Nikita: When it comes to running Oracle Database@AWS, how do Oracle and AWS each chip in? Could you break down what each provider is responsible for in this setup? 
Susan: Oracle Database@AWS is a collaboration between Oracle, as well as AWS. It allows the customer to deploy and run Oracle Database services, including the Oracle Autonomous Database and the Oracle Exadata Database Service directly in AWS data centers.  
Oracle provides the ability of having the Oracle Exadata Database Service on a dedicated infrastructure. This service delivers full capabilities of Oracle Exadata Database on the Oracle Exadata hardware. It offers high performance and high security for demanding workloads. It has cloud automation, resource scaling, and performance optimization to simplify the management of the service. 
Oracle Autonomous Database on the dedicated Exadata infrastructure provides a fully Autonomous Database on this dedicated infrastructure within AWS. It automates the database management tasks, including patching, backups, as well as tuning, and have built-in AI capabilities for developing AI-powered applications and interacting with data using natural language. The Oracle Database@AWS integrates those core database services with various AWS services for a comprehensive unified experience. 
AWS provides the ability of having a cloud-based object storage, and that would be the Amazon S3. You also have the ability to have other services, such as the Amazon CloudWatch. It monitors the database metrics, as well as performance. You also have Amazon Bedrock. It provides a development environment for a generative AI application.  
And last but not the least, amongst the many other services, you also have the SageMaker. This is a cloud-based platform for development of machine learning models, a wonderful integration with our AI application development needs. 
03:54
Lois: How has the work involved in setting up and managing databases changed over time? 
Susan: When we take a look at the evolution of how things have changed through the years in our systems, we realize that transfer responsibility has now been migrated more from customer or human interaction to services. As the database technology evolves from the traditional on-premise system to the Exadata engineered system, and finally to the Autonomous Database, certain services previously requiring significant manual intervention has become increasingly automated, as well as optimized. 
04:34
Lois: How so? 
Susan: When we take a look at the more traditional database environment, it requires manual configuration of hardware, operating system, as well as the software of the database, along with initial database creation. As we evolve into the Exadata environment, the Exadata Database, specifically the Exadata cloud service, simplifies provisioning through web-based wizard, making it faster and easier to deploy the Oracle Database in an optimized hardware.  
 
But when we move it to an Autonomous environment, it automates the entire provisioning process, allowing users to rapidly deploy mission-critical databases without manual intervention, or DBA involvement. So as customers move toward Autonomous Database through Exadata, we have fewer components that the customer needs to manage in the database stack, which gives them more time to focus more on important parts of the business. 
With the Exadata Database, it provides a co-management of backup, restore, patches and upgrade, monitoring, and tuning. And it allows the administrator the ability to customize the configuration to meet their very specific business needs. With Autonomous Database, it's now fully automated and it's a greater responsibility is shift toward the service. With Autonomous Database on dedicated infrastructure, it provides that fine-grained tuning more for Oracle to help you perform that task. 
06:15
Nikita: If we narrow it down just to Oracle and AWS for a moment, which parts of the infrastructure or day-to-day ops are handled by each company behind the scenes? 
Susan: When we take a look at Oracle Database@AWS, it operates under a shared responsibility model, dividing the service responsibilities between AWS, as well as Oracle, as well as you, the customer.  
The AWS has the data center. Remember, this is where everything is running. The Oracle Database@AWS, the Oracle Database infrastructure may be managed by Oracle and run in OCI, but is physically located within the AWS regions, as well as the availability zones and the AWS data centers. 
The AWS infrastructure, in this case, is AWS's responsibility to secure the environment, including the physical security of the data center, the network infrastructure, and the foundational services like the compute, the storage, and the networking, all within AWS. 
The next thing of who's responsible for the shared responsibility, it's Oracle. And that would be the hardware. We provide the hardware. While the hardware may physically reside in the AWS data center, Oracle's Cloud Infrastructure operational team will be the one managing this infrastructure, including software patching, infrastructure update, and other operations through a connection to OCI. This means Oracle handles the provisioning, as well as the maintenance of any of the underlying Exadata infrastructure hardware. 
When we take a look at the next thing that it manages, it is also responsible besides the infrastructure of the Exadata. It is also the ability to manage the hardware, the environment of that hardware through the database control plane. So Oracle manages the administration and the operational for the Oracle Database@AWS service, which resides in OCI. So this includes the capabilities for management, upgrade, and operational features. 
08:37
Nikita: And what are the key things that still remain on the customer's plate?  
Susan: If you are in an Exadata environment or in an Autonomous environment, it is you, the customer, who is responsible for most of the database administration operation, as well as managing the users and the privileges of the user to access the database. No one knows the database and who should be accessing the data better than you. 
You will be responsible for securing the applications, the data of the database, which now allows you to define who has access to it, control the data encryption, and securing the application that interacts with the Oracle Database@AWS. 
09:29
Lois: Susan, we've talked about both Autonomous Database and Exadata Database Service being available on Oracle Database@AWS, but what's different about how each works in this environment, and why might someone pick one over the other? 
Susan: Both databases, even though they run on the same Exadata Cloud Infrastructure, both can be deployed on both public cloud, as well as the customer data center, which is Oracle Cloud@Customer. 
The Autonomous Database is a fully managed, completely automated environment. And this provides a capability of having a fully Autonomous Database Service running on a dedicated Oracle Exadata Infrastructure within your AWS data center. 
The Exadata is a service that is provided and managed by Oracle and is physically running in the AWS data center, but is designed for mission critical workload and includes RAC environment, Real Application Cluster, offering a high performance availability and full feature capability that is similar to other Exadata environment, such as those running in our customers' data center. 
The primary difference is really between the two services. When you take a look at the Exadata, the customer only pays for the compute resources that is used. Autoscaling can be used for a variety or variable resources, the workload, to automatically scale to the compute resources up or down when required. 
The Autonomous Database also has automatic optimization for data warehousing, transaction processing, as well as JSON workload. The Exadata service, the customer again, also pays for the compute resources that they allocate. But that's the key thing. The customer can initiate the scaling because it's very specific to the workload that is needed. 
So when you take a look at the two database services, one gives the ability to let Oracle fully manage it, including the scaling capability. The other, the Exadata, provides you the capability of having the environment that it's running on the infrastructure be managed by Oracle that adds a database administrator. You may wish to have a little bit more granular control of how you want the database to not only be scaling, but how you wish to customize how the database will be running. 
12:10
Nikita: Focusing on Autonomous Database for a moment, what should teams know about how it actually runs within AWS?  
Susan: The Autonomous Database on the Oracle Database@AWS brings the power of the Oracle's self-managing, self-securing, and self-repairing database into your AWS environment. 
It provides the capability of the database automatically, automates many of the traditional, complex, and time-consuming database management tasks, such as the provisioning of the database, the patching, the backing up, and the scaling, and the performance tuning, reducing the need for any manual intervention by the database administrator. 
Running the Autonomous Database in your AWS region enables low latency access for your AWS applications and services that is deployed within AWS, thus improving performance and response time. With the Autonomous Database, it automates many of the traditional things that is now automatically done by Oracle. It also supports integration with various AWS services, such as the ability of the not in addition to AIM, but the cloud formation, the CloudWatch for monitoring and the S3 for the storage. 
You can easily migrate existing Exadata workload, including those running on Oracle RAC to AWS with minimum or no change to any of your databases or applications. In addition, there's a really powerful capability and feature of the database is called zero ETL, and that's zero extract, transformation, and load. 
It's an integration capability with services like your Amazon Redshift, enabling near real time analytics and machine learning on your transactional database that is stored within the Autonomous Database on in your AWS environment. So with the Autonomous Database, it checks off many of the boxes for automatic capability, securing, tuning, as well as scaling the database. 
With the Autonomous Database in the Dedicated Exadata Infrastructure, the Exadata Cloud Infrastructure resource represents the physical system, which can be expanded with storage, as well as compute services, the compute host. This now provides the ability to have an isolated zone for the highest protection from other tenants. The data is stored on a dedicated server only for one customer. That would be you. 
14:56
Lois: Could you explain the role of Autonomous VM? What are its primary benefits? 
Susan: The virtual machine or as we refer to them as the cluster, includes the grid infrastructure and provides a private network isolation. This provides you the capability of having custom memory, core, and storage allocation. 
The Oracle Grid Infrastructure includes the Oracle Clusterware, which manages the cluster, as well as the servers, and ensure that the database can failover to another server in case of any failure. 
15:34
Be a part of something big by joining the Oracle University Learning Community! Connect with over 3 million members, including Oracle experts and fellow learners. Engage in topical forums, share your knowledge, and celebrate your achievements together. Discover the community today at mylearn.oracle.com. 
15:55
Nikita: Welcome back! Susan, what is the Autonomous Container Database? 
Susan: With the Autonomous Container Database, and you need that if you're going to create an Autonomous Database, you need to provision that within your Autonomous Exadata VM Cluster. It serves as a container to hold or to house one or more Autonomous Databases. 
This allows multiple Autonomous Databases to coexist in the same infrastructure while still being logically separated. And this allows for the separation of databases based on their intended use. Think of a database for production. Think of a database for development. Think of a database for testing. You may have different database versions within the same infrastructure. 
This isolation makes it easier for you to be able to meet your SLA, your Service Level Agreement, any long-term backups you may have, very specific encryption key needs to prevent issues from one database impacting another. So, the ability to have everything be isolated and secure is still grouping it in a manner that will meet your business needs. 
17:08
Lois: Looking at Exadata Database Service specifically, what are some standout advantages for customers who deploy it on Oracle Database@AWS? Is there anything in particular they should get excited about in terms of performance or integration with AWS? 
Susan: The Exadata Database Service is running on a dedicated Exadata Infrastructure that's deployed within your AWS data center. It delivers the same Exadata service experience in cloud control planes as the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, allowing you to leverage existing skills and processing across your multi-cloud environment. 
It addresses the data resiliency, or residency rather. And that's the scenario where many of our customers has the need. You have a need because of your security compliance to have the data local to you. By having the Exadata Database in your Oracle Database@AWS, it is running in your data center. So, this addresses that very important need, data residency, to have it close to you. 
It also allows for seamless integration with other AWS services and applications. So now you have a capability of a hybrid cloud architecture leveraging the benefit of both Oracle Exadata and your AWS system. It has built-in high availability, the RAC application cluster, as well as Data Guard, a capability of addressing disaster recovery capability. 
This also provides the ability for you to scale your compute, as well as your storage and your I/O resources independently. So as mentioned with Exadata, you have flexibility of how you want your database to be running individually. So just like the Autonomous, the Exadata Database checks off many of the boxes for running a mission-critical with high availability, highly redundant hardware and software features, along with extreme performance, scalability, and reliability. 
This now allows you to run your AI environment, your online transaction processing, your analytic workload on any scale on the Exadata Infrastructure running in the Oracle Cloud. And in this case, running in your data center. 
19:45
Nikita: If a business suddenly needs more capacity, how does scaling work with Exadata Database Service versus Autonomous Database on Oracle Database@AWS?  
Susan: So with the Exadata scaling, you now can scale to meet expected demands so you know at certain point I will need more. I will then ask it to scale at that point when I will assign it-- and I'm using an example, I will assign it three computer cores all the time. But there may be demands. Think of your end of the quarter, end of the year processing that you may need more. So, you are enabling the compute cores to scale at the time you need it. 
And what's cool is it will then, when it's no longer needed, it will then scale back down to the original three cores that you assign. So, you only pay for the enabled cores. But what's very cool about the Autonomous is that it is real-time scaling. So, with Autonomous, now you have the capability using Autonomous Database since it is self-tuning, self-monitoring, the Autonomous Database actually monitors the workload requirement and scales to match the workload demand. 
Once the minimum level of the compute is defined and enabled, the automatic scaling is set. Autonomous Database will adjust to the consumption when it's needed, and it will scale back down when it's not. So though the Exadata is pretty cool, it will scale up and down on the workload demand. 
This is with the Autonomous is even more powerful. It is real-time scaling based on that usage at that moment. Built-in automatic increase to meet the workload demands when it spikes and it automatically scales back when it's not needed. 
A very powerful capability with all of our Oracle databases, the ability, even with traditional, to allow you to define what you may need with Exadata scaling for peak demands, as well as Autonomous scaling for real-time consumption and scaling when needed. 
When you look at all of our options, one of the key things to bear in mind is a phrase that we use: performance scale as more servers are added. And what this is really saying is Oracle's automated scaling ability for the database, it basically has the ability to maintain or improve its performance under increased workload by automatically adding computational resources when needed. 
This process is also known as horizontal scaling. It involves adding more servers, compute instances, to a cluster to share the processing load. And it has that capability automatically. 
22:53
Nikita: There's so much more we can discuss about Oracle Database@AWS, but let's pause here for today! Thank you so much Susan for joining us. 
Lois: Yeah, it's been really great to have you, Susan. If you want to dive deeper into the topics we covered today, go to mylearn.oracle.com and search for the Oracle Database@AWS Architect Professional course. Until next time, this is Lois Houston… 
Nikita: And Nikita Abraham, signing off! 
23:23
That's all for this episode of the Oracle University Podcast. If you enjoyed listening, please click Subscribe to get all the latest episodes. We'd also love it if you would take a moment to rate and review us on your podcast app. See you again on the next episode of the Oracle University Podcast.

In this episode, hosts Lois Houston and Nikita Abraham take you inside how Oracle brings its industry-leading database technology directly to AWS customers.
 
Senior Principal OCI Instructor Susan Jang unpacks what the OCI child site is, how Exadata hardware is deployed inside AWS data centers, and how the ODB network enables secure, low-latency connections so your mission-critical workloads can run seamlessly alongside AWS services.
 
Susan also walks through the differences between Exadata Database Service and Autonomous Database, helping teams choose the right level of control and automation for their cloud databases.
 
Oracle Database@AWS Architect Professional: https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/oracle-databaseaws-architect-professional/155574
Oracle University Learning Community: https://education.oracle.com/ou-community
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/oracle-university/
X: https://x.com/Oracle_Edu
 
Special thanks to Arijit Ghosh, Anna Hulkower, Kris-Ann Nansen, Radhika Banka, and the OU Studio Team for helping us create this episode.
 
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Episode Transcript:
 
00:00
Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we'll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let's get started!
00:26
Nikita: Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast! I'm Nikita Abraham, Team Lead: Editorial Services with Oracle University, and with me is Lois Houston, Director of Communications and Adoption with Customer Success Services. 
Lois: Hi there! Last week, we talked about multicloud and the partnerships Oracle has with Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and Amazon Web Services. If you missed that episode, do listen to it as it sets the foundation for today's discussion, which is going to be about Oracle Database@AWS. 
00:59
Nikita: That's right. And we're joined by Susan Jang, a Senior Principal OCI Instructor. Susan, thanks for being here. To start us off, what is Oracle Database@AWS? 
Susan: Oracle Database@AWS is a service that allows Oracle Exadata infrastructure that is managed by Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, or OCI, to run directly inside an AWS data center.  
01:25
Lois: Susan, can you go through the key architecture components and networking relationships involved in this? 
 
Susan: The AWS Cloud is the Amazon Web Service. It's a cloud computing platform. The AWS region is a distinct, isolated geographic location with multiple physically separated data center, also known as availability zone. The availability zone is really a physically isolated data center with its own independent power, cooling, and network connectivity. 
When we speak of the AWS data center, it's a highly secured, specialized physical facility that houses the computing storage, the compute servers, the storage server, and the networking equipment. The VPC, the Virtual Private Cloud, is a logical, isolated virtual network. 
The AWS ODB network is a private user-created network that connects the virtual private cloud network of Amazon resources with an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Exadata system. This is all within an AWS data center. The AWS-ADB peering is really an established private network connection that's between the Oracle VPC, the Virtual Private Cloud, and the Oracle Database@AWS network. And that would be the ODB. 
Within the AWS data center, you have something that you see called the child site. Now, an OCI child site is really a physical data center that is managed by Oracle within the AWS data center. It's a seamless extension of the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. The site is hosting the Exadata infrastructure that's running the Oracle databases. 
The Oracle Database@AWS service brings the power as well as the performance of an Oracle Exadata infrastructure that is managed by Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to run directly in an AWS data center. 
03:57
Nikita: So essentially, Oracle Database@AWS lets you to run your mission-critical Oracle data load close to your AWS application, while keeping management simple. Susan, what advantages does Oracle Database@AWS bring to the table? 
Susan: Oracle Database@AWS offers a powerful and flexible solution for running Oracle workloads natively within AWS. Oracle Database@AWS streamlines the process of moving your existing Oracle Database to AWS, making migration faster as well as easier. 
You get direct, low latency connectivity between your application and Oracle databases, ensuring a high performance for your mission-critical workloads.  
Billing, resource management, and operational tasks are unified, allowing you to manage everything through similar tools with reduce complexity. And finally, Oracle Database@AWS is designed to integrate smoothly with your AWS environments' workloads, making it so much easier to build, deploy, and scale your solutions. 
05:15
Lois: You mentioned the OCI child site earlier. What part does it play in how Oracle Database@AWS works?  
Susan: The OCI child site really gives you the capability to combine the physical proximity and resources of AWS with the logical management and the capability of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. This integrated approach allows us to enable the ability for you to run and manage your Oracle databases seamlessly in your AWS environment while still leveraging the power of OCI, our Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. 
06:03
Did you know that Oracle University offers free courses on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure for subscribers! Whether you're interested in multicloud, databases, networking, security, AI, or machine learning, there's something for everyone. So, what are you waiting for? Pick your topic and get started by visiting mylearn.oracle.com.  
06:29
Nikita: Welcome back! Susan, I'm curious about the Exadata infrastructure inside AWS. What does that setup look like? 
Susan: The Exadata Infrastructure consists of physical database, as well as storage servers. That is deployed-- the database and the storage servers are interconnected using a high-speed, low-latency network fiber, ensuring optimal performance and reliable data transfer. 
Each of the database server runs one or more Virtual Machines, or VMs, as we refer to them, providing flexible compute resources for different workloads. You can create, as well as manage your virtual machine, your VM clusters in this infrastructure using various methods. Your AWS console, Command-Line Interface, CLI, or Application Program Interface, that's your API, giving you various options, several options for automating, as well as integrating your existing tools. 
When you're creating your Exadata Infrastructure, there are a few things you need to define and set up. You need to define the total number of your database servers, the total number of your storage server, the model of your Exadata system, as well as the availability zone where all these resources will be deployed. 
This architecture delivers a high-performance resiliency and flexible management capability for running your Oracle Database on AWS. 
08:18
Lois: Susan, can you explain the network architecture for Oracle Database deployments on AWS?  
Susan: The ODB network is an isolated network within the AWS that is designed specifically for Exadata deployments. It includes both the client, as well as the backup subnet, which are essential for securing and efficient database operations. 
When you create your Exadata Infrastructure, you need to specify the ODB network as you need the connectivity. This network is mapped directly to the corresponding network in the OCI child site. This will enable seamless communication between AWS, as well as the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. 
The ODB network requires two separate CIDR ranges. And in addition, the client subnet is used for the Exadata VM cluster, providing connectivity for database operations. Well, you do also have another subnet. And that subnet is the backup subnet. And it's used to manage database backups of those VM cluster, ensuring not only data protection, but also data recovery. 
Within your AWS region and availability zone, the ODB network contains these dedicated client, as well as backup subnet. It basically isolates the Exadata traffic for both the day-to-day access, and that would be for the client, as well as the backup operations, and that would be for the backup subnet. This network design supports secure, high performance, and connectivity in a reliable backup management of the Oracle Database deployments that is running on AWS. 
10:23
Nikita: Since we're on the topic of networking, can you tell us about ODB peering within the Oracle Database architecture? 
Susan: The ODB peering establishes a secure private connection between your AWS Virtual Private Cloud, your VPC, then the Oracle Database, the ODB network that contains your Exadata Infrastructure. 
This connection makes it possible for application servers that's running in your VPC, such as your Amazon EC2 instances to access your Oracle databases that is being hosted on Exadata within your ODB network. You specify the ODB network when you set up your infrastructure, specifically the Exadata Infrastructure. This network includes dedicated client, as well as backup subnets for an efficient and secure connectivity. 
If you wish to enable multiple VPCs to connect to the same ODB network and access the Oracle Database@AWS resources, you can leverage AWS Transit Gateways or even an AWS Cloud WAN for scalable and centralized connectivity.  
The virtual private cloud contains your application server, and that's securely paired with the Oracle Database network, creating a seamless, high-performance path to your application to interact with your Oracle Database. 
ODB peering simplifies the connectivity between the AWS application environments and the Oracle Exadata Infrastructure, thus supporting a flexible, high performance, and secure database access. 
12:23
Lois: Now, before we close, can you compare two key databases that are available with Oracle Database@AWS: Oracle Exadata Database Service and Oracle Autonomous Database Service? 
Susan: The Exadata Database Service offers a fully managed and dedicated infrastructure with operational monitoring that is handled by you, the customer. In contrast, the Autonomous Database is fully managed by Oracle, taking care of all the operational monitoring. 
Exadata provides very high scalability though resources, such as disk and compute, must be sized manually. Where in the Autonomous Database, it offers high scalability through automatic elastic scaling. When we speak of performance, both service deliver strong results. Exadata offers ultra-low latency and Exadata-level performance, while the Autonomous Database delivers optimal performance with automation. 
Both services provide high migration capability. Exadata offers full compatibility and the Autonomous Database includes a robust set of migration tools. When it comes to management, Exadata requires manual management and administration. And that's really in a way to provide you the ability to customize it in the manner you desire, making it meets your very specific business needs, especially your database needs. 
In contrast, the Autonomous Database is fully managed by Oracle, including automated administration tasks, optimal self-tuning features to further reduce any management overhead. When we speak of the feature sets, the Exadata delivers a full suite of Oracle features, including the RAC application cluster, or the Real Application Cluster, RAC, whereas the Autonomous offers a complete feature set, but specifically that is designed for optimized Autonomous operations. 
Finally, when we speak of integration, integration for both of this service integrates seamlessly with AWS service, such as your EC2, your network, the VPC, your policies, the Identity and Access Management, your IAM, the monitoring with your CloudWatch, and of course, your storage, your SC, ensuring a consistent experience within your AWS ecosystem. 
15:21
Nikita: So, you could say that the Exadata Database Service is better for customers who want dedicated infrastructure with granular control, while the Autonomous Database is built for customers who want a fully automated experience. Thank you, Susan, for taking the time to talk to us about Oracle Database@AWS. 
Lois: That's all we have for today. If you want to learn more about the topics we discussed, head over to mylearn.oracle.com and search for the Oracle Database@AWS Architect Professional course. In our next episode, we'll find out how to get started with the Oracle Database@AWS service. Until then, this is Lois Houston… 
Nikita: And Nikita Abraham, signing off! 
16:06
That's all for this episode of the Oracle University Podcast. If you enjoyed listening, please click Subscribe to get all the latest episodes. We'd also love it if you would take a moment to rate and review us on your podcast app. See you again on the next episode of the Oracle University Podcast.

Multicloud is changing the way modern teams run their workloads: with real choice and real control.
 
In this episode, hosts Lois Houston and Nikita Abraham welcome Senior Principal OCI Instructor Sergio Castro, who explains how Oracle has partnered with Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and AWS to bring Oracle Database directly inside their data centers, unlocking sub-millisecond latency and new levels of flexibility.
 
They discuss how organizations can seamlessly migrate from on-premises or between clouds with minimal disruption, take advantage of best-in-class cloud services, and enhance business continuity.
 
Oracle Database@AWS Architect Professional: https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/oracle-databaseaws-architect-professional/155574
Oracle University Learning Community: https://education.oracle.com/ou-community
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/oracle-university/
X: https://x.com/Oracle_Edu
 
Special thanks to Arijit Ghosh, Anna Hulkower, Kris-Ann Nansen, Radhika Banka, and the OU Studio Team for helping us create this episode.
 
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Episode Transcript:
 
00:00
Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we'll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let's get started!
00:26
Lois: Hello and welcome to the Oracle University Podcast! I'm Lois Houston, Director of Communications and Adoption with Customer Success Services, and with me is Nikita Abraham, Team Lead: Editorial Services.
Nikita: Hi everyone! We're kicking off a new season of the podcast today, this time on Oracle Database@AWS. But before we fully dive into that, we've got Sergio Castro with us to introduce multicloud and talk about some of its use cases. Sergio, who you may have heard on the podcast before, is a Senior Principal OCI Instructor with Oracle University.  
01:02
Lois: Hi Sergio! Thanks for joining us today. We've spoken a lot about multicloud before, but we couldn't possibly discuss Oracle Database@AWS without another quick intro to multicloud. So, for anyone who doesn't already know, what is multicloud? And could you also talk about what Oracle is doing in this space? 
Sergio: It is the use of several Cloud providers to deliver an IT service.
Basically, a multi-cloud strategy allows organizations to distribute their workloads across multiple Cloud platforms and providers. This will help aiding the flexibility when picking the right tool for each job.
Basically, by selecting the best Cloud Service, IT architects can take advantage of each provider's strengths, including custom hardware, software, and service capabilities. And Oracle is a pioneer in multi-cloud.
We have partnerships with Azure, Google Cloud, AWS, and we've been doing multi-cloud since 2019, including Oracle Interconnect for Azure and Oracle Interconnect for Google Cloud.
Our multi-cloud products is the Oracle Database Service at Azure, at Google Cloud, and at AWS. Here we have our database inside the data centers of these Cloud Service providers. And multi-cloud can be complemented by resources that you have on-premises, providing you with a hybrid Cloud model.
And our public Cloud offerings are not limited to the commercial realm. Multi-cloud is beginning to be available also in the government realm. You can now find Oracle Interconnect for Azure in the US government realm.
We also have government realm offerings in the UK and in the European Union. And of course, dedicated Cloud. If you're going to be involving on-premises, you can also have all the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure resources behind your firewall, behind your routers with dedicated Cloud.
So the offers from Oracle Cloud Infrastructure are really exceptional. It offers you great flexibility and choice. And the choice is yours. You select the platform for your Oracle Cloud solutions. 
03:39
Nikita: You've already mentioned a few of them, but could you talk about the various benefits of multicloud?
Sergio: A solid multi-cloud approach enables organizations to leverage the unique strengths and offerings of various Cloud service providers. By not being limited to a single vendor's capabilities or policies, businesses can adapt quickly to changing environments, deploy workloads where they fit best, and rapidly integrate new solutions as market demands evolve. 
Relying on a single Cloud vendor can make it challenging and costly to migrate workloads or switch providers if businesses needs change. Multi-cloud strategies mitigate this risk by distributing applications and data across multiple platforms, making technology transition smoother and giving organizations greater bargaining power. 
Now, diminishing single points of failure at the Cloud service provider level is great, because distributing systems and data across multiple clouds can definitely reduce dependence on a single provider or region. 
This increased geographic diversity improves resilience and provides a more robust backup and recovery option, helping to ensure business continuity in the event of a disaster or even an outage. With access to a range of pricing models and service levels from different providers, organizations can allocate workloads based on cost effectiveness. 
This best fit approach encourages cost savings by enabling the selection of the most economical provider for each workload. And this facilitates continuous cost optimization efforts. For example, OCI provides significantly lower data egress charges, this in comparison to our competitors. 
Multicloud management empowers organizations to place their workloads in the environments where they perform the best. By distributing workloads based on latency, processing power, or data proximity, businesses can realize performance improvements and achieve higher availability for their critical services. 
Now regarding best of breed, each Cloud provider brings unique innovations and specialized services to the market. With a multi-cloud approach, organizations can tailor solutions to meet specific business needs. 
Operating across multiple Cloud platforms means access to a wider array of data centers worldwide. This extended reach supports expansion into new markets, improves local performance for users, and helps satisfy data sovereignty requirements in diverse jurisdictions. And speaking about jurisdictions, this flexibility helps meet industry standards and regional data protection laws more effectively. 
06:50
Nikita: You mentioned that Oracle's multicloud journey started in 2019 with Azure. What was that early phase like?
Sergio: The Oracle Cloud Infrastructure multi-cloud offering started with the Oracle Interconnect for Microsoft Azure, where we connect FastConnect, our digital circuit, to the equivalent Express Route, the digital circuit of Microsoft Azure.
Basically FastConnect, it is used typically for extending the OCI services into on-premises. In this case, it is extending these services into another Cloud Service provider, Microsoft Azure or various applications.
07:29
Lois: And then we moved on to Oracle Database Service for Azure, right? 
Sergio: It's very similar to what we have right now, the Oracle Database Service at Azure, except that back then, the interface was on OCI.
Basically on OCI, we had a console that resembled Azure, but all the services were still running on OCI. Now, the difference with Oracle Database Service at Azure is that we extended Oracle Cloud Infrastructure into the Azure data centers.
So Oracle Database at Azure is a child site in the Microsoft Azure data centers. Basically we are placing our hardware in Azure data centers. And this gives us a very good latency, sub-one millisecond latency.
08:24
Lois: What about Oracle's multicloud services with Google and Amazon Web Services? 
Sergio: Oracle Interconnect org and Oracle Database app are available for Google Cloud. We do have a service called Oracle Interconnect or Google Cloud, similar to the Azure one.
And we also have the Oracle Database inside the Google Cloud data centers operating as a child site. And back in 2024 during Oracle Cloud World, we announced Oracle Database@AWS.
This product is now available in two AWS regions. In a similar way, we have the Oracle Database inside the AWS data center with sub-one millisecond latency. We are currently in two data centers, but we have brought plans for being available in over 20 plan regions between Oracle Cloud and Amazon Web Services.
09:32
Nikita: Sergio, how do the capabilities of Oracle Database multicloud help enterprises modernize?
Sergio: Oracle Database multi-cloud capabilities help enterprise modernize, adopting a Gen AI strategy, obviously, using the Oracle database to bring Oracle's powerful AI to business data. When you move to multi-cloud environments, you have a playground for you to test and run your workloads and then go into productions with your choice of services on the Oracle Exadata.
And reducing risk, it's very easy to move to cloud and gain Oracle maximum availability architecture benefits. And by moving into a multi-cloud environment, you guarantee that you're going to be lowering your cost because you're going to be selecting the best of breed of the services that the Cloud Service provider can offer.
Now, with the Oracle Database on multi-cloud environments, you're able to port your Oracle Database knowledge that you have from on-premises to a single cloud provider to a multi-cloud environment. It is the same solution, the same Oracle Database capabilities available everywhere-- on-premises, on your private cloud, on a single cloud provider, or on a multi-cloud environment.
Having the same capabilities make it very easy to migrate from on-premises or to migrate from one cloud service provider to the other. Oracle Database multi-cloud solutions really offer the best of both worlds. So a choice of services directly from hyperscaler marketplace and the vendor's cloud portal.
11:21
Lois: And when you say "hyperscalers," who exactly are you referring to?
Sergio: These hyperscalers, we're talking about OCI, we're talking about Azure, we're talking about Google cloud, we're talking about AWS. Having the Oracle Database inside the Cloud data centers, regardless of who the hyperscaler provider is, guarantees low latency from your application into your database.
But Oracle Database is not the only product. We also offer Oracle Interconnect for Azure and GCP. So if you want to go beyond Oracle Database@Cloud Service provider, or if you're looking to going into a region where the service is not available yet, you can leverage the Oracle Interconnect for Azure or Google Cloud platform.
Basically, this service interconnects the Cloud Service providers. We have a partnership and selected regions where we interconnect with either Azure or Google Cloud platform. 
12:25
Are you working toward an Oracle Certification? Join one of our live certification prep events! Get insider tips from seasoned experts and connect with others on the same path. Visit mylearn.oracle.com and kick off your certification journey today!
12:45
Nikita: Welcome back! Sergio, could you tell us about some key Oracle Database multicloud use cases?
Sergio: Move to cloud. Lift and shift from on-premises to Cloud. Lift and shift from one Cloud Service provider to the other, and consolidate your database on Exadata.
This will guarantee all the tools that you need for building innovative applications, bringing artificial intelligence to your business data, on the Oracle powerful AI suite, and combine Database AI with hyperscaler services and frameworks. Remember, the best of breed from the Cloud Service provider of your choice.
And this will allow you to reduce complexity and cost. Now according to knowledge is not the only thing. You can also lift and ship without refactoring your data, reducing migration times, complexity, and costs with the Oracle Database Exadata and maximum availability architecture.
13:47
Nikita: What are the key differentiators and benefits of moving Oracle Database workloads to the cloud?
Sergio: Extreme performance. Accelerate your database workloads with scalability, scale infrastructure, and consumption, and extreme cost optimization. But that's not all.
You also get extreme availability with the Oracle maximum availability architecture, extreme resiliency, making sure that you're always running with high availability and disaster recovery protection and extreme simplicity. So you can use all your Oracle Database and Exadata capabilities.
Build innovative applications with Cloud-First capabilities. These are Cloud native capabilities that are going to enable you to innovate for all your applications. And having a unified multi-cloud environment reduce complexity and cost because you can leverage your Exadata infrastructure with share licenses, low administration with database lifecycle automation, and purchase through your hyperscaler marketplace.
So you can only have one vendor running all billing, even if you're leveraging multi-cloud solutions. And you can leverage your Oracle investments with bring-your-own-license and earn up to 33% towards Oracle tech license.
Reduce administration by up to 65% with the Autonomous self-driving database. Only pay consumption for actual usage with online scaling, Autonomous Database, elastic pools, and per second billing. And enjoy advanced features at no added cost, like using the built-in AI vector search.
15:31
Lois: Can you give us a real-world example of a company using Oracle Database@AWS?
Sergio: Fidelity Investments rely on Oracle Database@AWS. They were one of the very first customers to leverage the best of both worlds, in this case, the offering from the AWS hyperscale applications and the Oracle Database Exadata Cloud service inside AWS.
Specifically, Fidelity uses this integration to make it easier to move some of its database workloads to AWS, combining the reliability and security of AWS with the critical enterprise software provided by Oracle. 
16:17
Lois: Thank you, Sergio, for joining us on the podcast! To learn more about what we discussed today, head over to mylearn.oracle.com and search for the Oracle Database@AWS Architect Professional course. Join us next week when we dive deep into what Oracle Database@AWS is all about. Until then, this is Lois Houston…
Nikita: And Nikita Abraham, signing off!
16:43
That's all for this episode of the Oracle University Podcast. If you enjoyed listening, please click Subscribe to get all the latest episodes. We'd also love it if you would take a moment to rate and review us on your podcast app. See you again on the next episode of the Oracle University Podcast.

Join us for an inspiring conversation with private equity advisor Jeffrey Malcolm as he shares how Oracle AI certification has transformed his career, family, and approach to business. Discover the real-world impact and opportunities that come from upskilling with Oracle's leading AI training programs.
 
AI Foundations: https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/learning-path/become-an-oci-ai-foundations-associate-2025/147781
Oracle University Learning Community: https://education.oracle.com/ou-community
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/oracle-university/
X: https://x.com/Oracle_Edu
 
Special thanks to Arijit Ghosh, Anna Hulkower, Kris-Ann Nansen, and the OU Studio Team for helping us create this episode.
 
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Episode Transcript:
 
00:00
Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we'll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let's get started!
00:26
Lois: Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast. I'm your host, Lois Houston, and I'm joined today by Jeffrey Malcolm, Operating Adviser working in the private equity space, to talk about how Oracle AI certifications have impacted his professional and personal life. Hi Jeffrey, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us today. Our conversation actually stems from a fascinating discussion we had at AI World, Oracle's annual user conference. There you shared your journey to becoming Oracle AI certified... How that process not only shifted your perspective on emerging technologies, but also influenced the way you work, interact with colleagues and clients, and even how you encourage continued learning in your own family. I'm really excited to dive deeper into your story and explore the value and real world benefits of certification in today's AI-driven landscape.
01:20
Jeffrey: Uh Lois, first of all, thank you for having me. Um, it was fantastic running into your teammates at AI World. It was amazing. You know, for for me, you know, as we go through this AI journey with my portfolio companies, I'm constantly looking at what are the new things out there? How can I get myself enabled? So, excited that we're having this conversation today.
01:42
Lois: That's great. So, let's start at the beginning. Before your certifications, what was your initial reaction when you heard about Oracle's OCI and AI certification programs? Were you immediately interested or was there hesitation?
Jeffrey: I was skeptical. You know, I was skeptical about OCI capabilities as you guys didn't have much market penetration at the time. You know, in my technology career, I built several enterprise applications on AWS, Azure, and GCP. However, OCI Cloud was new and my wife Kay Malcolm, who you know, kept raving at home over and over about OCI, that the cloud was faster, it was more secure and cost friendly. All of which this thing that I'm hearing are appealing to me as a CIO because that's something that I need to control at my companies that I'm working with.
Lois: Right.
Jeffrey: So because even though I was skeptical I was like if all of these things are appealing to her, I'm going to go ahead, I'm going to take the certification, I'm going to confirm all of these allegations that she's making to just make sure that, you know, it's actually true. And I was pleasantly surprised once I pulled the covers back.
02:59
Lois: So, you mentioned that your wife actually encouraged you to sign up for the free OCI Foundations training. Can you tell me a little bit more about that experience and how it influenced your decision to continue learning?
Jeffrey: When she took the OCI test, at first she passed with a 95% score. So, you know, that encouraged me to just, you know, to take it as as as informative as I can. And to be honest, I wanted to beat her score because, you know, we're competitive. Um, upon passing and seeing the high quality of the candidate, you know, of the content. Uh, it was just hard for me to keep this internally. I wanted to share it with my network. I wanted to kind of see if there's others that could benefit from it. But you know my my initial piece was how can I beat her? And when I was able to date the score I I did score a 96 and beat her and I started sharing it with my network. And what happened Lois it was amazing. You know we we found a a cohort of individuals right around 50 who wanted to start taking the similar course. We were like hey this is something that's amazing. We had individuals who were teachers. We had individuals who had work in the corrections facility. We had plumbers. We had electrician. And they were all skeptical about taking this highly technical course. But we said, "Hey, it's self-paced. It's something that you can do and you can really benefit your career." So at the end, we had 50 people who took it. Of the 50, we had 30 brave souls who went ahead and took the certification. Um, and of the 30, we had a 24 people who passed. That's almost a 90% pass rate.
Lois: Yeah. 
Jeffrey: And it was so successful, we actually had one individual who shared their news. He was able to get a new position where he became a technical project manager and 3x his salary. So, it was just amazing to watch how people were brave enough to take this content, how OCI did an amazing job of making it self-paced and absorbable and then people got the certification, we published it on LinkedIn, and people actually got jobs. So, it was actually quite quite impressive.
05:24
Lois: That's an incredible story. So, you didn't just become a believer, you actually went and built an application on OCI, right? What was the project and how did your new skills play a role in making that happen?
Jeffrey: That's that's a funny story. So at the time I was doing the uh the OCI training. I was building a mobile native application for a startup who was at the time looking to impact climate change. They were socially conscious enterprise dedicated to bring human-centered tools to individuals to live a better life and protect our environment. You know, the the main focus was how can they create an application that had no ads, only information, and provide a tool that would allow people to do joyful actions such as recycling, such as, you know, um looking at how you can lower your power consumption in your home, moving from plastics away from your home and just not consuming that much plastic. So we really wanted to gamify that and build an application that could do that. Uh my training gave me the confidence that as I was architecting the solution to say I needed to build something scalable and secure and full transparency at the time my myself and the rest of my development team was looking at completely AWS solutions.
From this training I was like no if we really want something secure and scalable, the Oracle Database specifically Autonomous Database is it and we switched we built a multicloud solution across Azure um AWS and um GCP as well as OCI OCI had our backend and we built our application to leverage it specifically because after taking a training I was convinced that the backend needed to on Oracle Database specifically Autonomous Database. So it helped the the application had been running now for 3 years no issues um from a scalability standpoint and it's been fantastic for us.
07:34
Lois: Well that's great. That's a great story to uh to talk about how you leveraged your training and into something that actually made a difference in your job. So let's talk a little bit about your AI certification. You've described the AI foundations training that you took from Oracle University as demystifying. So tell me about some of the biggest takeaways for you. How did it shift your understanding of what AI really is and how it can be used?
Jeffrey: That's a great point. Um you know in the last two three years AI has just been the talk of the town and specifically in my role as an advisor to private equity companies, I'm constantly being asked how can AI impact the top line? How can AI the bottom line and help us realize the multiple or investment pieces to exit um our our different companies? My background whenever I look at a problem I need to understand the guts of it and at the time there was all of these myths and and and confusion and scared to be honest around AI. So coming from an engineering background at MIT, one of the things MIT taught me is I need to look under the covers to truly understand something from a technology standpoint. Do my due diligence before sharing best practices with my portfolio companies that I'm working with. So that made me take on this challenge to say hey I need to understand what's the difference between machine learning, deep learning. What are the different you know kind of you know neural networks out there? When do you want to use it? So the AI foundation training that Oracle was offering was compelling to me to the point that I had had great success on the OCI's piece I'm like let me take this on. So that's what really started my journey back in January of 2023 um this was just a few months after the release of ChatGPT and I really wanted to understand how AI can like skyrocket and help our companies you know drive drive value. So that's what made me take it on. I wanted to understand what's the difference between RNN you know recurrent neural networks convolutional um neural networks and what's the best business case that our companies can use? What's the best time to use a vector database? Why is it important? Why is it needed for AI solution? I wanted to be able to articulate the difference between a RAG and Agentic AI workflow to our companies so that's really was the impass of as to why I wanted to take on this piece and why I wanted to do uh the AI foundational training.
10:08
Lois: And your journey didn't stop with you and Kay, right? Your sons are both Oracle AI-certified as well as I understand it. So, tell me a little bit about that. What inspired them?
Jeffrey: So our poor boys um you know we have two boys you know both are in college uh you know and one full transparency is a computer science major at at Georgia Tech. The other one is doing a biology major at um Kennesaw State. In our household, we believe in technology and and we believe anyone can look at it. So, after getting a better understanding of AI and realizing AI is really going to impact every aspect of our our society and our industry, we said we should absolutely have our boys do this. Well, of course, with any kind of young kids, they're going to be hesitant. So um we we had to really incentivize them you know for you know for my for our youngest you know who was not you know been exposed to this technology, he was starting his new business and he wanted to learn and for our oldest being at Georgia Tech he was in that computer science major this was going to help him secure some summer internship. So what we did was to incentivize them we had to turn off the Wi-Fi and so the Wi-Fi could only be on if they were doing the certification and and full transparency after I would say a weekend and like 3 days they were able to complete the course and truly um pass and understand on a foundational level like what's the difference between RAG and Agents? What's the difference between you know RNN and CNN? What are neural networks and what's deep learning the machine learning? For my oldest, who was in computer science, it helped him secure a summer internship because he was able to talk about in a very clear way that he understood AI. And then he was also able to show his um his certification and that helped him to secure an internship with Oracle on the OCI team being a software developer. And to be honest, he's going into his third summer where he's going to be at Oracle um coming this next summer in 2026. So, it's been beneficial. I tell people like this is something that you should absolutely do and um we encourage our friends and we tell the story about our boys because it's it's personal. We show that anyone can do it.
12:35
Lois: That's that's an awesome story. And the whole family is AI certified. That's great. So, you mentioned that you've been sharing your experience with your friends and your colleagues and neighbors. What are some of the common misconceptions or fears that you encounter when you're talking about AI with people? How do you help them understand what it means for their careers and for their lives?
Jeffrey: Um, no, it's a great question. You know, a lot of people I talk to still think AI is either going to replace them or that it's too technical for them to ever understand.
Lois: Right.
Jeffrey: And the fear usually comes from not knowing where to start. Um, I tell them that AI is really just a tool and and and learning the basics helps you to see where it fits into your work life. And and once they understand that it's it's here to help, not to replace them, the conversation shifts and become, oh, okay, now how can I become more knowledgeable so I can be less fearful and identify opportunities? So really, I've been having conversation to say, look, it is not something that's here to replace you. It is a tool and it's a tool that really once you understand how you can use it at your job or in your school work or in where you volunteer, it can really drive automation and speed and allow you to do your job much better.
Lois: Yeah, that's so true. And the knowledge understanding is so powerful. It really does change people's perspective from being fearful to being excited about the possibilities with AI. 
14:13
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14:34
Lois: So tell me a little bit about uh how in your private equity work um I know you interact with a wide variety of clients. How does this knowledge about Oracle's AI uh technology and having the certification empower you to have conversations and build trust with your clients?
Jeffrey: The biggest value I've received from getting the Oracle AI certification is that it gives me clear and practical foundations for talking to people about what AI is and what it's not. Let's be honest, there's a lot of hype out there about AI and there's a lot of hype and fear that is unproven. You know, in in my work with private equity, clients want to know what's the real, what's possible, what's worth our investment. You know is this something that we should really look at. So when I can explain AI concepts, agentic workflow, you know, neural networks and one is important, you know, what neural networks are better for vision capabilities, what neural networks are better for audio capabilities, what neural networks are just better for for text. Right? When I can really go down to those simple terms and connect with them on the operating challenges that that companies is facing, then I have tangible case studies that I can help work with my companies on that will build credibility and this hype and fear kind of starts to subside and go away.
So with that, you know, when when when working with my private equity companies, I don't want to just do something just because it's the hype. We we really need to make sure that whatever we doing can drive growth and drive IBIDA growth so that we could realize our investment thesis. So this certification really helped me to just ground it in the ways that I could have real conversations with our companies about what are the activities that are going to drive growth, what are the activities that's going to be efficient, what are the activities that are going to have value creation for our company. and it's been something that you know has really been helpful.
So, another thing I wanted to share is Kay and I have been working with not only, you know, digging it to enterprises, but I want to take it to universities and we've been working with her mother's alma mater, Alabama State, which is a historically black college and university, to help them get on Oracle AI and then get their foundation going because we want to take this down to the college level and help to drive this and offer it. Through that interaction, they've reached out to the city of uh Montgomery and they want to work with the public schools to start getting the school system to start becoming AI foundation um certified and understand how AI can evolve in everything that you do. So, we've been working with them. We actually had a quick event here that Oracle did um at here in Atlanta and they were able to attend and see some of the application and we're hoping to just continue this. So it it's not something that I'm just talking to my private equity companies about. I'm also want to bring this into universities, bring this into the school because it's a fundamentally different way to solve problems and anyone can do it. You don't have to have a technical background. We're at a foundationally different level where anyone can start their AI journey.
18:05
Lois: Right. And we're just at the beginning of this transformation of the industry. It's a great way to teach the next generation how to be prepared so they can have uh you know great careers and leveraging AI. So, one of the things you've mentioned to me when we've talked in the past is that you boil down AI to two things, data and math, right? Not innovation itself but a tool. So can you elaborate a little bit on that?
Jeffrey: Yeah, it's one of the the things I like to say. I think if people talk to me and they say, you know, Jeff always boils it down. So, you know, when I look at it, generative AI foundation is based on the concept of machine learning and deep learning. 
Lois: Right.
Jeffrey: Um both concepts are based on linear algebra, calculus, probability, statistics, optimization theory. You know those are some of the the the foundation of both of those. LLMs use these foundations and data to generate content and execute tasks. So people's actions in system generate the data that these LLMs use and and math follows specific patterns such as Bayer's theorem, Pythagorean theorem. The innovation that comes from those because you have math in terms of the machine learning and you have data requires thinking out of the box and not following one of these pattern, which is only accomplished through people and our unique experience. So when I think of generative AI that's why I see it as a tool. You're always going to require human interaction to drive an outcome. 
Lois: Right.
Jeffrey: It it is a combination of math and data. Our unique experience of how we engage and how we look at a problem brings innovation to a challenge. So that's one of the things I always say it's I boils it down to it's math and data. Innovation comes from people. And the reason why it comes from people is we all have unique experiences, unique backgrounds. So we look at a problem differently in terms of how we solve it and that difference is what drives the innovation.
Lois: Right. And just leverages AI to do so.
Jeffrey: Correct.
20:20
Lois: So you've said that AI levels the playing field. What does that mean to you in practical terms and how have you seen it make an impact in your area of expertise?
Jeffrey: When I say level the playing ground, what I mean is there's a unique opportunity where this technology is impacting every industry that we know. Prior to this, you know, if there was a technology solution such as, let's look at the big ones, cloud, everyone moving to the cloud, it required you to have some knowledge of cloud technology. Big data it required you to have some knowledge of data solutions. AI is so transformational that you know if we look take a look at vibe coding that's out there. Your ability to think about a problem and break it down in a in a tangible way and build an app and leverage vibe coding where the LLM can actually do the hard work for you is transformational. It doesn't require you to have that knowledge to drive it. Now to take some and to and and that what what does that do? That allows you to quickly take a business idea from concept all the way to an MVP and then you can then move that into production and and and start making money on whatever that idea is.
Does that take you 100% away? No. You're still going to need someone to run it and all of that. But what what I love about it is a lot of individuals have many different ideas and many different concepts. You can now quickly materialize those into a technology solution without having to have a technology background because the hard work of executing that code can be handled by an LLM. That's just one example if we just talk about coding. If you look at other industries such as the legal industry that is doing a lot of stuff around um just looking at how can you quickly process documents and read those, it's really revolutional. So what what I mean by it being transformational, it enhances each industry differently. So therefore, it's not that you have to have a technology background. If you're willing to take it on and look at it as a tool, then we are all at the beginning stage. And to be honest, I'll go as far as saying, Lois, if you don't have a technical background, you're actually at an advantage because you don't have to unlearn some of the activities that you used to solve problem with. You actually can come up with new ways leveraging AI agentic workflow to solve those problems quicker. So that's why I really feel like we are at a level a level playing field and it's a transformational piece and I'm encouraging as many people to just start becoming familiar with the different tools that are out there. Get you yourself a ChatGPT account, start working with Anthropic Claude, get yourself a Gemini account, start working with their notebook LLMs to generate, you know, um, infographics. It's amazing. And that's the new thing that I'm playing with right now. Start using these tools because what's happening is as you understand them, your creativity is going to say, "Oh, I can now do this." Uh, mark my word. I think this is going to be one of the pivotal era that we look back and say, "If I had taken full advantage of AI when it came out, I would have started this many businesses." And I don't want people to have that regret. So that's why I think you know dismiss the fear. You do not have to have a technology background to start AI. You can do that now. You can take your business ideas from concept to MVP, sell it to investors to get an investment to take it to production, and hopefully make the winnings that you want with your ideas. So I'm I'm I'm super excited about where we are as a society because I think this is a huge opportunity.
Lois: Yeah, I agree with you. I think we're we're witnessing a transformation uh revolution in in so many different ways and the cross industry applications are just you know mind-blowing.
Jeffrey: Yeah.
24:36
Lois: So for somebody who might be intimidated about pursuing an AI or OCI certification you just mentioned how you would encourage them you know to get started anyway. What advice would you offer? How would you recommend that they get started?
Jeffrey: So first of all I would say go to Oracle University.
Lois: Thank you.
Jeffrey: You know I check out their courses. You know the thing that I would say that I like about um the courses there is it's self-paced. It's easily easy to absorb and then it goes deep into whatever topic you want. So, it starts off very high level to give you the background of what you need, but it goes really deep if there's something that you want to go in on. That's that's the first thing. The other piece that I love about it is the courses not only just have talking points, but they have hands-on labs that you can actually put to action the content that you just learned. So one of those hands-on lab with the lab is based on Oracle Live Labs and a little plug for my wife. Oracle Live Labs was created by Kay. I remember when she was here at home building this almost three four five years ago and it's amazing to see the coursework that they have. They have so many different hands-on labs that they can do. So, I would say because of the combination of this great structured content, the ability to then have the hands-on lab through Live Lab that you can then put into action the things that you you you've learned, then it's a quick and tangible way to just receive content and actually test it out. And, you know, to watch Live Labs grow, to see where it is. I'm just I'm I'm excited for her. I'm proud. I know it's one of her her passion. She always says it's it's her her gift to developers is Live Labs because as an engineer myself I can't just hear something and learn it. I have to put it to action. So I think that combination of Oracle University having the content and then having mechanisms like Live Lab to do hands-on is why people should go there and start and then some of the courses you guys have they're free.
Lois: Absolutely.
Jeffrey: I wouldn't do that. So if they're free, like let me go ahead and start it now and then as I go up, you know, even if there's a charge, like there's a benefit. So you guys have offered such a low entry um um hurdle to start that I don't see why you wouldn't just start there.
Lois: And all of our OCI training is free as well as the foundations associate certification. So you're right, there's there's no barrier to entry for sure.
Jeffrey: Mhm.
27:13
Lois: Well, Jeffrey, I want to thank you so much for sharing your journey with me today. Your enthusiasm, your experience, and your expertise has just really been inspiring and um I've just been really happy to hear about how this has not only impacted your career, but also your outlook on the industry and um influence the people around you. So, thank you again. I really appreciate it.
Jeffrey: Anytime. I'm excited that I was able to share my journey and I hope everyone, you know, starts their own. So excited. Thank you.
Lois: Thank you.
27:54
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