Delphix is amazing technology. I’ve been at Delphix for almost 4 years. The first year I was at Delphix was the first year Delphix was released on the market. Even from that first release Delphix revolutionized how we managed and think about data. Data goes from an onerous massive burden to instead a fast, easy, powerful resource. As one customer put it data goes from being your enemy to being your friend (and a powerful one at that).
The first production version of Delphix, released in 2010, was version 2. Version 2 virtualized Oracle databases. What does virtualizing a database mean? It means that Delphix can provision copies of Oracle databases in minutes for almost no storage overhead to any where on your network by using NFS or iSCSI and by sharing the duplicate blocks across all the copies. More than that, Delphix collects and tracks all the changes from a source database so that clone copies can be provisioned from different points in time. The time window that clones can be made is 2 weeks by default but can be configured to be 2 months or 2 years. Data older than this time window is purged automatically. All the different clones can co-exist concurrently and independently meaning they can be created and drop, they can modify data, drop tables, etc without affecting each other.
Version 3 was released in 2012 and introduce database virtualization not only for Oracle but also MS SQL Server.
Now version 4 , released n 2014, takes data virtualization beyond just databases by adding virtualization of the application stack. The application stack became the provisioning bottleneck for our customers after we had eliminated the bottleneck on provisioning the database clone copies. Delphix has gone from a database virtualization company to a data virtualization company. The Delphix appliance has now become know an Agile Data Appliance (ADP).
The core new features of Delphix version 4 are
Application stack virtualization
Postgres database virtualization
Cross platform provisioning for Oracle (Unix to Linux conversion)
Powerful performance analytics monitor and dashboard
Customized optimized network performance layer including compression options
Application Stack Virtualization
Application stack data virtualization pales in comparison to the complexity of virtualizing the data in databases. At it’s simplest, application stack virtualization would simply present a set of application files, for example it could be an ORACLE_HOME directory with all it’s binaries. On the other hand, for applications stacks like financials, provisioning copies of an application stack a require significant modifications for each new copy. As part of the Delphix 4.0 version, we have provided an Oracle EBS application stack virtualization module that manages and drives the custom modifications required for provisioning copies of an Oracle EBS application stack. Look forward to more custom modules coming from Delphix for other application stacks like Peoplesoft and SAP and also look forward to future integration with tools such as Puppet and Chef.
Postgres virtualization
Along with the support for virtualization Oracle and MS SQL Server, PostgreSQL has also been added to the stack, including support for EnterpriseDB Postgres Plus Advanced Server. Future versions of Delphix will continue to expand the reach of virtualization. Sybase support is currently in limited beta release.
Cross platform provisioning for Oracle
One of the most exciting, super wow geek factor features of Delphix 4.0 is the cross platform provisioning functionality. Cross platform provisioning allows a database whose source is on a version of UNIX (such as HP/UX, AIX or Solaris Sparc) to be provisioned onto a Linux platform. This kind of feature is the kind of feature that gives an inkling to the strength and knowledge of the engineers at Delphix. The Delphix engineers have figured out how to make the changes in endianness such that the Linux version of the database only takes approximately an additional 1% more storage to save the Linux version of the database along with the UNIX version of the database. Look forward to the next blog post for more information about cross platform provisioning.
Analytics monitor
I’m a performance data and graphical interface junky so I’m super excited about the powerful new performance monitoring and analytics UI releasing with Delphix 4.0. Look forward to a blog post in the next few days on this feature.
Customized Network Communication Layer
Delphix 4.0 introduces a customized network communication layer for certain operations, called Delphix Session Protocal (DSP). Delphix Re-architected SnapSync and Oracle V2P (virtual to physical provisioning) to function over the Delphix Session Protocol which, among other things, has built-in compression, security and resiliency to temporary network outages, while improving the performance of each of these services.
For more info see
Market Wired : Delphix Releases Product Addressing $50 Billion Data Center Modernization Market
Database Trends and Applications : Delphix Overcomes Data Center Modernization Challenges
Silicon Angle: Delphix comes out with a “magic pill” for data center modernization
Delphix : Modernization Engine in Delphix 4.0
Delphix Blogs : Introducing Delphix Engine 4.0
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