Amazon replaced Oracle DBMS with own software in all fulfilment centers

2019

All consumer division of Amazon replaced Oracle DBMS with AWS

On October 15, 2019 Amazon announced completion of transfer process of consumer division (is responsible for products Amazon Prime, Alexa and Kindle) on use DBMS Amazon Web Services instead of the software Oracle.

According to the CRN edition with reference to the chief evangelist of AWS Jeff Barr, at the final stage of migration of Amazon transferred nearly 7.5 thousand databases with a capacity of 75 PBytes to the services. More than 100 commands were involved in this project.

According to Barre, updating of program infrastructure in consumer business happened almost without idle times in work. Thanks to transition to AWS DBMS of the company it was succeeded to cut down expenses on 60%, and data deferences in applications decreased by 40%.

Announced Amazon completion of transfer process of consumer division (is responsible for the products Amazon Prime, Alexa and Kindle) on use of Amazon Web Services DBMS instead of the software of Oracle

Besides, in own DBMS it became simpler to scale advertizing data on what earlier several months left. At the same time fight against fraud with user data remained same effective or it is better at cost reduction half, he added.

In 17 years of work in Amazon I saw that my teammates of developers never intend to calm down. For these years we understood that we spend too much time for management and scaling of thousands of outdated Oracle databases — emphasized Barrel.

The analyst of Pund-IT Charles King pays attention that Amazon did not publish information on that, what is the time and money left on this migration. According to him, expenses had to be essential what other companies deliberating a similar step should remember.

Amazon says that the company still should use some Oracle DBMS.

Some third-party applications are closely connected with Oracle and not transferred — specified Barrel.

Amazon is going to refuse completely Oracle DBMS by 2020. The online retailer released a slide which entitled as "Farewell, Oracle".^[1]

Transfer of the fulfillment-centers on software of Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL and DynamoDB

At the end of March, 2019 announced Amazon transfer of all the fulfillment-centers on own DBMS which succeeded Oracle Database. The software was updated in places where the goods are stored, orders from online store where they form, packed and go to the delivery service arrive.

On March 29, 2019 the senior lead engineer of Amazon John Darrou (John Darrow) published the video in which the last seconds of process of migration of the fulfillment-centers of the company on the solutions Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL and DynamoDB are imprinted formally on the Twitter blog.

The technical director of Amazon Verner Vogel (Werner Vogels) on the page on Twitter congratulated the Amazon Fulfillment command on the beginning of use only of Amazon Web Services (AWS) services and called "in the best afternoon" in 2018 that November day when the company replaced Oracle data warehouse with the system.

The Internet giant continues to refuse software of Oracle, but by the beginning of April, 2019 it is unknown how many systems of retail business of Amazon needed to be transferred to corporate to software.

Process of migration is followed by periodic statements of heads of Amazon and Oracle which note advantages of corporate products and shortcomings of competing. For example, in Oracle said that thanks to opportunities of machine learning the autonomous Oracle database of Autonomous NoSQL Database is 70% cheaper than Amazon DynamoDB and provides much higher reliability of the NoSQL database with availability of 99.95%.

All centers of order processing Amazon passed from Oracle DBMS to own software of Amazon

The founder of Oracle Larry Ellison said that in the second quarter 2018 financial year of Amazon Oracle paid about $50 million for use of technologies. It repeatedly called into question capability of Amazon completely to refuse products of Oracle.^[2]

2018

Amazon was going to refuse completely Oracle DBMS in 2019

At the end of November, 2018 the head of Amazon Web Services (AWS)  Andy Jassy told about terms during which the Amazon company is going to refuse completely Oracle DBMS for benefit of own solution.

We almost completed transition from Oracle DBMS. And I think that by the end or the middle of 2019 we will make it completely — Jesse said in an interview to CNBC TV channel.

According to him, by January, 2018 about 88% of databases of Amazon will be controlled Amazon DynamoDB or Amazon Aurora. Besides, these solutions will be used in 97% "crucial databases" until the end of 2018. At the beginning of November Andy Jesse said that she replaced with Amazon Oracle data warehouse with own Redshift system.

Andy Jesse

According to the founder of Oracle Larry Ellison, the semiautonomous AWS database cannot be compared to the autonomous Oracle database in any way.

As well as when using the semiautonomous car, you sit down, start the engine and … break. – And meanwhile, Oracle Autonomous Database it is really autonomous. And here already nobody is going to die — he reported at the annual Oracle OpenWorld conference in October, 2018.

Migration from software of Oracle on own in Amazon proceeds slowly as the company should throw large volumes of data on the new systems. In addition to Amazon, also SAP tries to separate from Oracle. The German vendor purchased several companies working with products of Oracle and also transfers "daughters" to the software.

In October, 2018 Larry Ellison noted that SAP leaves from Oracle 10 years. Also he publicly dropped more than once a hint of doubt that Amazon will be able to refuse programs of Oracle. Besides, Ellison considers that the Aurora system created by Amazon is the renamed version of MySQL, and the same concerns Redshift.

Passed Amazon from Oracle DBMS to the and regretted

In October, 2018 it became known of problems which faced Amazon after failure from Oracle DBMS for benefit of own solution — Aurora PostgreSQL.

In day of mass sales on Amazon (so-called Prime Day) which in 2018 fell on July 16 the online retailer endured serious failure in work of the website because of what users could not make purchases normally. Besides, there were technical issues in one of the largest centers on order processing Amazon in Ohio (USA), they led to a delay of deliveries of several thousand ordered goods. The CNBC TV channel knew of it from an internal 25-page report which was made by IT specialists of Amazon as an explanation of the reasons of malfunctions.

The solution of Amazon to pass from the Oracle database to own Aurora PostgreSQL DBMS led to the fact that many thousands of purchases were delivered with a delay

The question of why there was no failure during operation with software of Oracle and on what the following answer was given was asked programmers: "Oracle and Aurora PostgreSQL — two different technologies which differently work with save points".

Such save points providing information on a current status of a system are in DBMS important tools for monitoring and recovery of separate transactions. In Prime Day too many save points were created, and the Amazon Aurora system could not cope with such loading that led to the general decline in production of DBMS, the report says.

It is quite possible that failure would not be if remained Amazon on Oracle — professor of computer sciences in Illinois State University Matt Caesar says. — Besides, it seems that they could diagnose quicker problems if used Oracle DBMS that would probably reduce idle time duration.

The representative of Amazon told CNBC that no failure existed though in the internal document it is said that "deterioration in operability of the database led to delays and blackout".

Also follows from the report that because of technical fault more than 15  thousand  purchases made in Prime Day  were not delivered in time, and  the unjustified labor costs generated by it made  about $90 thousand. These expenses do not include the hours spent by software engineers for elimination of errors and also potentially lost sales.

According to IT specialists of Amazon, the software of Oracle could cope more effectively with load of online store in peak hours.

It is noted that effects of failure could be less serious if by Amazon it was more prepared. In one of document fragments the company says that "a lot of time to minimize a problem due to the lack of the plan of response to a case when the PostgreSQL database has problems with performance was required".

The senior analyst of Moor Insights & Strategy Patrick Moorhead says that an incident shows that, it is how difficult in old IT systems, like those which are used in the centers of order processing Amazon, to refuse Oracle which works decades with the world's largest companies.

AWS Aurora is intended for the progressive systems, and Oracle — for older — the expert considers.[3]

The general manager of the large supplier of cloud solutions cooperating both  with  Oracle, and  with  AWS, in a conversation with the CRN edition stood up for  Aurora PostgreSQL, having called the platform the ready corporate offer. At the same time the interlocutor   nevertheless agreed that  it is really difficult to pass with Oracle for any company. "Migration with  Oracle  — it is difficult"  —  he noted.

Amazon wants to refuse software of Oracle. Larry Ellison says that it is impossible

On August 7, 2018 the cofounder of Oracle Larry Ellison commented on rumors about plans of Amazon to refuse use of the software of Oracle. According to the businessman, Amazon will hardly be able to make it as earlier it did not turn out neither at the company, nor competitors have Oracle.

They have a purpose to depart [from use of products of Oracle — a comment of TAdviser] by 2020. SAP could not make it. At Salesforce.com it did not turn out too. I do not think that they will be able to make by [Amazon] it. Anyway we will look — Ellison at a conference of Oracle said.

At the beginning of August, 2018 the CNBC TV channel with reference to the informants announced that Amazon she intends completely to cease to use the database management system (DMS) of Oracle to the first quarter 2020. According to one of sources, Amazon began to undertake measures for withdrawal from products of Oracle five years before, and in the 2018th the company is close to completion of this process.

Amazon cannot refuse many years software of Oracle and now it will be heavy to it to make it — Larry Ellison

The main claims of Amazon to Oracle DBMS consist in inability of systems to be scaled according to volumes of business of Internet giant. Besides, solutions of Oracle which are implemented in Amazon do not show technology development long ago, interlocutors of CNBC noted.

According to Larry Ellison, the software of Oracle exceeds products of Amazon — service  of relational databases  Aurora and the platform for Redshift data storage. Any DBMS cannot brag of such usability which Oracle has, he said.

They think that they are competitors therefore it is a shame to them to be recognized that Amazon uses Oracle. But they want that you used Aurora and Redshift. They had 10 years to refuse software of Oracle, but all of them still use Oracle. It will be hard for them to apply own technologies. It will not be profitable. I mean that to them it will be really very difficult — Ellison considers.[4]

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