TriCore Unveils Oracle Application Development Cloud Services Powered by Actifio

There is a not so secret challenge that IT professionals face that doesn’t get the headlines but is a substantial headache nonetheless. The challenge is what to do about the duplication of software across enterprises—we are talking huge files here—and the need to speed up agile database development by giving DevOps much faster access to copies.

The answer to the solution is that the way to do this is through one of the last frontiers of virtualization, and that is the virtualization of copies. This is precisely what application management solutions providers TriCore Solutions announced at Oracle OpenWorld with the expansion of its Actifio-powered service portfolio to include a new cloud-based agile database development solution for enterprises built on an Oracle platform.

For Oracle platform customers involved with transforming hyperscale data centers this already has gotten their attention.  In fact, the solution has been benchmarked to deliver developer-ready clones of multi-terabyte Oracle databases in minutes vs. hours with the previous process.

I stopped by the Actifio booth and had Brylan Achilles, vp solutions architecture explain the value of copy data virtualization.  As he noted, “Not that long ago when VMWare first came on the scene people were wondering why they needed workstation and server virtualization.  Now people would wonder about why you haven’t.  We are doing the same thing with copying the data.”

For those unfamiliar, as Actifio explains its capabilities, its patented Actifio Virtual Data Pipeline™ technology decouples data from infrastructure, enabling dramatic improvements in business resiliency, agility, and access to the cloud. It replaces siloed data management products with a radically simple, application-centric, SLA-driven approach that lets customers capture data from production applications, manage it more economically, and use it how, when and where they need to. It is how in an Oracle agile development environment things that took hours take minutes.

For its part, Mark Clayman, chief operating officer, TriCore in unveiling the new capabilities said: “Our use of Actifio’s copy data virtualization platform allows TriCore to provide our customers with faster database provisioning, remote back-ups, as well as enhanced features and functionality for more agile development…By providing our users with services that can provide a significant competitive advantage, such as cloud-based app dev/test we will deliver meaningful business results for our customers.”

Put simply, the new service provides Oracle developers a solution that provides better code quality with less re-work. They can now create an agile environment much more quickly for test and dev, allowing them to make a copy of a database and access copies, as has been noted above, in seconds vs. hours.

 This new Oracle Database Copy Provisioning-as-a-Service offers the following features:

• Full Point-In-Time Copies Managed by SLA
• Workflows Enable Scheduled, Automated Data Management
• Push-Button Masking for Secure Application Development
• Full Stack Application Management and Provisioning
• LogSmartTM Automated Log Rolling for Instant PiT Provisioning

The companies were also quick to point out their partnership helps clients get moving faster with a number of tools including: application-centric data capture from production, SLA-Based data management, inherent data protection, efficient storage optimization, improved DBA productivity, and network optimization.

What is going to make C-levels appreciate this is that it will enable enterprises get their apps into the market much faster. The reasons cited are that: database copies are delivered in native/useful format; DBA's can incorporate data masking for compliance; and applications can be easily migrated between dev/test/uat/pre-production.

“Our goal is to truly enable our partners and customers to deliver strong business results catered to their IT needs,” said Ash Ashutosh, Founder and CEO, Actifio. “With this new agile environment service, TriCore customers can take advantage of Actifio’s wide-range of data management capabilities and enjoy significantly faster Oracle Database provisioning, in turn helping them get to market faster.”

As Actifio’a Achilles explained, “Every IT shop has the problem of managing copies on a variety of fronts, and while it does not make headlines, it is a significant expense and an obstacle for creating both operational efficiencies and it slows down getting new applications into the market quickly. Copy database virtualization really can speed things up and not in an incremental way as well as enable quality improvement in the process.” 

Oracle OpenWorld has certainly been cloud and virtualization-centric, and this new capability is illustrative of how in what I constantly refer to as “The Age of Acceleration”—where the only constants are change and the speed at which it is increasing—giving those agile database developers and testers the ability to drive a formula one race car instead of a pre-owned four cylinder (pick your brand) is not a bad way to go.  

Edited by Maurice Nagle