Announcement
In case you missed it, yesterday 2nd May 2024 at 5pm (GMT) Larry Ellison and Juan Loaiza announced Oracle Database 23ai under the banner of “AI + Converged Data: Oracle’s Strategy for Data Management”. You can see the announcement here:
AI and Converged Data: Oracle’s Strategy for Data Management – YouTube
I was conveniently at the UKOUG Technology Strategy Day (LinkedIn post here), where Scott Hays, Steve Ramsay, Dominic Giles and Killian Lynch plus others were. They all alluded to big announcement that evening but for obvious reasons couldn’t share the details. But in the leading hours, I had seen posts on social media with the “23ai” name, which lead me to believe the rename was going to be part of the announcement Post 5pm, was able to speak freely with Dom and Kilian and it totally makes sense, we’re in the era of AI, it’s the latest buzz word, we were due a letter change for some while now! Oracle’s slogan is “Bring #AI algorithms to where your data lives with Oracle Database 23ai”.
Versions over the eras
8i and 9i were for the era of internet, 10g and 11g for the era of grid, and finally 12c, 18c, 19c, 21c and 23c (up to 23.3) for era of cloud. 23ai is actually from 23.4 onwards and the release that will be the mainstream General Available (GA) release.
What’s New
There so much that new, which Oracle have broken down into 3 areas, see below:
AI for Data
- Oracle AI Vector Search
- Oracle Exadata System Software 24ai
- OCI GoldenGate 23ai
Accelerating App Development
- JSON Relational Unification
- Graph Relational Unification
- Free Developer Databases
Mission-Critical Data
- Oracle Globally Distributed Database with RAFT
- Oracle True Cache
- In-Database SQL Firewall
More details of each feature is available here.
Support
Oracle Database 19c as of writing has Extended Support (waived) is till 30th April 2026, so customers have 2 years to move from 19c to 23ai. Latest dates can be found here:
Release Schedule of Current Database Releases (Doc ID 742060.1)
Availability
Oracle Database 23ai is only available on Oracle Exadata Cloud@Customer, OCI Exadata Database Service, OCI Base Database Service and Azure Oracle Database Service. It also available on Always Free Autonomous Database as well for download in the Autonomous Database 23ai Container Image and Oracle Database 23ai Free. For the rest we have to wait for GA which I suspect is very imminent, weeks not months.
Where to get more info
- Oracle’s Announcement video: AI and Converged Data: Oracle’s Strategy for Data Management – YouTube
- Oracle’s Press Release: Oracle Database 23ai Brings the Power of AI to Enterprise Data and Applications
- Dom Giles Blog Post: Announcing Oracle Database 23ai : General Availability
- Dom Giles and Killian Lynch Blog Post: Oracle Database 23ai : Where to find information
- Oracle Database FAQ: Database FAQ
If you found this blog post useful, please like as well as follow me through my various Social Media avenues available on the sidebar and/or subscribe to this oracle blog via WordPress/e-mail.
Thanks
Zed DBA (Zahid Anwar)