The cloud announcement this week was a non-event except for Mark Hurd rolling out Platinum Service Support. After reading through the accompanying support policies I have to admit that Oracle is doing a good thing with Platinum.
I used to sell remote DBA services, so allow me to formally recommend Platinum based on what seems to be excellent response times and quick access to engineering when software really hits the fan. It’s free for anyone willing to plop down the cash for an Exa-branded machine and continue paying for Premium Support. And anyone spending that kind of money should be rewarded with free remote monitoring directly from Oracle.
The offering stops short of being your-mess-for-less. A good DBA still needs to be on the payroll to work with Oracle to resolve issues. The policy dictates that this person speaks English and responds to emails when Oracle finds a problem. Additionally, you’ll need a separate box that Oracle installs monitoring software on and connects to via VPN.
My question is whether Oracle would be offering such a service (especially for free) if Exadata boxes were selling like hotcakes. Doubtful. But for those buying Exa-gear, Platinum seems to be a no-brainer.
