What is our primary use case?
We are solutions implementors. My first project was an e-commerce platform and mobile application for clients where clients could check credit cards and their status. It's information about the last products purchased. We used the Oracle Cloud Platform for this.
How has it helped my organization?
Since implementing the solution, our service times are much better. We have noticed the better implementation of services with the Oracle Service Bus. There has been an overall reduction of complexity in regards to services.
What is most valuable?
The database is the solution's most valuable aspect.
We appreciate the solution's computing capabilities. It has good Meter Machines. There are good expansions as well.
The database by far is one of the best databases we are using. It has resolved many problems. It's more complete in comparison to all the other databases.
The interface has been renewed and it offers a very good user experience.
The pricing of the solution is pretty good.
What needs improvement?
The marketplace could be improved very much. There are some competing clouds that have marketplaces with solutions that within a few weeks have a total ecosystem running, and that is where Oracle is very limited.
I work with many clouds and I would say, in comparison, others have a better presentation of services and they have clearer steps in terms of implementation. Oracle could be more clear in the presentation of the hierarchies of services. The configuration for a canvas needs to be very clear. Right now, it's not as good as it could be.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been working with the solution for about three years at this point. It's been a while.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have a very good impression of the solution's stability. There aren't bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's very good overall.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability seems to be very good. There seem to be many ways you can automatically scale if you need to. If a company would like to expand this solution, they can do so. However, the scaling process could be a bit more clear.
We have many clients and their sizes vary. One of my clients is a retailer and it has about 2000 employees. They have many physical stores and have e-commerce where they have been using Oracle Platform.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is very good. We have an engineer assigned to our account and they are a very fluent communicator and have been very fast at resolving problems normally.
We have so far been satisfied with their level of service.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup isn't overly complex. The only complexity was in understanding the way that the user gains access to the services. In other Cloud services, like Amazon, you have a URL that directly allows the user to go to a service. In Oracle, you have to know specific URLs, and there are too many steps to get right to your services. In that sense, it's not as straightforward. They could definitely make the process easier.
In our case, deployment took about two months or so.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The model is basically if you aren't using the solution you won't have to pay. We can turn off the machines if we don't need them and we won't keep incurring bills.
The solution seems to offer pretty competitive pricing. We haven't found it overly expensive. It's very competitive in comparison to other options.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did look at Amazon among other solutions. The decision was basically made after a series of negotiations.
What other advice do I have?
It's one of the best databases in the market. We've found it to be very stable in the new versions. You can plug it into other services easily. As a database solution, it's been very good and you can implement it very quickly.
Overall, I would rate the product at a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Implementer