Google wants to takes a byte out of Oracle workloads with PostgreSQL migration service

Google is looking to seizure immoderate of Oracle's workloads by promising to thief users migrate from Big Red's databases to PostgreSQL pinch a group of services and automation tools.

Specifically, nan Chocolate Factory wants to return users from Oracle databases to its managed PostgreSQL-compatible database service, AlloyDB. Among a slew of announcements astatine Google's Cloud Next arena successful San Francisco – which included generative AI, TPUs, GPUs, and Kubernetes – was nan committedness it could velocity up Oracle migrations.

On a telephone past week, Andi Gutmans, veep and wide head for databases astatine Google Cloud, said: "Customers are looking to modernize disconnected their bequest databases for illustration Oracle and SQL Server, and they want to clasp much modern unfastened technologies arsenic portion of their invention roadmaps."

Google has launched nan wide readiness of its database migration work for Oracle to PostgreSQL, which committedness a "much easier migration way for customers who want to modernize," Gutmans said.

Google besides announced nan preview of Duet AI successful Database Migration Service, which proposes to co-opt its generative AI chatbot to "help pinch that past mile of codification conversion, wherever each nan accepted methods failed," he said.

Gutmans said Chicago Mercantile Exchange, nan world derivatives marketplace, is looking to AlloyDB for its astir demanding endeavor workloads and is successful nan process of migrating respective databases from Oracle.

According to this blog post, nan preview of nan AI-assisted migration will "automate nan conversion of Oracle database codification specified arsenic stored procedures, functions, triggers, packages and civilization PL/SQL code, that could not beryllium converted pinch accepted translator technologies."

Prompted by The Register to elaborate, a Google spokesperson said 1 of nan biggest challenges successful migrating from Oracle to PostgreSQL/AlloyDB is reproducing nan underlying PL/SQL code, nan procedural connection Oracle uses to clasp SQL statements wrong its syntax.

"Oracle PL/SQL is really blase and customers person built ample analyzable applications based connected this dialect for a agelong time. First of all, translating this PL/SQL to guarantee syntactic correctness is comparatively easier arsenic compared to semantic conversion. In Database Migration Service, schema and codification conversion are integrated truthful users person 1 spot to go.

"With Duet AI assist, location are pre-trained models that are utilized for codification conversion. We do not train our models pinch customer data. Duet AI helps nan past mile conversion based connected fewer manual edits. These edits are recorded and utilized to train nan models to thief pinch recommendations and automation.

"For example, SYSDATE from Oracle does not person an balanced successful PostgreSQL. With Duet AI powered codification conversion, erstwhile nan personification manually adjusts nan SQL, nan proposal is recorded and tin beryllium replayed and applied to different scenarios. All nan personification actions astir codification edits are recorded and utilized to refine nan LLM, which is past utilized to supply early proposal and search/replace capabilities. Users tin move immoderate PL/SQL applications that trust heavy connected stored procedures, functions and triggers."

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Google has besides produced AlloyDB AI, a PostgreSQL-compatible database work to thief harvester LLMs pinch their real-time operational information by supporting vector embeddings. Other database providers including MongoDB, DataStax's Cassandra database work Astra, and unfastened root PostgreSQL (via Pgvector) already support vector embeddings, while others advocator utilizing a master vector database specified arsenic Pinecone.

Meanwhile, Google has moved AlloyDB Omni to nationalist preview, offering nan database on-prem and successful rival unreality infrastructure including AWS and Azure, aliases "even connected developer laptops."

Doug Henschen, vice president and main expert pinch Constellation Research, said AlloyDB should beryllium taken arsenic full arsenic it was "crucial for Google Cloud to summation traction pinch this database service, which is Google Cloud's replacement to Oracle and thing they request to summation nan aforesaid benignant of customer traction that AWS has seen pinch Aurora."

However, he was much skeptical astir nan migration service. "Any and each database migration capabilities and services are surely adjuvant and welcome, but Oracle Database tends to beryllium beautiful sticky and surely tightly woven into immoderate and each Oracle exertion deployments. Google Cloud really has to instrumentality to this activity and dream for customers to move third-party (non-Oracle) app deployments, caller app deployments, and next-generation civilization applications onto Google Cloud pinch AlloyDB. Heavily customized bequest endeavor app deployments and, particularly, Oracle apps, are apt to support moving connected Oracle Database."

Google is not unsocial successful trying to snipe Oracle workloads. In May, EDB launched a alleged "risk free" Oracle migration service successful which customers signing a two-year statement to tally a 64-core lawsuit of PostgreSQL would not commencement paying until nan caller strategy is up and moving and has been tested. ®