Machine Learning and Spatial for FREE with the Oracle Database

Last week at UKOUG Techfest19 I spoke a lot about Machine Learning both with Oracle Analytics Cloud and more in depth in the Database with Oracle Machine Learning together with Charlie Berger, Oracle Senior Director of Product Management.

As mentioned several times in my previous blog posts, Oracle Analytics Cloud provides a set of tools helping Data Analysts start their path to Data Science. If, on the other hand, we're dealing with experienced Data Scientists and huge datasets, Oracle's proposal is to move Machine Learning where the data resides with Oracle Machine Learning. OML is an ecosystem of various options to perform ML with dedicated integration with Oracle Databases or Big Data appliances.

One of the most known branches is OML4SQL which provides the ability of doing proper data science directly in the database with PL/SQL calls! During the UKOUG TechFest19 talk Charlie Berger demoed it using a collaborative Notebook on top of an Autonomous Data Warehouse Cloud.

Both Oracle ADW and ATP include OML by default at no extra cost. This wasn't true for all the other database offerings in cloud or on-premises which required an additional option to be purchased (the Advanced Analytics one for on-premises deals). The separate license requirement was obviously something that limited the spread of this functionality, but, I'm happy to say that it's going away!

Oracle's blog post yesterday announced that:

As of December 5, 2019, the Machine Learning (formerly known as Advanced Analytics), Spatial and Graph features of Oracle Database may be used for development and deployment purposes with all on-prem editions and Oracle Cloud Database Services. See the Oracle Database Licensing Information Manual (pdf) for more details.

What this means is that both features are included for FREE within the Oracle Database License! Great news for both Machine Learning as well as Graph Databases fans! The following tweet from Dominic Giles (Master Product Manager for the Oracle DB) provides a nice summary of the licenses including the two options for the Oracle DB 19c.

The #Oracle Database now has some previously charged options added to the core functionality of both Enterprise Edition and Standard Edition 2. Details in the 19c licensing guide with more information to follow. pic.twitter.com/dqkRRQvWq2
— dominic_giles (@dominic_giles) December 5, 2019

But hey, this license change effects also older versions starting from the 12.2, the older one still in general support! So, no more excuses, perform Machine Learning where your data is: in the database with Oracle Machine Learning!