NetSuite announced it is further deepening its use of Oracle's technology infrastructure by migrating data to the Oracle Autonomous Database. Touted as a "self-driving" database, it maintains itself through AI, automatically doing things like fine-tuning itself, backing up its data, and patching itself with no downtime. In addition, it offers enhanced cybersecurity capabilities such as always-on threat detection and end-to-end encryption, as well as optimized application performance.
"Oracle Autonomous Database and OCI continue to set the standard in this the new era of AI-powered business," said Evan Goldberg, founder and executive vice president of Oracle NetSuite. "As NetSuite incorporates the full power of Oracle's industry-leading cloud services, organizations of all sizes gain access to the same technology and innovations that leading AI and Fortune 500 organizations rely on to build, optimize and grow their businesses."
For NetSuite itself, migration will also improve product development and enable further building of AI throughout the suite, according to Brian Chess, Netsuite Oracle's senior vice president of technology and AI. Much of this comes from not having to worry about NetSuite's own infrastructure since it's using Oracle's. Chess said this is the latest step in NetSuite's increasing integration with the larger Oracle cloud infrastructure. (Oracle acquired NetSuite in 2016.) Five years ago, Chess said he spent a lot of time going over bills and materials to buy servers, considering the best motherboard for running a database, wondering how much memory to put in the next generation and more.
"Then we moved to [Oracle Cloud Infrastructure], and I'm not thinking of motherboards and chassis and space in racks," he added. "All that stuff goes away. But I am really concerned about when the next patch comes out, what is the best configuration for that workload? So, Autonomous Database says, 'Hey, Brian, you don't need to do that stuff anymore. We'll take care of it. We'll understand your workflow. We see your schedule. We can take care of all the patching and cut things if we see a problem.' So it gives us more time to do what our customers want us to do. No customer ever thanked me for patching their database, and I'm OK with that, but it took a lot of effort to get it right, and now we saw that [process] is ready for the robots."
Moving to this database also means users have access to Oracle's foundational AI models, which they can then use to make their own applications for a wide variety of functions like summarizing data, customizing NetSuite, or developing apps. For example, one Oracle customer at a retail business built a sentiment analysis bot that would scour reviews and provide information about what customers were saying about the product, aided by specific keyword searches set in a separate chat component.
The move also means customers will also have access to the Oracle Analytics Cloud, which powers the NetSuite Analytics Warehouse; the Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse, a complete platform based on the Autonomous Database that scales elastically; Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management, a solution with functionality across financial and operational planning, master data management, consolidation and close; the Oracle Business Network, an open community of Oracle customers; and Oracle Integration Cloud, which provides integration services to connect applications and data sources that automate end to end processes and centralize integration management.
NetSuite's deeper integration into the larger Oracle cloud infrastructure means it can benefit from companies that partner with Oracle.
"Oracle has established itself as one of the leaders in AI infrastructure," said Chess. "For example, it has a strong partnership with Nvidia. So, I can spend time putting AI to work instead of wondering where I will get more [graphics processing units]."
