Preparing for Oracle 26ai

This episode of the Pure Report podcast, features…

An episode of the The Pure Report podcast, hosted by Pure Storage, titled "Preparing for Oracle 26ai" was published on March 25, 2026 and runs 43 minutes.

March 25, 2026 ·43m · The Pure Report

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Summary

This episode of the Pure Report podcast, features Solutions Director Andrew Sillifant where we dive into the implications of Oracle 26ai, focusing on what enterprises must do to prepare for this major long-term support release. Our discussion positions Oracle as part of the database industrial complex, noting its enduring dominance alongside Microsoft SQL Server, together accounting for over 50% of the enterprise market. Oracle 26ai is presented as the latest phase in the database lifecycle—following G for Grid and C for Cloud—which capitalizes on the momentum of artificial intelligence by repositioning the database as a full system. The new version embeds AI vector store capabilities and machine learning models, allowing organizations to combine structured data from legacy systems with unstructured data (like S3 tables) for better context awareness. Our conversation shifts to a look at the complexity and risk of database upgrades, which extends far beyond the DBA team to considerations around capacity planning, application integration, and platform choices. Andrew notes that while Oracle is mature and its upgrade cycle is well-known, infrastructure modernization, including decisions on virtualization and containers, is now taking precedence due to many economic and regulatory forces. The addition of new capabilities in 26ai —including OLTP, analytics, and vector data types means increased storage consumption and introduces new workload patterns that stress the compute layer. Enterprises face decision paralysis when considering the cost and multifaceted nature of these changes, making a simplified, reliable infrastructure foundation critical. We close with a look at how the Everpure platform is an essential risk reduction element in the upgrade process, simplifying the storage layer so it reduces complexity in the upgrade process. Key benefits discussed include de-risking capacity bloat through metadata-only snapshots for development, test, and QA copies, and offering extremely fast recovery speeds, with examples citing a two-node Oracle RAC database restore at 68 terabytes per hour. Non-disruptive risk reduction (NDU) capabilities and the Evergreen service model are emphasized as a significant moat against competitors, providing a low-risk platform that allows teams to pivot their focus to the database upgrade itself, rather than the underlying infrastructure. To learn more, visit: https://www.purestorage.com/solutions/databases/oracle.html Check out the new Everpure digital customer community to join the conversation with peers and Everpure experts:  https://purecommunity.purestorage.com/ 00:00 Intro and Welcome 02:43 Background on Oracle Database 08:35 Upgrade Considerations 12:17 Maturing Oracle Features 15:16 Database Upgrade Process 21:17 Complex Factors to Consider 25:12 Handling Different Data Types 30:24 Everpure Value for Oracle Operations 36:30 Key Steps for Successful Upgrades