It’s been a while since I last wrote here. Lately, I’ve been diving deep into AI inference—the process of running AI models to generate responses—specifically exploring whether we truly need expensive GPUs for running modern language models. Spoiler alert: the answer might surprise you. After extensive testing on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), comparing ARM-based Ampere processors against the latest AMD EPYC chips, I discovered that the right combination of software optimizations and compressed models can deliver remarkable performance—all without a single GPU. ...

OKED: Deploy Oracle Kubernetes Engine Clusters in Minutes In today’s cloud-native landscape, Kubernetes has become the de facto standard for container orchestration. However, setting up a production-ready Kubernetes cluster can still be a complex and time-consuming process, especially for those new to the ecosystem. Enter OKED (Oracle Kubernetes Engine Deploy), an elegant solution that streamlines the deployment of Kubernetes clusters on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. What is OKED? OKED is an automated tool that simplifies the deployment of Oracle Kubernetes Engine (OKE) clusters. Built on the Pulumi framework, it enables users to have a fully functional Kubernetes environment up and running in minutes—without requiring extensive expertise in either OCI or Kubernetes. ...

Building a Modern Translation Service with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure’s Generative AI The Challenge with Modern Translation Traditional translation services often struggle with context, idioms, and the subtle nuances that make language beautiful and meaningful. As businesses become increasingly global, there’s a growing need for translation services that can handle these complexities while maintaining security, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. Enter OCI Generative AI Oracle Cloud Infrastructure’s Generative AI service offers a compelling solution to these challenges. Unlike conventional translation APIs, OCI’s service leverages advanced language models that understand context and cultural nuances, making it an ideal choice for enterprise applications. ...

A Practical Guide to Graceful Stop an OCI Instance Introduction When running workloads on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), managing your instances efficiently is crucial. This guide will show you how to create a simple, efficient way to shut down your OCI instance from within the instance itself, using instance metadata and instance principal authentication. Prerequisites An OCI instance with instance principal authentication enabled OCI CLI installed on your instance Basic understanding of command-line operations Understanding the Components Instance Metadata Every OCI instance has access to its own metadata through a local endpoint. This metadata includes crucial information like: ...

Oci Vision: How do we identify cereals? Is possible with OCI Vision service, without any infrastructure to manage and any ML/AI competence, to classify some images not included in the default Vision model? Yes, it is possible! You can use OCI Vision to identify image content and use this feature to improve your software and business. Let me show you how! In this example, I used some cereals but it is only an example, you can extend the concept with everything visible. ...

I’m pleased to announce my first automation project on OCI After 10 years of experience with DevOps practices, including automation and tools to produce IaC definitions and hundred of meetings with customers, I decided to create a tool that permits everyone to have a well-defined Kubernetes architecture without infrastructure competencies. Oracle Kubernetes engine deploy project (OKED) OKED can help you to obtain a complete Kubernetes infrastructure with all network dependecies on OCI without having OCI expertees. ...

Intel x86 vs. ARM Architecture: A Comparative Analysis for Server Technologies In the dynamic field of server technology, the battle between CPU architectures has become a focal point, especially between Intel’s x86 architecture and ARM-based processors. This blog post provides a comprehensive comparison of these two architectures, focusing specifically on their performance metrics, energy efficiency, and their overarching impact on the server and cloud computing sectors. Detailed Architectural Insights Intel x86 Architecture Intel’s x86 architecture, grounded in a complex instruction set computing (CISC) framework, offers a broad instruction range and high computation capabilities. This architecture is renowned for its robust performance and extensive software compatibility, making it the preferred choice in traditional server environments. ...

When selecting a compute instance, factors such as raw computational power, price-to-performance ratio, and workload optimization play a significant role. The following standard flex shapes available in most OCI regions are: VM.Standard.E4.Flex (Processor: AMD EPYC 7J13. Base frequency 2.55 GHz, max boost frequency 3.5 GHz) VM.Standard.E5.Flex (Processor: AMD EPYC 9J14. Base frequency 2.4 GHz, max boost frequency 3.7 GHz) VM.Standard3.Flex (Processor: Intel Xeon Platinum 8358. Base frequency 2.6 GHz, max turbo frequency 3.4 GHz) VM.Optimized3.Flex (Processor: Intel Xeon 6354. Base frequency 3.0 GHz, max turbo frequency 3.6 GHz) VM.Standard.A1.Flex (Each OCPU corresponds to a single hardware execution thread. Processor: Ampere Altra Q80-30. Max frequency 3.0 GHz.) In this article: Performance testing with PHP and OCI Compute instances I have tested a single PHP thread/cpu execution over all OCI standard flex shapes, now I conducted multicore benchmark tests with Geekbench 6 using 2, 4 and 8 CPU. ...

When selecting a compute instance, factors such as raw computational power, price-to-performance ratio, and workload optimization play a significant role. Let’s focus on the following standard flex shapes available in most OCI regions: VM.Standard.E4.Flex (Processor: AMD EPYC 7J13. Base frequency 2.55 GHz, max boost frequency 3.5 GHz) VM.Standard.E5.Flex (Processor: AMD EPYC 9J14. Base frequency 2.4 GHz, max boost frequency 3.7 GHz) VM.Standard3.Flex (Processor: Intel Xeon Platinum 8358. Base frequency 2.6 GHz, max turbo frequency 3.4 GHz) VM.Optimized3.Flex (Processor: Intel Xeon 6354. Base frequency 3.0 GHz, max turbo frequency 3.6 GHz) VM.Standard.A1.Flex (Each OCPU corresponds to a single hardware execution thread. Processor: Ampere Altra Q80-30. Max frequency 3.0 GHz.) I conducted benchmark tests with Geekbench 6 on three CPU configurations: 2, 4, and 8 cores. ...

Do you want to backup your data easily and securely, without spending hours or money on complicated tools or services? If so, this post is for you! I will show you how to use Kopia, a fast and secure open-source backup tool, and OCI, a scalable and cost-effective cloud storage provider, to backup your data in 10 minutes or less. OCI object storage is a cloud storage service that offers the following features: ...

A while ago, I developed a tool with the aim of assessing the actual performance improvement between different versions of PHP. Subsequently, I search to understand which AWS instance type was the most performant. Since AWS does not allow for custom sizing of CPU and RAM resources, I wanted to explore the differences among the various instance types and determine which one would be most cost-effective to choose. During the holiday season, I dedicated myself to expanding this project and doing the same analysis with OCI , Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. ...

In this article, we will leverage OCI’s capabilities to the fullest, embracing the following principles: Scalability Resilience Flexibility Security Automation The “loadfileintoadw” project is located in the same GitHub repository used so far to discuss OCI Function fn-examples . This example will help you understand how to integrate multiple OCI services and make the most of the cloud provider. We will simulate a series of weather stations that will write a CSV file with sampling data (temperature, humidity, etc.). The sensor will automatically upload the file to an Object Storage bucket. ...

Introduction to the most modern cloud database in the market Oracle Autonomous Database is a cloud database that uses machine learning techniques to automate its tuning, security, backup, updates, and other management procedures traditionally carried out by a DBA. Unlike a conventional database, Autonomous performs all these and other activities without the need for human intervention. Why use Autonomous? Databases contain critical business data and are essential for the efficient operation of modern organizations. DBAs are often busy with repetitive and manual database management and maintenance activities. As administration activities increase, the risk of human error becomes higher with catastrophic consequences. ...

After seeing how to create a custom image, in the previous case where we installed the Oracle client, now let’s try to use this custom image to connect to an Oracle database. We will make the most of the cloud capabilities. In this example, we will use the Infrastructure as Code (IaC) methodology to provide a real example of an easily replicable architecture for everyone. The “toautonomous” project is in the same GitHub repository used so far to talk about OCI Function fn-examples . The project’s README describes the infrastructure configuration procedure. ...

As we have seen from my other articles, it is possible to use the FN project with different programming languages using predefined container images, the officially supported languages are: go java Node.js ruby Python C# you can do it with the runtime directive, for example: fn init --runtime python test the command will produce a func.yaml file of this type 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 schema_version: 20180708 name: hello version: 0.0.1 runtime: python build_image: fnproject/python:3.9-dev run_image: fnproject/python:3.9 entrypoint: /python/bin/fdk /function/func.py handler memory: 256 However, in some cases, the predefined images are not sufficient, either for extra language support, extra drivers, or other missing tools. ...

The OCI Function service allows you to run code on infrastructure that you don’t have to manage. In this link I presented a basic example of an OCI function developed in Python. A very interesting feature is that functions can be automatically invoked by other services through an event, so we can also execute code in response to an action in the OCI cloud, or use a function as a link between multiple cloud services that can form a complex workload. ...

The OCI Function service allows you to run code on an infrastructure that you don’t have to manage, in a scalable and automated way. This concept is called “serverless” because the end user will no longer have to worry about managing any infrastructure to run his own code. OCI implements what is the FN open source project, the project has been integrated with Oracle cloud services and is based on the execution of code inside a container, therefore it can potentially support any programming language and any type of container on x86 architecture, moreover, it is not strictly linked with the Oracle infrastructure and you can easily switch between different FN environments. ...

Identity and access management is a crucial goal in a growing organization. In addition to the requirement to simplify user management and improve security, integrating with external services is becoming increasingly relevant. Oracle OCI offers a comprehensive service for managing identity and access called IAM with Identity Domains In the specifics: An identity domain is a container for managing users and roles, federating and provisioning of users, secure application integration through Oracle Single Sign-On (SSO) configuration, and SAML/OAuth based Identity Provider administration. It represents a user population in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and its associated configurations and security settings (such as MFA). ...