ORBCOMM: Modernizing Mission-Critical IoT Infrastructure with OCI
Lower TCO, higher uptime, and elastic scale. Modernized Oracle workloads on OCI Exadata.
Oracle Cloud Migration
Overview
ORBCOMM is a global leader in satellite IoT and asset intelligence solutions, serving industries where uninterrupted, real-time data is mission-critical, such as transportation, logistics, and maritime. Their infrastructure needed to evolve to meet the explosive data growth, increasingly stringent SLAs, and rising performance demands across geographically distributed environments.
DSP-Eclipsys partnered with ORBCOMM to lead a transformative modernization project, migrating legacy Oracle workloads from on-premises Oracle Database Appliances (ODA) and AWS RDS environments to Oracle Exadata Cloud Service (ExaCS) on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). This initiative delivered massive improvements in performance, scalability, cost-efficiency, and operational resilience while establishing a repeatable blueprint for future OCI transformations. ORBCOMM had been evaluating a move away from Oracle, but DSP-Eclipsys’ tailored OCI strategy and successful implementation demonstrated long-term value and reaffirmed their commitment to the Oracle ecosystem.
ORBCOMM faced a host of limitations with their existing environments:
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Aging Oracle Database Appliances (ODAs) were running unsupported Oracle 11.2.0.4, lacked enterprise-grade features like Flash Cache and RAC, and were increasingly brittle.
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Their AWS RDS Oracle Standard Edition databases suffered from distributed data architecture limitations, performance bottlenecks, and licensing constraints.
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As both environments approached capacity, ORBCOMM risked outages, slower transaction times, and higher TCO.
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Patching and maintenance windows introduced downtime and operational friction, while DR capabilities were inconsistent across platforms.
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A hybrid cloud roadmap required seamless integration between OCI and AWS, while preserving data integrity and ensuring minimal downtime during cutovers.
DSP-Eclipsys implemented a dual-path modernization strategy centered on Oracle Exadata Cloud Service (ExaCS) on OCI, tailored to ORBCOMM’s performance, availability, and compliance needs:
AWS RDS to OCI:
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Deployed Oracle GoldenGate to enable a minimal-downtime migration of large transactional workloads from AWS RDS to OCI ExaCS.
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Conducted real-time replication tuning, ensuring smooth streaming and optimized performance during the cutover (completed in under one hour).
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Engineered hybrid Cloud connectivity using AWS Direct Connect ↔ OCI FastConnect, with latency and throughput optimization to maintain performance SLAs during the transition.
ODA to OCI:
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Leveraged Oracle Data Guard to upgrade and migrate workloads from legacy ODAs to Oracle 19c on ExaCS.
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Designed and implemented HA/DR architecture, ASM-based storage configuration, and enterprise backup strategies using RMAN and OCI Object Storage.
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Tuned workloads using AWR/ASH diagnostics post-migration to maximize CPU, IO, and memory performance.
Infrastructure Design:
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Architected an OCI landing zone with segmented VCNs, IAM least-privilege access, and Transparent Data Encryption (TDE).
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Built full-stack blueprints, documenting VM layout, DR topology, backup workflows, and OEM monitoring hand-off.
The impact was immediate and measurable:
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Performance Gains: High I/O workloads benefited from Flash Cache acceleration and RAC-based scale-out, eliminating performance ceilings.
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Near-Zero Downtime: AWS-to-OCI migration achieved a cutover of under 60 minutes, preserving uptime for mission-critical systems.
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Cost Optimization: BYOL licensing, ExaCS consolidation, and reduced AWS dependency resulted in a significantly lower total cost of ownership.
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Resiliency: DR was re-architected using Oracle Data Guard, enabling robust failover capabilities and continuous availability.
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Operational Efficiency: ExaCS allowed for online patching, centralized management, and streamlined support, reducing overhead and boosting agility.
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Scalability: ORBCOMM now has elastic capacity to handle growing telemetry data volumes and complex analytics workloads
This project didn’t just improve one system, it created a replicable enterprise-grade OCI framework:
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DSP-Eclipsys codified OCI architectures into reusable landing zones, DR configurations, and security policies, enabling rapid scaling across business units.
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The solution now serves as a reference architecture across the ORBCOMM ecosystem, enabling consistent governance, performance, and compliance globally.
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Performance gains were immediate and measurable: database wait times dropped from 45,000 to 22,000 seconds after moving off AWS, and from 40,000 to 12,000 seconds after replacing ODA infrastructure. IoT database queue size fell from 10,000 to under 1,000 messages, boosted by enhanced SQL throughput.
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A cross-Cloud monitoring guide was developed to integrate AWS and OCI metrics via OEM and OCI Logging, bridging visibility across platforms.
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Migration blueprints, validation runbooks, and tuning recommendations were handed off to ORBCOMM DBAs, ensuring self-sufficiency and long-term optimization.
ORBCOMM chose DSP-Eclipsys for its proven depth in Oracle Engineered Systems and OCI migrations. As a certified Oracle CSP and MSP with over 127 Oracle Cloud certifications and specialized ExaCS expertise, DSP-Eclipsys combined technical excellence with strategic foresight.
DSP-Eclipsys:
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Delivered with zero data loss, minimal downtime, and SLA continuity.
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Designed for repeatability, through automation, documentation, and operational artifacts.
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Delivered measurable ROI, faster time-to-value, and reduced risk.
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Operated as a true partner, integrating Oracle best practices, leveraging GoldenGate and Data Guard, and ensuring secure, scalable modernization.
This transformation was not just about modernization, it was a breakthrough in Cloud maturity, empowering ORBCOMM to scale, innovate, and lead in the satellite IoT space with the power of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
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