Key Features of Exadata Express

Application Development

JSON Document Storage

Oracle Database in Exadata Express provides direct storage, access and management of JSON documents. See JSON Support in Oracle Database New Features Guide 12c Release 2 (12.2).
Document-Style Data Access

Oracle Database in Exadata Express gives you the ability to store and access data as schema-less documents and collections using the Simple Oracle Document Access (SODA) API. See Develop Document Store Applications Using SODA.
Oracle REST Data Services 3

Exadata Express includes the newest Oracle REST Data Services (ORDS). With ORDS 3, it’s easy to develop modern RESTful interfaces for relational data and now JSON documents stored in Oracle Database.

For relational data, ORDS 3 automatically generates REST endpoints for about a dozen single-table operations including create, query, update and delete. Easy-to-create JSON filters allow query predicates and sorts to be specified in a query-by-example format. For more complex operations, REST calls are mapped to SQL and PL/SQL routines you can write that will return data in JSON and other formats.

ORDS 3 also enables a wide range of operations to be performed directly on stored JSON documents in Oracle Database using the Simple Oracle Document Access (SODA) API over REST. These operations include create, query, update and delete with support for JSON filters. See Manage Web Services and Use SODA for REST. For more on ORDS 3, see Oracle REST Data Services on Oracle Technology Network.
Oracle Application Express 18.2

Exadata Express includes Oracle Application Express (APEX) 18.2. APEX is a low-code environment to rapidly develop and deploy web apps for desktop and mobile browsers. You develop entirely within a browser, so no extra tools are required. See Rapidly Developing Web Applications using Application Express, for details on developing Application Express apps. See New Features in Oracle Application Express Release Notes to learn about major improvements introduced in this release.
SQL Developer 4 (Cloud Update)

Oracle SQL Developer and SQL Developer Data Modeler provide a full environment for writing SQL and PL/SQL. These free IDEs not only aid in database development, they also can perform administrative tasks such as migrating data into Exadata Express from an on-premises database. They have been updated for Exadata Express to include drag-and-drop capabilities and more. See Oracle SQL Developer on Oracle Technology Network.
New SQLcl Command-Line

SQLcl is a new and greatly improved command-line interface for Oracle Database. It has been updated for Exadata Express and is downloadable from the Service Console. Customers who are familiar with SQL*Plus should take a look at SQLcl and consider using Oracle’s powerful next generation command-line tool. See Oracle SQLcl on Oracle Technology Network.
Node.js Oracle Database Driver (General Availability)

A new JavaScript language driver provides access to your Oracle Database from Node.js applications. This free and open source driver has been handed over to the development community with major contributions from Oracle. See Node.js Developer Center on Oracle Technology Network.

Data Analytics

Analytic Views

Analytic views provide a business intelligence layer over a star schema, making it easy to extend the data set with hierarchies, levels, aggregate data, and calculated measures. Analytic views allow data warehouse and business intelligence application developers to extend the star schema with time series and other calculations, making data more valuable to business users and eliminating the need to define calculations within the application. This feature includes the new DDL statements CREATE ATTRIBUTE DIMENSION, CREATE HIERARCHY and CREATE ANALYTIC VIEW and their related ALTER and DROP statements, new calculated measure expression syntax, and new data dictionary views. See Overview of Analytic Views in Oracle Database New Features Guide 12c Release 2 (12.2).
Data Mining SQL

Oracle Database in Exadata Express provides powerful data mining algorithms that enable data scientists and business analysts to discover insights, make predictions and leverage their Oracle data and investment. For example, with Oracle Data Mining SQL (ODM), you can build and apply predictive models inside the Oracle Database to foresee customer behavior, target your best customers, develop customer profiles, identify cross-selling opportunities and detect anomalies and potential fraud. Algorithms are implemented as SQL functions and leverage the strengths of Oracle Database. You can mine data tables and views as well as star schema data including transactional data, aggregations, unstructured data and more. The ODM functions honor all data and user privileges and security policies. See Oracle Data Mining on Oracle Technology Network.

Data Security

Data Redaction

Data Redaction in Exadata Express provides selective, on-the-fly redaction of sensitive data in SQL query results prior to display by applications so that unauthorized users cannot view the sensitive data. Simple declarative policies apply different data transformations such as partial, random, and full redaction. Data Redaction can be applied conditionally, based on different factors that are tracked by the database or passed to the database by applications such as user identifiers, application identifiers, or client IP addresses. Data Redaction minimizes changes to applications by preserving the original data type and formatting when transformed data is returned.

Database Optimization

In-Memory Column Store

Exadata Express provides a shape that includes Oracle Database In-Memory Column Store (IMC). This unique technology has a dual-format architecture that enables database tables to be simultaneously represented in memory using traditional row format and a new in-memory column format. The Oracle Database optimizer automatically routes analytic queries to the column format and transactional queries to the row format, transparently delivering best-of-both-worlds performance. Oracle Database maintains full transactional consistency between row and column storage. The new column format is a pure in-memory format and is not persistent on disk, so there are no additional storage costs or storage synchronization issues. Deploying IMC with virtually any existing Oracle Database compatible application is as easy as flipping a switch – no application changes are required. See Oracle Database In-Memory on Oracle Technology Network.
Data Partitioning

Partitioning in Exadata Express enhances the performance, manageability, and availability of a wide variety of applications and helps reduce the total cost of ownership for storing larger amounts of data. Partitioning allows Oracle Database tables, indexes, and index-organized tables to be subdivided into smaller pieces, enabling these objects to be managed and accessed at a finer level of granularity. Oracle supports a rich variety of partitioning strategies and extensions to address diverse business requirements. Moreover, since it is entirely transparent, partitioning can be applied to almost any application data without the need for potentially expensive and time consuming application changes. See Oracle Partitioning on Oracle Technology Network.
Data Compression

Data compression in Exadata Express provides a complete set of compression capabilities to help reduce storage consumption while maintaining fast performance. It allows customers to reduce their overall database storage footprint for relational and unstructured data. With Oracle Advanced Compression, you can reduce the storage required for transactional workloads by up to 2-4x. With Oracle Hybrid Columnar Compression, you can reduce the storage required for analytic workloads by up to 10x or more. Oracle’s unique data compression innovations not only reduce storage consumption, allowing you to store even more data in Exadata Express, but also keep the impact on query performance to a minimum. See Compression and Archivingin Oracle Database Concepts 12c Release 2 (12.2) and Advanced Index Compression in Oracle Database Administrator's Guide 12c Release 2 (12.2).

News for Users of Existing Schema Service

If you are a current customer of Oracle Database Cloud Service – Multitenant Edition (a.k.a. Schema Service ), you may be considering migrating to Exadata Express. With Exadata Express, you can take advantage of all the features described above, plus you get:

A dedicated Oracle Pluggable Database, with the ability to create multiple users and schemas - instead of being limited to a single schema.
The ability to directly connect to your cloud database over Oracle Net Services (SQL*Net). This means you can leverage a large assortment of database client tools and programming language drivers - in addition to REST access and Oracle Application Express applications.