10.7.4 Smart Scan of Encrypted Data

Oracle Exadata System Software offloads decryption, and performs Smart Scans on encrypted tablespaces and encrypted columns. While the earlier release of Oracle Exadata System Software fully supported encrypted tablespaces and encrypted columns, it did not benefit from Exadata offload processing. For encrypted tablespaces, Oracle Exadata System Software can decrypt blocks and return the decrypted blocks to the Oracle Database, or it can perform smart scan which returns rows and columns. When Oracle Exadata System Software performs the decryption instead of the database there is significant CPU savings because CPU usage is offloaded to Exadata Cells.