Oracle Autonomous Database is fully ready for data lake workloads out-of-the-box, requiring no additional components. This readiness extends to key data lake tasks such as data transformation, metadata management, and integration with popular data lake tools—all available from day one without extra setup.

This comprehensive readiness is what makes Autonomous Database stand out, offering an integrated, hassle-free experience that accelerates time-to-insight for data lake workloads. This means users can immediately start handling data lake tasks without any setup or configuration, making it a true plug-and-play solution for data lake environments. This built-in capability simplifies operations, reduces maintenance costs, and ensures higher reliability with fewer errors.

Autonomous Database provides a set of tools for all user types, from developers to business analysts, making the platform universal and accessible.

Developers can use tools such as the PL/SQL API for advanced operations, scripting, and automation, allowing seamless integration with existing tools and creating customized database solutions efficiently. See Autonomous Database Supplied Package Reference, for more information.

For business users, Data Studio can be used—a web-based interface for simplifying data interaction, exploration, and visualization. Data Studio enables non-technical users to derive insights, create reports, and collaborate effectively, reducing complexity and supporting informed decision-making. See The Data Studio Overview Page, for more information.

For organizations that already have existing data lakes on other platforms, Autonomous Database integrates seamlessly, allowing businesses to benefit from Autonomous Database advanced features without disrupting their current setups.

Provide Autonomous Database access to your data lake by granting the necessary privileges and access for your data lake to be connected to Autonomous Database. Once you've provided the necessary credentials, Autonomous Database can seamlessly connect to data lakes across various cloud environments, including AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and Oracle OCI object store.

This capability allows you to securely access and manage your data, leveraging the native security features of each cloud provider. With this multi-cloud support, you gain the flexibility to deploy and scale your data lake across different cloud platforms while maintaining a unified and secure environment.

Oracle Autonomous Database supports native security for other clouds, to learn more, see Use Amazon Resource Names (ARNs) to Access AWS Resources, Use Azure Service Principal to Access Azure Resources and Use Google Service Account to Access Google Cloud Platform Resources for your corresponding cloud platform.

Oracle Autonomous Database is designed with the flexibility to handle a broad spectrum of data formats, making it a universal solution for diverse data sources and workloads.

Whether your data resides in structured, semi-structured, or unstructured formats, Autonomous Database seamlessly supports them across various cloud environments. This allows businesses to ingest, store, and analyze data without worrying about format compatibility.

Autonomous Database provides native support for traditional formats like CSV and JSON, as well as advanced formats such as AVRO, Parquet, and ORC. See Query External Data with Autonomous Database, for more information. Autonomous Database supports the following file formats: CSV, JSON, XML, AVRO, ORC, Parquet, Delta Sharing, Iceberg, Word, PDF.

With the added support for the Iceberg Table format, Autonomous Database offers enhanced capabilities for large-scale data lake environments. Iceberg allows for optimized, high-performance querying, better version control, and easier data management, making it a good fit for large, evolving datasets. See Query Apache Iceberg Tables, for more information.

These expanded capabilities position Autonomous Database as a powerful tool for handling the growing demands of unstructured data, while also tapping into AI-powered solutions, making it a versatile and future-proof platform for modern data challenges.

Oracle Autonomous Database provides users with various ways to define metadata for their datasets, making data management more adaptable and efficient.

Autonomous Database supports a federated metadata catalog, enabling users to unify metadata from different sources into a single view, providing a unified interface for metadata management.

This approach simplifies metadata management across various environments by connecting data sources across multiple clouds and platforms. Whether using catalog-based metadata or defining it manually, all information is available in a unified catalog for easy browsing. For example, an organization can use this federated view to manage data assets from both AWS and Oracle Cloud, ensuring consistent governance and discoverability across platforms.

After users finish their analysis, they often need to share their results with others. Oracle Autonomous Database makes sharing easy by offering several ways to collaborate, providing unique advantages over other databases, such as integrated security features, open protocols, and seamless cloud connectivity.

These options are made to be flexible and secure, so they fit different collaboration needs:

• Delta Sharing Protocol: This lets you share data outside of Oracle using an open protocol called Delta Sharing. It supports secure data sharing with external partners, without needing complex integration, making it ideal for cross-cloud and cross-platform analytics. This way, data can be used smoothly in different analytics tools that are not part of Oracle. See Share Data Versions Using Object Storage, for more information.

• Cloud Links: You can share data between different Autonomous Database instances using secure cloud links. For example, Cloud Links are particularly effective for connecting different databases. This ensures consistent data availability and reduces latency for applications needing quick and reliable access to data across multiple databases, without the need to copy or duplicate. It keeps collaboration smooth for teams that are spread out and need to work together. See Share Live Data Using Direct Connection

• Pre-Authenticated Request URLs: You can share data directly by creating special URLs that give access to the data without needing a separate login. Users can control the permissions and set expiration times for these URLs, ensuring secure and flexible sharing options. This feature is built specifically for REST clients. See Generate a PAR URL for a Table or a View, for more information.

The Autonomous Database environment is fully compatible with a wide array of Oracle database tools.

Any tool you already use to interact with Oracle databases—whether for data visualization, analytics, ETL, or administration—can also be leveraged seamlessly to analyze datasets within Autonomous Database . This compatibility ensures a frictionless experience, allowing users to integrate Autonomous Database into their existing workflows without needing to adopt new tools or processes, thereby maximizing efficiency and reducing the learning curve.

See The Data Studio Overview Page, for information on a few of the tools available to use with Oracle databases.