Oracle has decided to offer its well-known 19c database Premier Support through December 31, 2029, and Extended Support through December 31, 2032. Customers are still uncertain about the availability of Oracle’s latest 23ai database on-premises, which is why this unexpected adjustment happened.
Prior to April 2024, Premier Support for 19c was scheduled to expire, while Extended Support would remain available until 2027. After waiving Extended Support payments until 2026, Oracle has now extended Premier Support by five years. The delay in 23ai’s on-premises rollout could be a contributing reason, albeit the company has not given a clear rationale for this prolongation.
When Oracle introduced 23ai in May 2023, it eliminated the “c” branding and positioned the release as a major step forward, integrating native VECTOR datatype and vector similarity search indexing. However, nine months later, a full-scale on-prem version is still missing.
At present, Oracle only offers 23ai for cloud deployments, Exadata, and Oracle Database Appliance (ODA). While some anticipated a broader on-prem release, Oracle has not committed to one.
The delay is being questioned by industry analysts. According to Martin Biggs, vice president of Spinnaker, Oracle is raising doubts about 23ai’s future in conventional on-premises settings by continuing to support 19c.
Although there is no clear indication of when 23ai would be publicly available outside of Oracle’s proprietary infrastructure, he pointed out that customers who pay for perpetual licenses and support costs expect to receive upgrades as part of their investment.
Oracle remains the top-ranked database on DB-Engines, a popular rating system based on job advertisements, search trends, and mentions across websites. But according to the Stack Overflow Developer Survey, which considers developers’ real preferences for new apps, Oracle ranks ninth. PostgreSQL, on the other hand, is still the most popular choice among contemporary development teams.
As enterprises weigh their long-term database strategies, Oracle’s decision to extend 19c’s lifespan raises questions about its roadmap for on-prem innovation. Without a clear timeline for 23ai beyond Exadata and ODA, many businesses may find themselves reassessing their reliance on Oracle’s ecosystem.
