Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison kicked off his company’s annual OpenWorld conference with an unusually compelling keynote speech about In-Memory Option, a new feature of Database 12c that aims to deliver “ungodly” performance at the flip of a switch. The CEO claimed that the function makes queries up to 100 times faster while providing doubled throughput speeds for transaction processing.

Commenting on the announcement, theCUBE host Dave Vellante said that “the fact that Oracle is focused on R&D allows them – throughout their stack [and] end-to-end strategy – to invest in trying to get to best-of-breed.” For Dave, the big question is “can Oracle appeal as an innovator” and maintain its grip on the traditional enterprise. The company is actively working to secure its market dominance with new features such as the In-Memory Option and multi-tenancy.

While the center of attention, Oracle was not the only company that made a splash at OpenWorld. Dell unleashed a slew of new offerings at the event, including an improved management platform that integrates with Oracle’s Enterprise Manager 12c to simplify across databases and applications. The latest version of OpenManage is joined by major updates to to the SharePlex replication tool and Toad, which now supports multi-tenancy and diagnostic messaging. Other new features include a faster ETL engine and expanded provisioning capabilities.

Storage vendor NetApp also managed to catch customers’ attention with a FlexClone plugin that makes it easier for users to clone their databases. The extension is complemented by Enterprise 12c integration that enables admins to monitor their Oracle deployments and ONTAP environments from a single unified interface. Not to be outdone, ManageEngine updated its own management solution to provide visibility into system health and performance. The Applications Management processes, scheduled jobs and data corruption.

To hear theCUBE’s full wrap up of the event, check out the video below.