In conjunction with Oracle Database 23ai and Oracle Database In-Memory, Oracle Exadata System Software release 24.1.0 introduces in-memory columnar caching of data in JSON documents. When Exadata encounters JSON data, using either the JSON data type introduced in Oracle Database 21c or the OSON-formatted BLOB data type available in Oracle Database 19c, the key/value pairs in the JSON are transparently and automatically converted to an in-memory columnar format and stored in Exadata Smart Flash Cache.

Subsequent queries on the JSON data can use Exadata Smart Scan and the cached JSON data to offload the processing of JSON operators to Exadata storage and substantially improve query performance. JSON operators supported by Exadata Smart Scan include JSON_EXISTS, JSON_VALUE, JSON_QUERY, IS JSON, and IS NOT JSON.