Hi.  We just ordered an Oracle Exadata (and when I say "we", I mean my managers), and am now being told that in order to back it up, we need to purchase a ZFS appliance.

Is there another way to back up the data from the Oracle Exadata?  We only back up RMAN dumps and logs, which are usually on a separate filesystem.  I'm going to guess that these will still be on the Exadata, but I think you can still do these dumps to an NFS share and back it up on that NFS server.  Has anyone found a solution to do this without paying $$$$$$$$$ to Oracle?