Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) relies on a combination of hardware components and infrastructure to deliver its cloud computing services. These components are designed to provide high performance, reliability, and security. Here are some key aspects of the hardware used in OCI:

1. Bare Metal Servers: OCI offers bare metal servers, which are physical servers without virtualization overhead. These servers provide dedicated compute power, high I/O performance, and are ideal for workloads that require direct access to hardware resources.
2. Virtual Machines (VMs): OCI also provides virtual machines that run on hypervisors. VMs are more lightweight and can be quickly provisioned and scaled, making them suitable for a wide range of workloads.
3. Networking Hardware: OCI’s network infrastructure includes high-speed, low-latency networking components, such as routers, switches, and load balancers. The Oracle Cloud network is designed for reliability and performance.
4. Storage Infrastructure: OCI offers various types of storage options, including block storage, object storage, and file storage. The storage infrastructure consists of high-capacity and high-performance disks and storage devices.
5. GPUs (Graphics Processing Units): For compute-intensive workloads such as AI, machine learning, and graphics rendering, OCI provides GPU instances that are equipped with powerful GPUs for accelerated computing.
6. InfiniBand Networking: In some regions, OCI uses InfiniBand networking technology to provide low-latency, high-throughput connectivity between compute nodes. This is especially beneficial for high-performance computing (HPC) and data-intensive workloads.
7. Security Hardware: OCI places a strong emphasis on security. Hardware security modules (HSMs) are used for cryptographic key management and secure key storage. Additionally, hardware-based security features are implemented at various levels to protect against threats.
8. Data Centers: OCI operates a global network of data centers in multiple regions around the world. These data centers are equipped with redundant power supplies, cooling systems, and physical security measures to ensure uptime and data protection.
9. Custom Hardware Designs: Oracle has invested in custom hardware designs to optimize performance and efficiency. This includes the development of custom CPUs, such as the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Ampere A1 Compute platform.
10. High Availability Components: To ensure high availability, OCI employs redundancy and failover mechanisms at the hardware level, including multiple availability domains within data centers and geographic redundancy across regions.
11. Hardware Acceleration: OCI may use hardware acceleration for specific workloads, such as FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array) instances for specialized computing tasks.