Moving Beyond MySQL - High End Database Solutions

Oracle 9i

Oracle was the first commercial relational database server sold on the open market. Today it's still considered to be the number one database server in terms of power and features. Oracle is used by most Fotune 500 companies as their preferred method of data storage. This prestige and power comes at a price though: Oracle is also the most expensive solution available. The newest version of the database software is 9i (the i stands for Internet). Oracle ships a fully standard Internet Web server with their database packages. This server can access data directly from the database as if it were a normal HTML page.

The Oracle Database system can access files up to 1 terabyte in size, and can support tens of thousands of users. It's a breeze to develop on, with its fully capable PL/SQL language, strong support for stored procedures and triggers, security control, and many other features. However this also comes at a price -- a large one. Oracle is the most expensive and resource-intensive database server listed here. The installation and maintenance of an Oracle database is not for the faint of heart or inexperienced, either. That said, Oracle will provide the power to support the largest global enterprise and handle tens of thousands of users and transactions from around the world.

Oracle gets most of its advantage from its speed. This speed comes from the fact that once it runs something like a query or stored procedure, that information is kept in memory in a compile format for an indefinite period. When a user logs in and accesses a table, this information is also cached in memory and only updated when a transaction is committed to permanent disk storage. This gives the database super fast access because the hard disk access -- the slowest past of the process -- is eliminated.

Oracle ships for every Operating System from Windows NT, to the largest mainframes, including Linux and Unix. Their installation package and many of the utilities that come with Oracle Database are written in Java, which allows them to use the same code on every installation, and makes the software easier to support.

Besides its memory-caching features, Oracle supports full integrations with PERL, PHP, C++, Java, TCL/TK, and many other languages. It also has a powerful sequencing utility for generating
unique ids, and its internal programming language is unmatched.

PL/SQL

The programming language inside Oracle's stored procedures and triggers is simply called PL/SQL (Procedural Language/SQL). It has all the capabilities of any 3rd generation programming language like C++, and allows the developer to complete complex queries and routines, including Dynamic SQL queries built on the results of previous queries.

Interesting Features

Oracle has many features, however three that I find interesting are its Gateway Services, Failover and Transaction Logs.

Gateway Services - This is a series of applications that allows Oracle to access data from any source, including the different databases described in this article. By using the Gateway, Oracle can access data as if it was stored directly in its own tables. This allows you to access data as you would in its native system.

Failover - You can design your applications so that they're always connected to a database with failover and replication. Using failover, you can have a duplicate copy of your database provided by replication, which is accessible if the first database goes offline. This enables continuous 24/7 access to your most important asset: the company's data. Once the primary database goes offline or a query fails, the application will automatically failover. This requires no special programming in the application or script, just a few more lines in one of the systems initialization files.

Transaction Logs - These are meant to maintain your data, adn they contain snapshots of each and every transaction. By maintaining these logs between backups you can restore all your data in the case of data corruption. These logs are applied sequentially and restore everything that happened between the backup and the corruption, so they provide a good failsafe for your data.

Oracle is the number one product when it comes to the RDBMS world. It is the one that others compete with and try to surpass. Each time, though, they fail. Oracle provides power, speed and efficiency unlike any other system, however, as was stated before, these benefits come at a large price. Oracle is also currently the most expensive computer application anywhere in the world, but if your data depends on the utmost integrity and security, then it's the application for you.

Website
http://www.oracle.com/