Oracle Announces Oracle Database 10g
First Database Designed to Power Enterprise Grids

Oracle has announced Oracle Database 10g, new software which will help ISV partners and their customers achieve the highest levels of efficiency from their IT investments. The combination of Oracle Database 10g with the newly-launched Oracle Application Server 10g and Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g represents the first integrated Grid Computing infrastructure software introduced to the market.

Why is it important?

Traditional IT infrastructures leave organisations with "islands" of computing resources and software that are difficult to integrate and manage. Systems were designed to handle peak loads that might occur once per quarter or per year. As a result, IT infrastructures often became very inefficient. Oracle Grid Computing addresses this business challenge by helping customers reduce the time, labour and cost of IT operations by pooling industry standard servers and storage into an adaptable infrastructure that can meet changing business demands.

What does it mean for ISVs?

Oracle Database 10g is the fastest, most advanced and most reliable Oracle release to date. Its automated tuning and management capabilities also make it the easiest and most cost-effective database to operate. Oracle Database 10g is designed to handle a wide variety of workloads from small servers to server clusters and enterprise grid configurations.

Oracle Grid Computing builds on 10 years of grid technology development in academia and extends it to the enterprise. ISVs can build packaged applications for 10g that provide simplified storage management, transparent server clustering, and a high level of automation.

Key Features of Oracle Database 10g

Automatic Management and Database Control

Enterprise grid computing will help end-customers build large-scale computing capacity quickly and inexpensively from low-cost, standardised components such as clusters of server blades and rack-mounted storage. New levels of management automation are required to make this feasible. To meet these new requirements, Oracle Database 10g introduces advanced self-management capabilities and a new Web-based console called Database Control.

Based on Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g, Database Control provides a graphical diagnostic window into the database as it operates. Administrators can proactively monitor the database and quickly receive alerts and advice to ensure optimal performance and reliability. The self-management capabilities of Oracle Database 10g eliminate complex, repetitive tasks such as performance diagnostics, application tuning and memory management. The new software includes a self-diagnostic engine that automatically identifies any performance or operational problems and recommends corrective action. These capabilities provide immediate relief for IT staff as well as long term benefits for building enterprise grids.

Database Clustering Made Easy

At the heart of Oracle Grid Computing is its breakthrough database clustering technology, Oracle Real Application Clusters. With more than 550 customers in 44 countries in production, Oracle Real Application Clusters is the culmination of over 10 years of software development, and remains the only clustered database software that can run packaged applications unchanged as additional servers and storage are added to the cluster.

With the new Oracle Real Application Clusters 10g, deploying and managing database clusters as an enterprise grid is made far easier with the introduction of integrated clusterware. Integrated clusterware is a set of common clustering services built into Oracle Database 10g to simplify the creation and operation of database clusters. In the past, running Oracle Real Application Clusters on different platforms - UNIX, Linux, Windows - required detailed and technical knowledge of cluster operations for each platform. Oracle Real Application Clusters 10g now includes all the clustering software needed to easily install, configure and run clusters predictably and efficiently on all supported platforms.

Oracle Real Application Clusters 10g also introduces new cluster workload management software designed to shift computing capacity throughout the clustered database as business needs change. This new software will help customers run larger clusters of low-cost servers, such as server blades, to create enterprise grids.

Integrated Storage Management Eliminates Constant Storage Tuning

Oracle Database 10g also introduces Automatic Storage Management (ASM), new software designed to greatly simplify storage configuration and management for the database. ASM hides the underlying complexity of how the database deals with data files and storage subsystems. It also automatically distributes the storage workload to get the best possible system performance. ASM eliminates the need to constantly monitor storage systems for "hot spots" or performance bottlenecks that often slow down data processing.

ASM also eliminates the need for costly third-party volume management and file system software by completely automating database file and data storage. With ASM, customers can dramatically reduce data center complexity and system management costs. Oracle has worked with several industry storage leaders such as EMC, Hitachi, HP, Network Appliance and Xiotech to enable ASM to work seamlessly with their network attached storage (NAS) and storage area network (SAN) offerings (see related press release).

Analysts have welcomed the introduction of Oracle Database 10g: "While IT systems have become more strategic and integral to the core business, they also have become more complex, and more difficult and costly to manage," said Carl Olofson, program director for information and data management software research at IDC. "Oracle Database 10g represents a great stride forward, introducing new self-managing features that help automate statistics collection, instance tuning, memory tuning, and more. Helping customers automate daily, routine administrative tasks greatly reduces the management burden, and that can translate into substantial cost savings and more effective database administration."

Oracle 10g Partner Initiative

Oracle is running a comprehensive 10g Partner Initiative for members of the Oracle PartnerNetwork. Benefits include:

• Early access to 10g software, documentation and technical resources to speed development
• Discounts on partner-specific 10g training
• Marketing kits to help ISVs take Oracle Database 10g-based applications to market
• Comprehensive sales kits and guided selling methodologies

To join the Oracle PartnerNetwork go to: oraclepartnernetwork.oracle.com

"The best thing about the Grid is that it is unstoppable."
- the Economist, June 21st 2001