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From the Editor
On Turning Two
By Jeff Spicer
Oracle marks the second anniversary of Oracle Database 10g with a new release.
Two years ago, Oracle announced Oracle Database 10g, the first database to be "grid-enabled"—meaning the database could run across a clustered group of servers that could be managed as a single entity. By implementing computing grids with Oracle Database 10g, companies would gain improved resource utilization and increased data availability and would have the option of standardizing on low-cost commodity hardware.
In order for this vision to work successfully, the database needed to be largely self-managing. So Oracle Database 10g introduced a host of new management features that made the database more self-aware and self-tuning, including a set of advisors, a diagnostics framework, and a built-in repository containing operational statistics about the database. Oracle also enhanced its system management software, with Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control allowing administrators to manage their entire Oracle environment and group and manage related resources more efficiently.
Now, Oracle has made available the second release of Oracle Database 10g. This new version of the database has significant features and improvements of interest to database administrators, application developers, and IT managers. In this issue of Oracle Magazine, our authors cover some of the more noteworthy new features and provide tips on how to take advantage of this new functionality.
When a group of beta testers traveled to the Oracle campus in early 2005 to test an early version of Oracle Database 10g Release 2, features writer Kelli Wiseth saw a perfect opportunity to gauge the opinions of sophisticated users. She joined the group, interviewing them about new management, availability, and performance-related functionality in the database. You can find their opinions—and some of Wiseth's—here.
Oracle Database has always provided a host of innovative security-related features. This long-standing focus on security continues with the introduction of Transparent Data Encryption, to enable the storage of data in encrypted form without changing any applications. The encryption keys are automatically managed by the database. DBAs who don't have the appropriate key won't be able to decipher the data. Our columnist, Arup Nanda, introduces you to the new feature and provides examples for its use.
The ability for Oracle to store, manage, and maintain XML documents was introduced with Oracle9i Database. Now, Oracle Database 10g Release 2 provides support for the W3C query language standard, XQuery, allowing developers to query data collections with XML itself (in addition to SQL). Columnist Jonathan Gennick explains the concepts and usage of XQuery.
Also in this issue, contributor Ron Hardman discusses expanded globalization capabilities of Oracle Database 10g, and Kimberly Floss examines new functionality in Oracle Database 10g's automatic shared memory management. There are of course many notable features we didn't have space to cover in this issue of the magazine, such as expanded Automatic Storage Management (ASM) functionality that supports all of your Oracle databases; enhanced capabilities in Automatic Database Diagnostic Monitor (ADDM) enabling service-level performance management; a secure backup-to-tape facility; and support for Microsoft's Common Language Runtime (CLR), allowing developers to write stored procedures in any of the CLR languages. You'll find much more information about Oracle Database 10g Release 2 online.
Last but certainly not least, our columnist Tom Kyte weighs in with his favorite new features in Release 2. Longtime Oracle Magazine readers will note that Kyte has been a columnist with Oracle Magazine for more than five years. In early 2000, Kyte—then a technologist with Oracle's public sector division—contacted Oracle Magazine to request a change to a user-supplied tip on the Oracle Magazine Web site. One thing led to another, and soon Kyte had his own Oracle-advice column in the magazine. An interactive Web site quickly followed, as did books, and most recently a blog. During his five years as Oracle Magazine's "Ask Tom," he's fielded more than 27,000 questions through his Web site—9,000 of which are currently online and searchable. To learn more about our very own, very prolific Kyte, visit the Ask Tom Web site—and you can also listen to an interview between Kyte and Oracle Magazine technology editor Tom Haunert.
Jeff Spicer, Editor in Chief
jeff.spicer@oracle.com
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