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AT ORACLE: Oracle News
Faster, Easier Embedded Databases
By Jeff Erickson
Oracle unveils Berkeley DB Java Edition 3.0 with speed and ease-of-use improvements.
When Oracle acquired Sleepycat Software in February 2006, some questioned whether Oracle would maintain the Berkeley DB line of embeddable, open source databases. With the release of Oracle Berkeley DB Java Edition 3.0, Oracle has put those questions to rest—and given Java application developers some useful enhancements.
"The release makes speed improvements and ease-of-use enhancements that developers have been asking for, and it does it in step with Sleepycat's preacquisition road map," says Rex Wang, Oracle's vice president of embedded systems, formerly of Sleepycat. "It shows that Oracle is committed to Berkeley DB and embeddable databases."
Oracle Berkeley DB Java Edition, Oracle Berkeley DB, and Oracle Berkeley DB XML are open source, embeddable databases that provide developers with fast, reliable, local persistence with little or no administration. Oracle Berkeley DB is the most widely used open source database in the world, with deployments estimated at more than 200 million.
"Berkeley DB is targeted at developers building applications that need blazing performance but do not require the full analytical power of SQL," says Wang. "If your data access patterns are predictable, look at Oracle Berkeley DB. It executes in the address space of the application, has a small footprint, and operates without human administration."
Data at the Edge
Oracle's interest in embedded databases is driven by market trends. As more-powerful devices proliferate and as networks become faster, more data is moving from the core data center out to the "edge" of the network, where it can be accessed more quickly. According to IDC, by the year 2012, there will be 17 billion devices connected to the internet. "Most of these will be at the edge or outside the data center, and with that many devices, they'd better be autonomic and self-managing," says Wang. "They need an embedded database like Oracle Berkeley DB."
Many new software services are also appearing. "Web services are an obvious example," says Wang, "but also telecommunications, voice and data services, and hosted, on-demand services. These services run in lights-out, always-on environments with no human administration, and they frequently have extreme performance and scalability requirements. Again, an embedded database like Oracle Berkeley DB is ideal."
Oracle Berkeley DB Java Edition
Oracle Berkeley DB Java Edition is a high-performance, transactional storage engine written entirely in Java. "Developers use the Java Edition of Berkeley DB when they want portability to run on a wide variety of platforms, and when they prefer Java for its ease of development," says Wang.
Berkeley DB Java Edition 3.0 includes a range of improvements. Oracle has improved support of complex object models with a new direct persistence layer that adds a built-in Plain Old Java Object-style object storage model. The upgrade provides support for complex object models without compromises in performance. This helps developers avoid development, runtime, and administrative overhead associated with storing Java objects in relational databases with object-relational mapping solutions.
Oracle also added a new deferred-write database mode, which enables pure in-memory operation and gives developers greater flexibility in prior-itizing database performance. The deferred-write mode is ideal for situations involving temporary databases, batch updates, or other instances where database speed is critical.
Availability and Pricing
Oracle Berkeley DB Java Edition Release 3.0 is generally available under a dual license. A no-cost open source license permits redistribution if the application using Oracle Berkeley DB Java Edition is open source. In addition, a commercial license is available for redistribution of proprietary applications.
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