Developer: .NET

More Good News for Windows DBAs and .NET Developers
with Santanu Datta

Santanu Datta, Senior Director of Windows Development at Oracle, describes Oracle's ongoing commitment to the Windows environment.

OTN: Why choose Oracle on Windows?
Datta: Oracle was the first company to offer a relational database on Windows in 1993 and it was also the first to offer 64-bit Windows database releases on Itanium. For over a decade now, Oracle has been offering world leadership in database technology on Windows and Oracle will continue to enhance its offerings on Windows in the coming years.

Most recently, Oracle brought Grid Computing to Windows and .NET and now provides a low-cost platform to develop and deploy applications for small & medium business (SMBs) as well as enterprises. ISVs and customers can leverage low-cost Intel clusters to build highly scalable, available, reliable, secure and affordable solutions using Oracle products that are easy to install, manage, and develop. Installation is simple and efficient, the database is self-managing, and our development tools are comprehensive. We're also flexible: Oracle's enterprise features can be easily used by businesses of any size, and the system can scale as demand grows. Oracle offers packaging and pricing choices as well as flexibility with Standard Edition One, Standard Edition, and Enterprise Edition to meet the needs of businesses of all sizes.

The Oracle Database also leverages various key features of Windows—such as Active Directory, Windows Security, and clustering—and offers full performance optimization. We work with Microsoft, Intel, and many other partners to ensure that we have the best products on Windows in terms of features and performance. Oracle offers ease of development for the .NET and J2EE environments and provides developers the flexibility to choose whichever environment works best for them.

Finally, Oracle provides a fully integrated product stack on Windows, including Oracle Database, Oracle Application Sever, Oracle Collaboration Suite, Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control, Oracle Developer Suite, and Oracle E-Business Suite.

OTN: What are you seeing regarding market adoption for Oracle on Windows?
Datta: We are seeing great momentum for Oracle Database on Windows. For example, More than half the downloads from Oracle Technology Network in 2004 were for that platform.

Oracle Database 10g is very easy to manage as it includes a number of revolutionary self-management capabilities that automate most complex and time-consuming tasks. An independent study conducted by The Edison Group determined than an Oracle 10g DBA needs 30% less time and 20% fewer steps to perform common day-to-day administrative tasks than his or her SQL Server 2000 counterpart. Also, Enterprise Manager Grid Control allows the customers to have a single, unified global view of the data center and manage hundreds of components by exception from any browser.

Oracle provides products for easy development of .NET and Java applications optimized for Oracle Database. Oracle also offers HTML DB, a declarative web application development tool that can be used to develop database-driven web applications very easily from any browser.

OTN: Are Oracle products optimized for Windows Server 2003?
Datta: Oracle development had worked with pre-release and Beta versions of Windows Server 2003 for a number of years to optimize the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Oracle Database for that OS. Thanks to our early efforts, we were able to release production versions on the same day the OS was released.

The Oracle Database is optimized to leverage the core OS as well as Windows Services. Performance is optimized via support for large pages, NUMA (Non-Uniform Memory Access), the thread model, VLM support, and asynchronous I/O. Ease of administration is enhanced through integration with the Windows Event Log, Performance Monitor, and Service Manager. It is also integrated with various Windows Services including Active Directory, Windows Security, Microsoft Transaction Services, and Microsoft Cluster Services. We are also working on integrating the database with Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Services, which will be available in the next major release of the database.

For Oracle RAC, we also support the Oracle Cluster File System, which is an Oracle-written filesystem on Windows for shared disks to allow one software image to be used by all nodes in a cluster.

OTN: Can you please elaborate on the subject of Active Directory and security integration?
Datta: Certainly. Oracle Database closely integrates with Active Directory and Windows Security services and supports single sign-on, integrated user provisioning, database registration, and name resolution.

Oracle Database supports single sign-on capabilities for a Windows-only environment with Windows Native Authentication adapter. It automatically uses either Kerberos or NTLM and allows Active Directory users and groups to be mapped to database users and roles. Oracle Database also supports single sign-on with SSL and Kerberos authentications, which can be used in a heterogeneous environment.

For database registration, Oracle configuration tools can be used to register databases and .NET service names in Active Directory. End users can then use these names to connect to the service. This eliminates administrative overhead and the requirement for a client system configuration.

The integration points I've described here are features of the Oracle Database.However, Oracle also provides a comprehensive Identity Management solution that uses Oracle Internet Directory as a central repository and supports services for synchronization and provisioning with Active Directory.