Oracle 11g - Categories of Innovation

This is a continuation of yesterday's post about the Oracle 11g launch last week in NYC. Chuck Rozwat, Executive Vice President of Server Technologies was the next speaker, and he took up most of the remainder of the presentation. He gave some more details about some of the exciting features of 11g and grouped them into 4 "Categories of Innovation". During each category discussion, a customer was brought out to discuss what they are or plan on using 11g for to help their business innovate in their industry. I will follow Chuck's grouping and which features were discussed during each segment.

Categories of Innovation

1. Better integration of all data types
1. Oracle Fast Files - faster than linux/ntfs filesystem for accessing unstructured data
2. Binary XML - 15x faster than XML LOBS in 10g
3. Several new data types:
1. RFID
2. DICOM
3. 3D Spatial
2. Managing data growth
1. Advanced partitioning - Partition Advisor
1. Automated partitioning by interval
   
1. Continue to create partitions on the fly
2. Automated partitioning by reference
1. Automatically maintains references when partitions are created
3. Business driven partitioning by new composite
1. Maintain partitions based on business rules
2. Compression - Advanced Compression
1. Typical 2-3x compression, up to 10x in some cases
3. Highest quality of service at lower cost
1. Faster performance (some examples)
   
1. RAC up to 70% faster
2. Java JIT compiler up to 11x faster
3. Secure Backup 25% faster
4. Query caches 25% faster
5. Stats collection 10x faster
   
2. OLAP based Materialized Views
1. merge OLAP cache with MView
3. Security and Compliance
1. Transparent Data Encryption
2. Secure (encrypted) Backup and Compression
3. Advanced Security
1. Kerberos authentication
2. Strong password
   
4. Multi-factor DBA authentication
1. Data Vault
2. Audit Vault - consolidate and monitor audit information
4. Availability
1. Protect against data loss
1. RMAN
2. Secure Backup
2. Protect against disk failure
1. ASM
3. Protect against server loss
1. RAC
4. Protect against human error
1. Flashback transaction
2. Total Recall
5. Protect against site failure
1. Data Guard
4. Ability to manage change
1. Real Application Testing

Over the coming weeks and months, I will give some overview of some of the features mentioned above, and what impacts they may have on the real world.

Oracle 11g - Innovate Faster

Last Wednesday, July 11th 2007, I attended the Oracle 11g Launch event in NYC. The main theme of the event was Innovation. I estimated about 1000 people were in attendance. The host was James Burke, author of "American Connections: The Founding Fathers. Networked." He had some interesting comments regarding Innovation and the evolution of data centers.

Next up was Oracle's President Charles Phillips. I have heard Mr. Phillips before, and really enjoy hearing him speak. Something I did not realize before, but this year is Oracle's 30th anniversary, and Charles had some stories and pictures from the founding team which were interesting and amusing.

Charles discussed the drivers of the development of 11g, and how closely Oracle worked with their customers on what features and improvements they wanted. Here are some if the challenges/drivers:

• Information is constantly changing
• There are more consumers of information now than ever before
• Users need real-time access to data
• An increase in security and compliance requirements
• Increasing quality of service at a lower cost
• Pressure to manage increasing rate of change

Mr. Phillips mentioned a few of the features in 11g that he thought were cool. They were:

• Advanced partitioning and compression - 2-3x compression with encryption
  
• Online upgrades and patching - also working on applications to be able to have the same ability)
• Real Application Testing - capture and replay functionality
• Data Guard - production mode can offload work to standby node
• Fast Files - fast access to unstructured media types stored in the database
  
• Total Recall - submit a query as of a certain date in the past
• RAC performance management

One of the comments (paraphrased here) by Charles about the Oracle 11g product was "...highest quality release of any product Oracle has shipped." There were also some quotes on the number of testing hours spent on the product and the number of tests performed. I really hope the product is a as strong out of the box as has been stated, but I will remain a cynic, and wait until I can get my hands on it (outside of the OAUG demos) to see if this truly is a stablke initial release.

Check out the some of the white papers on the Oracle 11g page on OTN for more details, and check here again soon for some more information from the launch event!