BY DAV I D BAU M

BY DAV I D BAU M

Driving Database Innovation

Clustering, lower cost, and better performance are key database benefits.

racle Magazine spoke with Carl

behind logic, for example. This also Olofson, research vice president of

collecting statistics to make configura-

improves I/O performance. information management and data inte-

tion decisions, to give one example.

Oracle Magazine: What are the benefits of gration software at IDC, about database

They can spend more time thinking

file storage in the database? management technology.

about whether a data structure makes

Olofson: Files that are stored in the Oracle Magazine: How does database

sense for a particular application.

database can be secured in the same management technology today influence

Oracle Magazine: What are some of the

way that the database data is secured. the choice of system hardware?

ways that companies can reduce data

They can be compressed the same way. Olofson: One big issue is the question of

storage costs?

They can be backed up and recovered SMP [symmetric multiprocessing] versus

Olofson: Data compression and data-

the same way, which means you get the commodity hardware. The advantage of

base partitioning are two ways. One of

same high-availability characteristics for using SMP systems is that you have a

Oracle’s approaches entails database par-

files that you get for the database. managed environment, with an operat-

titioning. Customers can establish parti-

You also achieve better data integrity ing system and management tools built

tions or “tiers” in the database that let

when performing operations that require in. The obvious advantage of using com- to less-expensive storage platforms. For

them move infrequently accessed data

information from both types of content. modity hardware is the price. However,

For example, consider that business with a commodity hardware cluster, you

example, high-throughput transactional

intelligence may involve not only have to put the cluster together, so the

databases can reside on Tier 1 storage to

looking at sales statistics from relational challenge that Oracle has addressed is to

get the best performance. Transactional

tables, but also analyzing satisfaction provide the clustering technology that

data that has reached the end of its life-

reports, data from call centers, e-mail, makes that as automatic as possible.

cycle can be moved to less-expensive

and other unstructured content. Oracle It used to be that people turned to

Tier 2 storage devices.

Database 11g Release 2, for example, SMP boxes because as they scaled up,

Oracle Magazine: How can organizations

stores all of this information, so the it was the only way to go. Now they’ve

maximize I/O performance without

operational mechanisms for data recov- got another alternative, which is cluster-

investing in faster hardware?

ery, failover, and so forth are exactly the ing. And clustering provides integration

Olofson: One way that database manage-

same. Thus you have confidence that a among the nodes to allow the system to

ment systems do this is by caching in

the form of in-memory databases, which

file-based report will always match the

database numbers it references. So that’s can also do things like rolling upgrades

be flexible and perform well, and you

serve as a front end to the database

a good argument for maintaining all of and swapping boxes in and out and

and reduce the number of requests that

your content in one place. O adjusting the resources as needed.

have to go back to the data server itself.

And compression not only helps reduce

Oracle Magazine: How are DBAs dealing

David Baum (david@dbaumcomm.com) is a freelance with the challenge of maintaining large

storage costs, it also effectively makes

business writer based in Santa Barbara, California. database management systems?

your database buffers bigger because

you can put more data in them, and

Olofson: Maintaining large and complex

IDC (www.idc.com) provides advisory services, market databases will always require special

therefore you do less I/O.

intelligence, and events for the IT, telecommunications, expertise. However, today’s management

With respect to Oracle in par-

and consumer technology markets. tools are becoming more comprehensive

ticular, caching is a big part of what

they’re doing with the Oracle TimesTen

and easier to use. For example, Oracle

In-Memory Database, which enables

next STEPS

Enterprise Manager lets DBAs focus on

applications to access, capture, and

database organization and use, instead

update information more quickly.

READ more about

of routine administrative issues such as

Oracle’s latest database management

Oracle Database 11g Release 2

how to rebuild indexes. The software oracle.com/database system [Oracle Database 11g Release advises them about data distribution,

2] optimizes the way that data is laid

DOWNLOAD

partitioning, and other functions. This Oracle Database 11g Release 2 out on the disks as well as the way it’s

otn.oracle.com/software/products/database

means that they don’t have to waste time

retrieved—with read-ahead and write-

68 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010

ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE

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