Oracle Caches In on Its Acquired TimesTen Technology

The Oracle In-Memory Database Cache keeps frequently accessed data in memory for faster performance. We look at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of this technology.

With the release of the Oracle In-Memory Database Cache option (which allows frequently accessed data to reside in memory), Oracle demonstrates that it is committed to supporting acquired technology and leveraging it to augment its own functionality and improve its performance.

Our SWOT -- strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats -- analysis looks at the option from many angles:

Strengths:

* The In-Memory Database Cache should significantly enhance the performance of applications that require frequent or near-instant access to a database subset. It supports both read and write SQL operations, thus allowing it to be used in both operational and analytic environments.
* The cache option includes the TimesTen In-Memory database, TimesTen-to-TimesTen replication, and the Cache Connect to Oracle. It provides automatic data synchronization between the in-memory cache and the Oracle database as well as with an active standby configuration.
* It allows Oracle to credibly claim that although IBM may have acquired in-memory database technology in its November 2007 acquisition of Cognos (who had previous acquired Applix in October 2007 and its in-memory TM1 OLAP server), Oracle has integrated the in-memory database technology that it acquired with its acquisition of TimesTen in 2005 with its own.
* Oracle is continuing to offer its TimesTen In-Memory database as a standalone product, albeit at the same price as the Oracle In-Memory Database Cache.
* This is not an intention announcement; the Oracle In-Memory Database Cache is currently available and can be used with Oracle Database 10g R2 and Oracle Database 11g.

Weaknesses:

* Like many of its other options, the Oracle In-Memory Database Cache is only available with the Enterprise Edition of the Oracle Database.
* The Oracle In-Memory Database Cache is priced on a per-processor basis and costs an additional 90 percent of the per-processor price of the Oracle Database Enterprise Edition.
* The TimesTen In-Memory database can only directly integrate with the Oracle database.

Opportunities:

* The Oracle In-Memory Database Cache certainly has appeal in very-high-performance environments such as real-time analysis and execution (e.g., stock and bond trading, call centers, communications, defense and homeland security applications, etc.); it can be used in both operational and analytic environments since it supports both read and write access.
* Oracle can make a strong and credible case for using a very large multi-terabyte Oracle Database 11g together with a smaller In-Memory Database Cache as enabling technology for these types of applications.
* Since it can be deployed in an active standby configuration, with cache tables replicated in real-time, Oracle can position the In-Memory Database Cache as part of a high-availability solution.
* Oracle can cite its continuing investment in TimesTen technology as evidence of its commitment to other acquired technology.
* Oracle can credibly position itself as both a tools and a solutions vendor by stressing that it is committed to enhancing its database and middleware toolset while continuing to expand its enterprise application and business intelligence product portfolio.

Threats:

* Oracle is certainly not the only database vendor with in-memory database capabilities. IBM can be expected to compete aggressively, at least on the analytical side, with the Applix TM1 technology it acquired with its acquisition of Cognos.
* Oracle’s competitors may falsely suggest that Oracle requires the use of its In-Memory Database Cache option in performance-critical applications while reminding prospects that this will increase the per-processor price by 90 percent.

Author: Mike Schiff @ www.esj.com

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Siemens Shared Services selects Oracle clustered database

Oracle has announced that Siemens Shared Services, a provider of payroll to human resources solutions, has deployed its clustered database environment to support services to more than 70,000 Siemens employees across the US.

Relying on Oracle Database, Oracle Real Application Clusters, Oracle Automatic Storage Management, Oracle Partitioning, and Oracle Enterprise Manager, Siemens Shared Services's clustered database environment is expected to deliver the performance, scalability, reliability, and flexibility required to support its Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management applications and critical business processes, including payroll for all US-based employees.

Siemens Shared Services uses Oracle Partitioning to break payroll data information into manageable components. To monitor its clustered environment, the company uses the monitoring and diagnostic capabilities of Oracle Enterprise Manager.

In addition, Siemens Shared Services relies on Oracle Automatic Storage Management to automate and streamline storage performance and management and add additional storage capacity without disruption.

Steve Montgomerie, administrator of Oracle Database at Siemens Shared Services, said: "Oracle Real Application Clusters on Windows provides us with the continuous uptime we need to meet our critical business objectives, while easing the burden of our IT infrastructure to grow and scale with the business."

Source: www.cbronline.com

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Oracle creates Web 2.0 division

Oracle is building a global division to offer businesses products, services and best practices for Web 2.0 collaboration.

Charles Phillips, Oracle's president, speaking in London today (9 May), said Oracle would be forming a Web 2.0 organisation to provide businesses with Webcenter, a new platform for building wikis, blogs and content management for Web 2.0 collaboration. He said, "Over the next few years we will be building collaboration into our enterprise application products."

The process for approving expenses is one area such collaboration would work for business users, Phillips said. Web 2.0 collaboration technology could allow the manager to check a travel expense with the travel agent directly, compare travel costs against previous trips to the same destination and, if the person submitting the expense was online, obtain further clarification using instant messaging.

Phillips said Oracle was also developing a collaborative platform that would take users beyond the functionality provided by e-mail packages such as Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange. "The Beehive product we are developing we will be able to provide an e-mail [server] and a presence-aware environment," which would allow users to see who else was online.

Phillips said the product would remove the need for businesses to run large server farms to support their Microsoft Exchange infrastructure, as it would use computing grids instead of servers.

Separately, Oracle is also investigating how to make patches update automatically, without requiring enterprise application software to be restarted. Oracle's 11g product family has some of this functionality built-in, but, Phillips said, "It is way too hard to update enterprise application software."

If Oracle is able to crack this problem, Phillips hopes it would be able to offer users continuous releases of its software, which could simplify patch management and upgrading.

Author: Cliff Saran @ www.computerweekly.com

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