Oracle has updated its 11g database server withRelease 2, which
it says will help businesses reduce their storage requirements
fourfold.
The release aims to tackle database costs, with features such as
automatic storage management, Oracle real application clusters, and
active data guard, which enable storage and server resources to be
used for both fault tolerance and running production workloads.
Oracle said the combination of these technologies means servers and
storage used for business continuity do not have to remain idle
until a failure occurs..
The edition-based redefinition function, introduced in Release
2, allows users to upgrade database applications online, which
removes the need for separate upgrade environments, Oracle
said.
The company said the combination of Oracle Database 11g Release
2 Advanced Compression and Partitioning support the reduction of
storage costs by compressing data two to four times.
Oracle said it is also providing server pooling capabilities
that enable businesses to reduce their server costs by streamlining
the provisioning and management of consolidated database grids. A
lower-cost version of its real application cluster technology is
available, allowing users to consolidate less mission-critical
database environments on an Oracle database grid.
Oracle has an unusual way of
licensing its database server on multi-core machines, which
means users need to assess how much the database licence will cost
on certain types of hardware. In some instances,
one large box (ie a scale-up architecture) works out cheaper
than running a large grid.