Oracle Corporation has introduced new database software that is said to deliver the most economical computing model yet, allowing users to cut operating costs by up to 50%.
Targeted at today`s large-scale Internet applications, Oracle 9i allows users to grow the performance, capacity, scalability and availability of their IT systems on demand, without limits, by using cluster computing technology, says Oracle SA product manager (Server Technology) Deon Roos.
"The cluster computing model allows customers to group less expensive hardware systems to infinitely grow their capacity, performance and scalability as they need to, without ever having to modify their applications."
He says cost savings are achieved by scaling up and eliminating duplicate backup servers, and by using commodity hardware as the basis of the cluster.
"A key advantage is that it allows applications from a number of vendors - to be run across multiple computers clustered together," says Roos.
The Oracle9i Real Application Clusters will be available for Compaq, IBM, HP, Linux, Sun and Windows NT.
It acts as a single database in a cluster, and does not require the data be separated onto multiple computers. Users can simply add additional computers to the cluster and Oracle`s new database software transparently adopts the new computing resources."
Roos maintains that no other cluster solution or computing model can currently run packaged applications using a clustered database on Unix and Windows platforms as does Oracle 9i.
More than 15 000 software downloads have already been recorded off Oracle`s developer network, Oracle Technology Network (OTN) during a seven-month beta programme, during which more than 450 Oracle customers and partners have successfully tested their packaged applications on the Oracle9i Database.
With more than 23 000 downloads to date of the Oracle9i Database Partner Accelerator Kit, Oracle9i Database has also been widely endorsed by major application service providers (ASPs) and independent software vendors (ISVs).
Technical background
Oracle focused on two key design goals with Oracle9i Database: improving cost/performance by a factor of 10, and improving reliability also by a factor of 10.
In addition to the performance and scalability enhancements to Oracle9i Database, Oracle invested heavily in introducing new database functionality:
Oracle9i Real Application Clusters - Oracle9i Database`s Real Application Clusters delivers an industry breakthrough because it is the only database technology that can provide virtually limitless application scalability and total availability - without application or data reconfiguration - for any packaged application. Oracle is the only database that can deliver unlimited scalability and improved reliability for applications running on clusters.
Integrated Business Intelligence - Oracle9i Database provides a complete and integrated infrastructure for building business intelligence applications. Oracle9i Database utilises a single-engine architecture with built-in functionality for scalability and performance, Extraction, Transformation, Load (ETL), Online Analytic Processing (OLAP) and data mining.
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