Oracle Rdbms

The Oracle Database (commonly referred to as Oracle RDBMS or simply Oracle) consists of a relational database management system (RDBMS) produced and marketed by Oracle Corporation. As of 2008, Oracle had become a major presence in database computing.Oracle Corporation started beta testing Oracle database 11g in September 2006 and announced the new release on 11 July 2007 in New York City (Equitable Auditorium, 787 Seventh Avenue, NY-10019). The first release of Oracle 11g (Oracle 11g Release 1) was released for Linux on 9 August 2007. The Windows port was released on 23 October. Unix versions (Solaris, AIX and HP-UX) were released on 12 November

Larry Ellison and his friends and former co-workers Bob Miner and Ed Oates started the consultancy Software Development Laboratories (SDL) in 1977. SDL developed the original version of the Oracle software. The name Oracle comes from the code-name of a CIA-funded project Ellison had worked on while previously employed by Ampex[2].The latest offering from Oracle is called Oracle Database 11g.

A history of Oracles progress in the market can be seen below

* 1979: Larry Ellison and friends founded Software Development Laboratories.

* 1979: SDL changed its company-name to "Relational Software, Inc." (RSI) and introduced its product Oracle V2 as an early commercially-available relational database system. The version did not support transactions, but implemented the basic SQL functionality of queries and joins. (RSI never released a version 1 - instead calling the first version, version 2 as a marketing gimmick.)[19]

* 1982: RSI in its turn changed its name, becoming known as "Oracle Corporation",[20] to align itself more closely with its flagship product.

* 1983: The Company released Oracle version 3, which it had re-written using the C programming language and which supported COMMIT and ROLLBACK functionality for transactions. Version 3 extended platform support from the existing Digital VAX/VMS systems to include Unix environments.[20]

* 1984: Oracle Corporation released Oracle version 4, which supported read-consistency.

* 1985: Oracle Corporation released Oracle version 5, which supporting the client-server model, with networks becoming more widely available in the mid-1980s.

* 1986: Oracle version 5.1 supported distributed queries.

* 1988: Oracle RDBMS version 6 came out with support for PL/SQL embedded within Oracle Forms v3 (version 6 could not store PL/SQL in the database proper), row-level locking and hot backups.[21]

* 1989: Oracle Corporation entered the application products market and developed its ERP product, (later to become part of the Oracle E-Business Suite), based on the Oracle relational database.

* 1990: the release of Oracle Applications release 8[20]

* 1992: Oracle version 7 appeared with support for referential integrity, stored procedures and triggers.

* 1997: Oracle Corporation released version 8, which supported object-oriented development and multimedia applications.

* 1999: The release of Oracle8i aimed to provide a database inter-operating better with the Internet (the i in the name stands for "Internet"). The Oracle 8i database incorporated a native Java virtual machine (Oracle JVM).

* 2000: Oracle E-Business Suite 11i pioneers integrated enterprise application software[20]

* 2001: Oracle9i went into release with 400 new features, including the ability to read and write XML documents. 9i also provided an option for Oracle RAC, or "Real Application Clusters", a computer-cluster database, as a replacement for the Oracle Parallel Server (OPS) option.

* 2003: Oracle Corporation released Oracle Database 10g. (The g stands for "grid"; emphasizing a marketing thrust of presenting 10g as "grid-computing ready".)

* 2005: Oracle Database 10.2.0.1 -- also known as Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10gR2) -- appeared.

* 2006: Oracle Corporation announces Unbreakable Linux[20]

* 2007: Oracle Database 10g Release 2 Sets New World Record TPC-H 3000 GB Benchmark Result[22]

* 2007: Oracle Corporation released Oracle Database 11g for Linux and for Microsoft Windows.

* 2008: Oracle Corporation acquires BEA Systems.

The hallmark of Oracle is to be first--to innovate, to be unconventional," Ken Jacobs told the packed Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG) audience at COLLABORATE 07 in Las Vegas on April 16. "Oracle Database 11g," he said, "continues this tradition." Jacobs, a 25-year Oracle veteran and vice president of product strategy, reviewed 30 years of sustained database innovation and was then joined on stage by Andy Mendelsohn, Oracle's senior vice president of database and server technologies.

"What motivates us to innovate is helping customers with improved quality of service, lower cost, simplified management, and enhanced security and regulatory compliance," said Mendelsohn.

Enhanced security is where it all began for Oracle. "The CIA was one of Oracle's first customers," Jacobs said. "I helped open the Washington DC Oracle office, so I like to say that I have a lot of friends in the spy business."

"Today," added Mendlesohn, "Oracle plans to provide data classifications, encrypted data, secure tape backups, and secure deployments with our Oracle Configuration Pack, Oracle Database Vault, and Oracle Audit Vault--which is now in beta testing."Recovery is important, too," said Mendlesohn. "The most common problem is human error, so we introduced Oracle Flashback. With Oracle Database 11g, we're planning Oracle Flashback Transaction and Oracle Flashback Data Archive, which we call Total Recall." Growing data volumes are another issue customer's face. "I remember when a gigabyte was considered large," Jacobs said, "and now our customers are managing multiple terabytes of data."

Oracle Information Lifecycle Management optimizes data storage costs and performance. "Oracle has been partitioning data for over 10 years," Mendlesohn said, noting that it's key to managing data across storage tiers and ageing of information. "In Oracle Database 11g, we plan to offer new compression technology, reference partitioning, interval partitioning, and complete composite partitioning."Oracle also introduces new technology