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Oracle 11g: How fast will folks upgrade?
Posted
by Larry Dignan @ 2:13 am Categories: General,
Software Infrastructure, Oracle
Tags: Security,
Database Administrator,
Database, Oracle Corp., Oracle, Larry Dignan
Oracle
is hosting a powwow in
The
question for Oracle is just how fast will users
upgrade. And that’s no small issue considering 11g is Oracle’s first database update in four years.
The MO for software customers these days has been to check out the goods and
then wait and wait. And then after waiting a while take some time to mull over
the upgrade. It happening now with
Ari
Kaplan, president of the Independent Oracle Users Group is more optimistic. His
group, which consists of 20,000 users of Oracle’s core
technology–database and middleware, but not apps–says there are a
few items notably security to boost uptake.
In
an April survey, Kaplan found that 35 percent of users will upgrade to 11G in
its first year and 53 percent said the next several years. Most users expect
the upgrade to take 12 months. The big reason for the upgrade appears to be
better security features and compliance management.
But
unless you have a solid business reason to upgrade customers may hold off on
11g.
According
to Kaplan there are two features that may get customers moving on an upgrade:
- Audit vault: Kaplan notes
that today the database admins have all
privileges. That’s a lot of power that enables a wayward DBA to
cover tracks. On 11g there’s a trail no matter who is in the
database. Great for CFOs and auditors. Not so hot for a DBA. These and
other security enhancements may be a selling point. Richard Stiennon has more on the DBA security issue.
- Information lifecycle
management: It’s very easy to have a few terabytes of data lying
around. 11g has ways to match the important data with the most mission
critical storage channels. The rest can go on cheap drives. Oracle has
also lumped better compression technology into 11g.
Will these features get folks to upgrade? That remains to be seen, but don’t be surprised if enterprise managers take their time.
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