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http://www.oracle.com/technology/oramag/oracle/07-sep/o57field.html
COMMENT: In The Field
What's New in Oracle Database 11g
By
The latest version of the database has great new
features for everyone.
Oracle Database 11g, the biggest release of
Oracle's flagship database in several years, was launched recently. I'm impressed
that Oracle invests so much effort in each new version of the database, and the
effort shows. The database has consistently been the technology market leader,
often by many years, and this new version continues that tradition.
Full disclosure: The Independent Oracle Users Group
(IOUG) has been a significant part of the beta program for Oracle Database 11g.
IOUG members have been working with Oracle on features and testing, and many
members have installed beta versions of the release and run real applications
against it—and there's a lot to like in Oracle Database 11g.
You've probably heard about some of the major features, and I want to tell you
about some of my favorite features of this new release.
Oracle Audit Vault
One feature I love in Oracle Database 11g is
called Oracle Audit Vault, and if you're not using it now in Oracle9i Database
or Oracle Database 10g, maybe you should be. What's so special about Oracle
Audit Vault? It makes Oracle the only database to enable you to be truly
security-process compliant.
From my experience as a DBA, I know—and you
probably do, too—that DBAs who are skilled
enough can view and change data if they really want to. They can then alter the
audit trail—wipe away their footprints—to make sure no one can find
out what they've done. It's always been a problem, and now it's also a major
compliance issue.
Oracle Audit Vault changes that scenario considerably.
The audit trail goes into a one-way "lockbox." No one, not even a
highly skilled DBA, can alter that audit trail once it's in the lockbox. People
can view it, but no one can change it or delete it.
This functionality prevents problems, whether
deliberate or accidental, caused by insiders. Oracle Audit Vault is implemented
using encryption techniques, and those who try to tamper with it leave telltale
signs of their attempts. Enterprises that need to comply with regulatory audit
procedures—and which don't?—will love Oracle Audit Vault. I can't
wait.
Hot Patching
Another feature that DBAs
will really appreciate is hot patching, which allows you to apply updates and
bug fixes to the database without bringing the system down. Previously, you
would have to stop production by halting work entirely—or do an intricate
and expensive dance of transferring to another system and back—to do any
patching. It's no surprise that administrators were reluctant to do this, and
praiseworthy dedication to uptime sometimes meant not applying critical patch
updates. Hot patching resolves such dilemmas: you can run your patches,
including security fixes, without affecting production. Gotta love that.
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Another new feature I like in Oracle Database 11g
is the ability to store data in compressed format—called advanced table
compression. Suppose you're storing a lot of long documents. Keeping them in
compressed format can save up to two-thirds of the usual space necessary.
Naturally the amount of space you can save depends on the kind of information
you're storing: this compression won't help much with data that's already
compressed, for example. But if you have large uncompressed data elements, this
feature will save you a lot of space and expense.
Even managing large amounts of ordinary data can be a
chore. The new partition advisor can suggest how best to manage large amounts
of data, such as census data by state. It can also physically create
partitions. You still have control over what it does—specifying how long
to keep data, for example.
Query Result Cache
Another neat feature is query result cache, which is
what it sounds like: Oracle Database 11g will cache the results of
queries in memory, where they act like tables. Multiple users can see these
results without repeating the same query. For common and frequently used
queries, this can save system effort and improve performance. You can configure
how much space to allocate to query result cache and how long to retain
results.
These are just a few of the new features I looked at in
Oracle Database 11g. Oracle consistently comes out with new, useful,
and—for some business issues—mandatory technology. The company's
commitment to its database product is impressive. This one will be fun.
