Oracle Database Reviews

I use this solution as a DBA on AIX and Linux.

This solution was great for a while until Oracle became adversarial with its customers and the professionals who support their products.

This solution has the best performance, bar none.

Oracle needs to stop suing users.

The documentation needs improvement because as it is now, providing support is a headache.

This is a stable solution.

This solution is extremely scalable.

The most valuable feature is the TDE advanced security as there are several options of different encryption algorithms. It's also easy to implement Tablespace Encryption.

We're able to go through and encrypt our database much faster using Tablespace Encryption versus using column encryption which requires you to identify each atomic piece of information to be encrypted. This ease-of-implementation gives us cost savings as we're able to get things done quickly.

I've heard rumors of an upcoming ability to get rid of ghost data. Here's an example: if I have a column in a database, say social security number, and a policy comes up and says encrypt social security number, and if there's an index on that column before you encrypt it, if you look at it, you can see the information in plain text. When you encrypt it, it does not encrypt the index. What it does is it marks the blocks available and creates a new index. Now you have ghost data -- plain text data.

We need an ability to shred that ghost data. Right now what I do is I advise people that when they encrypt something, manually move everything out of the old table space and then shred those data files. To be able to get rid of ghost data automatically would be great.

We've had no issues with deployment.

It's incredibly stable. There's a couple things you do need to be aware of, but it's not so much the stability issues, it's actually the data leakage issues. Because we're talking about encryption here, you have to be careful that data can leak out in third text, and I'll give you an example. If you take a data pump export of encrypted data and you do not specify encrypted in the command line, it will be saved in clear text. That's one issue.

Another issue is if you gather histogram information on encrypted data, that data will be stored in the statistics tables unencrypted so you have to use a product such as Database Vault to wall that off so you can protect it.

I don't think there's an issue with scalability. Most people are more concerned about performance because you have to encrypt and decrypt on the fly, but with hardware encryption modules that is really a null issue. There is very little performance impact. We've encrypted data out to 25 terabytes in one system and we had no performance issues.

I haven't had to contact technical support.

I was involved in the initial architecting setup of this. It's not difficult, but it's very precise. Simply, the easiest thing to think about is you have to store your encryption keys. If you lose your encryption key, you've lost your data. One of the first things you do once you've encrypted your data is back up your encryption keys. Actually, you want to back up your encryption keys before you start encrypting the data. We generally burn those off onto a DVD and store them in the safe and then we store them on another system offsite. That is the one thing that will really burn you if you're not careful.

It's not time-consuming at all. The encryption keys are minuscule. I have Word documents that are bigger than the encryption keys. It's just if you lose that encryption key, you're hosed.

We looked at SAN encryption, but we wanted a system that was native to Oracle so that we're not worried about whether everything is integrated properly.

If it's not implemented correctly, you can still have leakages of clear text data. Understand the product and it's limitations before you implement it. Understand where things can leak and plug those holes ahead of time.

You also want to be able to basically understand the product end to end because here's another little issue: if I encrypt the table space at AES 126 or AES 128 and a policy comes out, we're now going to encrypt everything AES 256, you cannot re-encrypt the table space. You would have to create another table space, encrypt it at AES 256 and then move that data over. Then you have the issue again where you can go back and shred the data.

The most valuable features for us are the cloud-like traits of ODB, grid computing with version 11g onward, live database, and Data Guard.

We're a non-profit with branches all over the world -- Africa, India, and the US -- so we need a database solution that can be centralized. We have an entire datacenter in India, but our users need access to it from our other locations.

The key thing we need is a database that can pretty much run virtually in the cloud, that is, with a virtual datacenter. When we decided on Oracle three years ago, OBD was the only database that was cloud-like, scalable, and more robust than other solutions available at the time.

Honestly, it's not really in the cloud as such, but the definition of "cloud" changes daily. It's more on VMs, but the VM's are so powerful that we can access the database from anywhere without investments in machines or other hardware. We've been doing this since 2010 and we haven't hosted with cloud providers like Datamark or AWS, so we essentially have our own cloud.

While Oracle has been excellent, they haven't been growing or leaping forward like other vendors. I heard that Microsoft SQL Server will begin working with Linux. If that happens, Oracle has to do something because the cost will be one-tenth that of Oracle.

We haven't had any issues with the deployment of ODB.

The stability is good as the product has matured over the past few years. We initially implemented in 2014 and had upgrades since. We had some issues, which we told Oracle about and which they fixed. We had integration with a backend database because we are an Oracle workshop when it comes to database. They did not have too many customers using Oracle as a backend database.

We haven't scaled because of the unique constraints of our customized datacenter, but we use Linux because of Windows limitations. But we have been able to go from a mom-and-pop garage shop to where we are now.

The support is amazing. We have a great relationship with the non-profit technical support as well as with our sales rep with whom we've been with for ten years.

We have used Microsoft SQL Server, but the problem with that is that runs only on Windows. We wanted it on other units. Then we used Sybase, but that is more of a financial database, and didn't help much for our non-profit business. Then we used IBM DB2. That's a nice database, but IBM was considerably more of a hardware than a software part.

We wanted someone who is a player only in the database world because we had everything else and because we are non-profit, we do have tie-up with different companies where we get a different special rate for licensing.

We prefer Oracle because they are the niche players in the database world. We are pretty happy.

Because I'm a technical person and I have experience as a database administrator, the initial setup was pretty simple for me. The support was amazing and we didn't have huge roadblocks. If anything happened, such as issues with plugins, Oracle just gave us a patch.

Our implementation was done in-house by me and my team.

Because we're a non-profit, we have a buffet deal. For the first three years, they won't charge us any license fees for any use. It's all-we-can-eat. After three years, they'll come back and look at the footprint and license us based on that. This is a big deal for non-profits, but Oracle is willing to do it.

We looked at others who specialize in the cloud, such as CloudData. But Oracle is penetrating the cloud field. If you look at the Magic Quadrant, Oracle is positioned well with its RDBMS and Exadata, along with EMC Greenplum, Microsoft Azure, IBM's cloud solution, and others. We did PoCs with them all.

I work as a software developer designing DevOps and implementing Oracle applications with Oracle Database. I design and develop core banking systems, so my role was to manage a team of developers for design, development, and testing. I do some implementation, too. Our customers use Oracle Database as an RDBMS store data.

The most important features of Oracle Database are ease of use and high reliability. I also love the dynamic PL/SQL feature, which I use to generate custom and ad hoc reports.

I've worked with Oracle Database for more than 15 years. 

Oracle Database is a stable product. Oracle has raised the standards for RDBMS solutions. Most banks and government organizations in Nepal use Oracle Database because they're highly reliable. 

Oracle Database is scalable. I've deployed the solution at a government tax agency with more than 500 users. The core banking system was implemented at a bank with 22 branches all over Nepal and 200-plus users. Our most recent public sector project had over 100 users. 

Oracle support is helpful, and they resolve all our issues, but sometimes the response to our clients isn't as prompt as we'd like. 

Deploying Oracle Database is easy for me because I have so many years of experience. The team needed for deployment depends on the project. I had a team of 10 software developers for the core banking system, but we used a six-person crew for one of the government projects, including the front-end developer and documentation experts.

We have a team of four certified Oracle Database admins providing support. What I call EMC is something that provides software upgrade solutions, security passes, and everything, but the customer also needs some local support for creating the VR side to back up the client's data and other daily maintenance. We provide this type to banking and government customers in Nepal.

My company is an Oracle Gold Partner, so we proved licenses to the customers as well. The license price is listed globally on the Oracle site. It's basically license plus EMC.

I rate Oracle Database nine out of 10. Oracle releases new versions every year. It's now on 21C, and they regularly provide security patches and bug fixes. The customer will have issues without them. I think Oracle is doing a good job. They are investing massive resources into development. 

Oracle Database is a national database system that we use in our organization.

There is a lot of functionality in Oracle Database. The reports and the GUI are good.

With the nature of my job, there are certain things that I would want to improve. I can do this by acquiring some of the other products from Oracle, which would then make work a little bit easier. For example, in terms of replication from one site to the other site, the GoldenGate solution would be something I would have to acquire. However, this is subject to the budget. If we have the money, we could acquire other solutions. At the moment, we don't have such solutions which we can acquire in the future when budgets are low.

If Oracle Database could have more build-in features from some of their other products it would be good.

I have been using Oracle Database for many years.

Oracle Database is stable, the performance has been perfect.

The scalability of the Oracle Database is very good. It is easy to scale and you can have a tremendous about of users.

Our entire workforce is using this solution. For example, there is a payroll system and everybody has to access their payroll details. This is how the entire workforce will have access.

Over time we plan to increase usage of the Oracle Database. We will want to use some kind of an ERP in the future and when we do there will be many things happening on the one system.

We have a solution from Oracle and that in itself is not a complete solution. It's just a part that we have introduced. There are other parts that we will acquire over time. For example, we will keep our journal in Oracle instead of another system. We will do procurement in Oracle eventually. The solution can expand but you have to purchase the different parts.

The support from Oracle is good. You raise your support cases over the support website and there will be support people that will work with you until you get a solution to the problem.

We previously used dBase and it had limitations. Over the years it vanished from the market.

The installation was simple.

We used vendor integrators and consultants. This type of solution's installation cannot be done alone. Our experience with the help was very good, everything was successful.

We are on an annual license for the use of this solution.

I would recommend others to work with Oracle. Oracle is a huge company that knows its product very well.

I rateOracle Database a ten out of ten.

We are using this for our data warehouse as well as for many of our core banking systems.

The command interface is very user-friendly. The required commands are not complicated and we are able to easily access the root system.

We believe that the usability could be improved, especially within the data lakehouse. We found content management to be a little bit more simpler within the GUI part.

We have been using the product for over 10 years.

The product has been quite stable across all versions.

The database in-memory and also the extra data that we were using, was quite scalable. It had a range of capabilities, which we could see the high throughput and low latency. Scalability was very well-defined and innovative which has allowed us to stick with the product.

We have about 200 in-house users with more than 1.3 million subscribers. This requires about four to six database specialists for maintenance.

They are committed on their SLAs and their availability is quite good. So, we are quite happy with with Oracle Database's customer service and support.

We have always stuck with Oracle.

We were able to take advantage of a two-week POC to allow our technical team to become comfortable with the database. From here, it took just two to four weeks to deploy it to the mainstream and set up the whole system via data transfer. 

We relied mainly on our in-house team. An Oracle representative assisted us during our POC and we were able to phone them during deployment if needed.

The return on investment is quite good. We were able to see a growing number of subscribers. Considering the speed and amount of activities that were going on with banks, I would say we saw returns within two to three years.

Since we are in BPN, we utilize group licensing which has the tech support included.

This product is definitely worth it. Our team is satisfied in all areas: price, scalability, support, etc.

I would rate this a nine out of ten.

We are fine with the performance and everything they offer. 

They are the market leader, therefore we don't have any problems or complaints as of now.

The support is always very helpful and responsive. 

The solution is very flexible. It offers a variety of setups.

The stability is good. 

While we get some performance issues from time to time, we get very good support from the Oracle support team, and those issues are sorted out. 

The setup process can be a bit complex. You will want to have someone on-side that can help you navigate the process.

I've been working with the solution for 20 years. 

For the most part, the performance is good and it offers good stability. There aren't really bugs or glitches. it doesn't crash or freeze. 

It's a market leader in RDBMS. It is quite good, compared to other RDBMS such as Db2, SQL Server, or PostgreSQL.

Technical support has been great. As part of operations, people just get some issues, sometimes, however, there might be different reasons for that that may not be related to Oracle itself. Overall we are fine with all the services it offers.

This is a very, very vast database, and it offers a lot of architecture. We can go for grid architecture or rack architecture. We can go for the long architecture or we can go with a simple standalone database. Depending on what an organization wants, we can adapt. However, the implementation also depends on what you want or your organization wants. If you're looking for very complex data centers, for example, having one of the primary databases running in London, and your secondary database or DR site running in Singapore, and both are running on a different rack, you can do that, however, the setup process will be unique to you. There isn't a standard time it takes. It offers a lot of flexibility. Obviously, if you go for the high scalability, high availability, all those features, which are provided by Oracle, then it becomes slightly complex, and we need a dedicated team to handle all those setups. 

If you have the requirement of RDBMS and if you're posting logs there, then, I would suggest that you should go for Oracle. It all depends on your organization's technology roadmap. If a company is more inclined towards Microsoft technology, and they're inclined to Azure cloud, then probably they should go with an SQL Server. However, if they're inclined towards AWS or if they don't have any such consent, and if their costing allows, then Oracle is the best bet.

I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. 

We use Oracle Database in cases where there is a high volume of transactions and to improve the performance for high availability. We're an IBR company, so we're working mostly with call centers.

I love the performance tuning feature of Oracle Database because it provides hints and indexing, which are very valuable. Some of its other valuable features are its rack, record key vaults, and backup compression. 

I'm familiar with various DevOps technologies and how GoogLeNet is working. With GoogLeNet, you can upgrade the application in real-time without downtime. This feature is currently not available in Oracle. If we can do everything in the database without downtime, that would be beneficial for the users.

I've been using Oracle Database for more than eight years.

If you get Oracle Database set up right the first time, it'll run many years without any errors. There are no problems with the database itself, but if it isn't configured correctly or you execute something incorrectly, that can cause a problem. If we use a database in the application and there is a problem, we can quickly fix it. 

We can quickly and easily scale Oracle Database. 

Oracle technical support is wonderful. We've had no problem with that.

The Oracle Database setup is not complex. The rack setup used to require a lot of specialized knowledge about how to set it up, but it has been simplified. For deployment, we create and execute, which takes about three to four hours. 

We were able to handle the deployment through an in-house team. And every two or three months, Oracle releases new security patches and bug fixes. So we check if it's relevant to our product and apply it. We have around six to seven database services, so we manage it when it is released. 

Oracle is very expensive. So if I suggest Oracle to a client, they'll often say it's too costly.

I rate Oracle Database 10 out of 10. I would recommend it. I've worked on many database solutions, like MySQL Server and Sybase, and Oracle is the best based on my experience. If you are considering implementing Oracle Database, I suggest thoroughly reading all the documentation first. Then, figure out a strategy for implementing it and all of the software you'll need. Before you start the setup, you should have full knowledge of the process.