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it_user158715 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr Oracle Database Administrator at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
Oracle 12c, A Cloud Ready Database

Oracle released the latest version of its flagship database product last year. The release was a big one because Oracle changed the fundamental architecture of the database. This was done to provide flexibility to manage and provision a database in the Cloud environment.

In 12c, Oracle introduced the much touted Multitenancy feature consisting of the Container and Pluggable database concept. Even though five hundred other new features were released along with it, every discussion of 12c will revolve around the new Multitenant Databases Architecture.

One of the requirements when developing the Multitenant Database was that it should allow organizations to consolidate multiple databases into a single database instance, with ease. This allows for efficient sharing of Operating System resources at the database level and reduction to the Oracle Licensing and other infrastructure costs.

Another important feature required in the world of Cloud is the ability to rapidly provision a database when required. Reduction in upgrade time is also very important.

In the past, Multitenancy has been implemented at the Application level. However Multitenancy implemented at the Operating System is more common. It is achieved by moving individual database instances onto a few large servers. This does provide benefits but not at the same level of consolidation and flexibility as the use of the Multitenancy with 12c.

When announcing the Oracle 12c release, Larry Ellison commented, “I have always been against the idea of implementing Multitenancy at application layer. It should always be at OS level via virtualization or at database level. In our tests database level Multitenancy outperformed OS level Multitenancy.”

So How is Oracle 12c Different?

Oracle 12c consists of the CDB container database (CDB). The CDB container owns the traditional memory structure (SGA), the background processes, SYSTEM and SYSAUX tablespaces. The CDB$ROOT root database structure in the CDB container stores all the metadata. One of this Container Database can host up to 250 pluggable databases.

The PDB databases are similar to the traditional database but plugged into a CDB Container. Previously, in a non-CDB database only one database can be mounted by the SGA. In Multitenancy though, multiple PDB databases can be attached to a single CDB SGA and all the resources of the CDB are available to all PDBs. The PDBs are completely self-contained.

There are other numerous features but the greatest selling point is the above mentioned Multitenant feature. Tests have shown that Oracle has done a great job in making sure that this major architectural shift does not impact the overall product stability. Oracle has been working on this version for last four years. As a fruit of the hard work, the 12c database has proven to be very stable.

Additional cost?
The only major concern for organizations, who are thinking about embracing this option, is the additional licensing cost. In spite of this concern, consolidation at the database level will in fact increase the savings by allowing efficient sharing of resources.

Conclusion
The new oracle 12c database design has made it possible to move a database around on other servers with ease. The option to quick provision a new database at the tip of s single command is not hear of before. Oracle 12c has truly revolutionized the way a database can be managed and maintained. All these features can be used without having to make a single application change!

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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It's a very informative blog On Oracle 12c and It is useful article thank you for sharing with us, keep posting learn more about Oracle Certification
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Senior Hyperion Systems Architect at County of Loudoun Virginia
Real User
The advantage of using Oracle's RDMS solution is that it is integrated with Oracle's other products, including our ERP and EPM solutions.

What is most valuable?

The best aspect of Oracle Database is that it allows integration of our ERP and EPM suite of applications and databases. It's integrated tightly together, and we prefer that, as we think it's best to stick with a single vendor as much as possible to avoid dealing with multiple vendors in case of any issue. We can scale it up, upgrade and it is supported by Oracle's customer support program. It is secure and reliable, which gives us peace of mind. If we went with a third-party tool, there's always the issues of compatibility. If we do upgrades and there are issues, we'd have to talk to both the third-party vendor and Oracle.

I think that avoiding complications and compatibility issues is the biggest advantage of keeping our Oracle ERP and EPM products together. I work with a lot of the compatibility settings, and Oracle has done a great job with the matrix inter-dependencies and patch-up ligation. For example, I just upgraded our Hyperion system so I had to got through all the settings and configurations for databases, browsers, Java, OS, and servers. I, as an administrator, have to have enough technical knowledge to understand all the inter-dependencies.

That's the advantage of using Oracle's RDMS solution -- we can use other Oracle products.

What needs improvement?

It needs a better, less technical interface. I'm not an expert on our RDBMS as we have our own database administrator, so especially on a Linux environment Oracle needs to make progress on the user-friendliness of the UI.

In my opinion, I've found Microsoft SQL Server to be more user-friendly than Oracle Database. Even though the latter is more complex, more robust, and has more capacity, from a user perspective, especially those who are naive or functional, it needs to be more user-friendly.

I've asked my DBA to do something for me so I can try to learn from him, but if it were more user-friendly with a more graphical implementation that tells you all the variation criteria and failure messages, that would be much better.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

We've had no issues deploying it. It's quite simple.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's quite stable for being capable of doing so many things. It's powerful, fast, reliable, and secure.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have had no issues scaling it for our needs.

What other advice do I have?

You should consider whether you're going to go physical or virtual, Windows or Linux, etc. You should do your due diligence and know what you want.

We decided to put Essbase and Database on Linux. We put everything else on Windows, the reason being that our databases needed more resources and liability. Linux provides more security for databases, and it's a more robust setup for a Linux admin. So be sure to consider this before jumping into an implementation of the Oracle RDBMS solution.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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it_user517677 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user517677Senior IT Specialist at a government with 10,001+ employees
Real User

Good information.

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it_user516438 - PeerSpot reviewer
System Architect
Vendor
Some of the valuable features are flash back, RMAN, and Oracle secure backup.

What is most valuable?

Some of the valuable features are flash back, RMAN, and Oracle secure backup.

How has it helped my organization?

It has reduced our backup time.

What needs improvement?

I would like to see Oracle support fix issues faster after we log a complaint.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

I did not encounter any issues with deployment.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I did not encounter any issues with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I did not encounter any issues with scalability.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

Customer service is very good

Technical Support:

Technical support is not very good.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did not evaluate another solution.

How was the initial setup?

The setup was easy.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented in-house.

What was our ROI?

The ROI is unknown.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did not evaluate other solutions.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
it_user522111 - PeerSpot reviewer
ERP Architect at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Some of the valuable features are Oracle Wallet and Data Guard. We are also using the GRANT feature for high scalability.

What is most valuable?

Some of the valuable features are Oracle Wallet and Data Guard. We are also using the GRANT feature for high scalability.

How has it helped my organization?

It has helped us in terms of the higher scalability, higher response time, and good performance with the other features. It is also stable.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The I would give the stability a rating of 8/10.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's highly scalable, I would say.

How are customer service and technical support?

We did use technical support. You just call Oracle support and they are good.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We have been using Oracle database for a long time. We prefer Oracle database, because it is more stable and has lot of support for most of the application. When looking for a vendor, I look to see if it a stable solution, if it has good support, and if the initial installation is well-documented.

How was the initial setup?

The setup gets complex sometimes, when you don't use the products that are supported. If I used REL, versus Oracle Linux, you get no support on Oracle Linux, rather than REL.

We couldn't go for Oracle Linux, because we have everything on REL. That took time to setup.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We chose Oracle because it has more features than the other products. The integrations points are easy. It is better than many other products because it has better integration.

What other advice do I have?

I think they'd need a little bit of training, but once they know the ins and outs, it is more robust. As long they have the training, and understand the basic architecture, and then it is easy to use.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
it_user521847 - PeerSpot reviewer
Territory Manager at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
The most valuable features are security and stability.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features are security and stability.

What needs improvement?

I would like to see advanced compression and multi-tenant. We need to have multiple versions of our database. We don't know much about multi-tenant, but what they are announcing about it, seems interesting and would solve our problems. We need more of a focus on compression.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Oracle database for almost 15 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

In terms of stability, there is no downtime. The times when we need to shut it down, it's because we want to shut it down, not because the product crashes. It is very reliable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is good. I wouldn't implement some features if it weren't stable. We're interested in database in the cloud. We had good results with database on premises, so we want to test the same results in the cloud.

How are customer service and technical support?

The premier support isn't enough. Oracle ACS is expensive. We would like to train our DBAs to work better than premier support. They know their stuff, but the time response is not good.

The time frames are not the same from our country, so when we open a service request the analyst doesn't know exactly what's going on. He tries to change to another analyst and we have to tell him the whole story again. That is what we don't like from premier support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

When looking for a vendor, I want them to be reliable and to have local support.

How was the initial setup?

The setup was easy. I think it's easy to follow the steps to get it done.

What other advice do I have?

The product sells itself. It's a good product. We had it since version 8. We're currently on Version 12C, release 1, and the product is not bad. It's a good product. It's the support that we have some questions about.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
it_user515451 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vice President of Global IT at a logistics company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
It has given us the ability to scale.​ I would like to see lower costs.

What is most valuable?

It has given us the ability to scale.

What needs improvement?

I would like to see lower costs. It has expensive annual maintenance.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using this solution for three years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

There were no issues during deployment, but there was some occasional locking.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It has excellent scalability.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

Customer service is very good.

Technical Support:

Technical support is very good. They are responsive and meet our SLAs.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did not have a solution prior to this one.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented this solution in-house.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It is expensive.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did not evaluate other options.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
it_user436032 - PeerSpot reviewer
ERP Manager at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
All our financial data, as well as sales, revenue and all other data is there, and it's easily accessed.

What is most valuable?

Our backend Database is for JDE. Complete enterprise system runs on JDE Oracle Database. But the original, older v9 does support JDE the older platform because all our financial data, as well as sales, revenue and all other data is there, and it's easily accessed.

How has it helped my organization?

Everything, because we are the customer for database ... all our applications not only JDE, ERP or some third party applicants APK's also have the backend for Oracle. Because of the flexibility as well as performance wise and as well as data volume, we have huge volume stored. So, other databases cannot provide that kind of flexibility.

What needs improvement?

Right now, we are very happy. I mean, I don't know what R&D are doing. We are not any looking specifically for anything else. As right now what is available is great.

So far we didn't find any demerits, I mean false reproductions in the database.

So, it's running very well for us.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used it for 16 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's very good because Oracle supports very nice and releases some versions and as well as technical support from Oracle itself is very good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

There was no issue with scalability. If you talk about database size it can store high volumes of data.

How is customer service and technical support?

They are very responsive and as well as knowledgable. If you have any questions or issues, you can search the questions and find the answer yourself, without even talking to a representative. If there is something else they need to know, they call immediately.

How was the initial setup?

It's easy.

What other advice do I have?

There's no other database that supports us like Oracle. My recommendation is, if you are starting a new system for example, I recommend a backend database because it's a universal support. Any applications you can use in the Oracle Database. For example, if you go for iSeries, it supports only db2. Oracle is not like that. It supports SAP, it supports JDE, it supports any. So, it's a universal database.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
it_user521568 - PeerSpot reviewer
Principal Software Architect at a transportation company with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
It provides accessibility and speed for retrieving data.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features are it's accessibility and speed for retrieving data that I need, along with the ease of use. That's the most important thing: getting the data out. It’s logical, it makes sense, it’s intuitive.

How has it helped my organization?

I'm able to provide analytical data to end users easily, quickly, using a lot of built-in functionalities that the database provides. I don't have to export data to Excel and run a bunch of macros on it in order to get the average column or something like that. The built-ins that they have are helpful.

What needs improvement?

The biggest area for improvement for me is the error messaging. When it returns errors, it gives you a number; here's why I can't insert a character into a number field. One of the most annoying things for me is that it says, for example, "Value too large to insert column" but it doesn't tell you, "Okay you know what you're trying to do. Tell me what you're trying to do so that I can go fix it a lot easier".

So, more information in the error messaging would be nice.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Oracle database for more than 30 years.

I love it. I've been progressing with it ever since. It's nice, it does change a lot every year; there are new features. Oracle's always coming out with new stuff and so it's good; keeps you on your toes, keeps you going to OpenWorld.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is always up. If the database is down, it's more likely something to do with the hardware.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It has scaled well to our needs. We have replication occurring at our office. We use Exadata, and we have clusters. It's replicated across production, dev and two QA instances, so it's nice.

How is customer service and technical support?

I really don't have much knowledge about technical support because I never have to really do that. If something did go wrong with the database, that'd be more of a database administrator's function.

How was the initial setup?

I was not involved in the initial setup. I'm more of an end user of the database.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I did not look at any other products before choosing Oracle's database.

What other advice do I have?

It's well worth the investment. It might scare you up front because, yes, there are other, less-expensive options out there for your database, but if you plan on building an enterprise application, it's what you have to do. Spend the money.
I love it; it's the best.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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