Oracle Database

Last updated

Oracle Database
Developer(s) Oracle Corporation
Initial release1979;45 years ago (1979)
Stable release
23c [1]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg / 19 September 2023;6 months ago (19 September 2023)
Written in Assembly language, C, C++ [2]
Type Multi-model database
License Proprietary [3]
Website www.oracle.com/database/

Oracle Database (commonly referred to as Oracle DBMS, Oracle Autonomous Database, or simply as Oracle) is a proprietary multi-model [4] database management system produced and marketed by Oracle Corporation.

Contents

It is a database commonly used for running online transaction processing (OLTP), data warehousing (DW) and mixed (OLTP & DW) database workloads. Oracle Database is available by several service providers on-prem, on-cloud, or as a hybrid cloud installation. It may be run on third party servers as well as on Oracle hardware (Exadata on-prem, on Oracle Cloud or at Cloud at Customer). [5]

Oracle Database uses SQL query language for database updating and retrieval. [6]

History

Larry Ellison and his two friends and former co-workers, Bob Miner and Ed Oates, started a consultancy called 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 formerly employed by Ampex. [7]

Releases and versions

Oracle products follow a custom release-numbering and -naming convention. The "c" in the current release, Oracle Database 23c, stands for "Cloud". Previous releases (e.g. Oracle Database 10g and Oracle9i Database) have used suffixes of "g" and "i" which stand for "Grid" and "Internet" respectively. Prior to the release of Oracle8i Database, no suffixes featured in Oracle Database naming conventions. There was no v1 of Oracle Database, as co-founder Larry Ellison "knew no one would want to buy version 1". [8] For each database release, Oracle also provides an Express Edition (XE) that is free to use. [9]

Oracle Database release numbering has used the following codes:

Legend:
Old version
Older version, still maintained
Latest version
Latest preview version
Future release
Oracle
Database
Version
Initial
Release
Version
Initial
Release
Date
Terminal
Version
Marquee
Features
Current stable version:Oracle Database 23c23.2.0April 2023 (Linux) Oracle Database Free - Developer Release [10]

September 2023 Oracle Database on Base Database Service [11]

JSON Relational Duality, JSON Schema Validation, Transactional Microservices Support, OKafka, Operational Property Graphs, Support for SQL/PGQ, Schema Privileges, Developer Role, SQL Firewall, TLS 1.3 Support, Integration with Azure Active Directory OAuth2, True Cache, Readable Per-PDB Standby, Sharding with active-active Raft-based replication, Automatic SQL Plan Management, Priority Transactions, SQL Syntax Simplification, Annotations, Data Usage Domains, Column Value Lock-free Reservations
Older version, yet still maintained: Oracle Database 21c21.1.0December 2020 (cloud) [12]

August 2021 (Linux) [13]

Blockchain Tables, Multilingual Engine - JavaScript Execution in the Database, Binary JSON Data Type, Per-PDB Data Guard Physical Standby (aka Multitenant Data Guard), Per-PDB GoldenGate Change Capture, Self-Managing In-Memory, In-Memory Hybrid Columnar Scan, In-Memory Vector Joins with SIMD, Sharding Advisor Tool, Property Graph Visualization Studio, Automatic Materialized Views, Automatic Zone Maps, SQL Macros, Gradual Password Rollover
Older version, yet still maintained: Oracle Database 19c19.1.0 // 12.2.0.3February 2019 (Exadata) [14]

April 2019 (Linux) [15]
June 2019 (cloud)

Active Data Guard DML Redirection, Automatic Index Creation, Real-Time Statistics Maintenance, SQL Queries on Object Stores, In-Memory for IoT Data Streams, Hybrid Partitioned Tables, Automatic SQL Plan Management, SQL Quarantine, Zero-Downtime Grid Infrastructure Patching, Finer-Granularity Supplemental Logging, Automated PDB Relocation
Old version, no longer maintained: Oracle Database 18c18.1.0 // 12.2.0.2February 2018 (cloud, Exadata) [16]

July 2018 (other) [17]

18.17.0
January 2022
Polymorphic Table Functions, Active Directory Integration, Transparent Application Continuity, Approximate Top-N Query Processing, PDB Snapshot Carousel, Online Merging of Partitions and Subpartitions
Old version, no longer maintained: Oracle Database 12c Release 212.2.0.1
March 2017
August 2016 (cloud)

March 2017 (on-prem)

12.2.0.1
March 2017
Native Sharding, Zero Data Loss Recovery Appliance, Exadata Cloud Service, Cloud at Customer
Old version, no longer maintained: Oracle Database 12c Release 112.1.0.1July 2013 [18] 12.1.0.2
July 2014
Multitenant architecture, In-Memory Column Store, Native JSON, SQL Pattern Matching, Database Cloud Service
Old version, no longer maintained: Oracle Database 11g Release 211.2.0.1September 2009 [19] 11.2.0.4
August 2013
Edition-Based Redefinition, Data Redaction, Hybrid Columnar Compression, Cluster File System, Golden Gate Replication, Database Appliance
Old version, no longer maintained: Oracle Database 11g Release 111.1.0.6September 200711.1.0.7
September 2008
Active Data Guard, Secure Files, Exadata
Old version, no longer maintained: Oracle Database 10g Release 210.2.0.1July 2005 [20] 10.2.0.5
April 2010
Real Application Testing, Database Vault, Online Indexing, Advanced Compression, Data Guard Fast-Start Failover, Transparent Data Encryption
Old version, no longer maintained: Oracle Database 10g Release 110.1.0.2200310.1.0.5
February 2006
Automated Database Management, Automatic Database Diagnostic Monitor, Grid infrastructure, Oracle ASM, Flashback Database
Old version, no longer maintained: Oracle9i Database Release 29.2.0.120029.2.0.8
April 2007
Advanced Queuing, Data Mining, Streams, Logical Standby
Old version, no longer maintained: Oracle9i Database9.0.1.020019.0.1.5
December 2003
Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC), Oracle XML DB
Old version, no longer maintained: Oracle8i Database8.1.5.019988.1.7.4
August 2000
Native internet protocols and Java, Virtual Private Database
Old version, no longer maintained: Oracle8 Database8.0.3June 19978.0.6Recovery Manager, Partitioning. First version available for Linux. [21]
Old version, no longer maintained: Oracle 7.37.3.0February 19967.3.4Object-relational database
Old version, no longer maintained: Oracle 7.27.2.0May 1995Shared Server, XA Transactions, Transparent Application Failover
Old version, no longer maintained: Oracle 7.17.1.0May 1994Parallel SQL Execution. First version available for Windows NT. [22]
Old version, no longer maintained: Oracle77.0.12June 1992PL/SQL stored procedures, Triggers, Distributed 2-phase commit, Shared Cursors, Cost-Based Optimizer
Old version, no longer maintained: Oracle 6.26.2.0Oracle Parallel Server
Old version, no longer maintained: Oracle v66.0.1719886.0.37Row-level locking, scalability / performance, online backup and recovery, B*Tree indexes, PL/SQL executed from compiled programs (C etc). First version available for Novell Netware 386. [23]
Old version, no longer maintained: Oracle v55.0.22 (5.1.17)19855.1.22Support for client/server computing and distributed database systems. First version available for OS/2. Correlated sub-queries [24]
Old version, no longer maintained: Oracle v44.1.4.019844.1.4.4Multiversion read consistency. First version available for MS-DOS. [25] [26]
Old version, no longer maintained: Oracle v33.1.31983 Concurrency control, data distribution, and scalability. Re-written in C for portability to other operating systems, including UNIX. [27]
Old version, no longer maintained: Oracle v22.31979First commercially available SQL RDBMS. Basic SQL queries, simple joins [28] and CONNECT BY joins. Written in assembly language for the PDP-11 to run in 128KB of RAM. [29] Ran on PDP-11 and VAX/VMS in PDP-11 compatibility mode.
Legend:
Old version
Older version, still maintained
Latest version
Latest preview version
Future release

The Introduction to Oracle Database includes a brief history on some of the key innovations introduced with each major release of Oracle Database.

See My Oracle Support (MOS) note Release Schedule of Current Database Releases (Doc ID 742060.1) for the current Oracle Database releases and their patching end dates.

Patch updates and security alerts

Prior to Oracle Database 18c, Oracle Corporation released Critical Patch Updates (CPUs) and Security Patch Updates (SPUs) [30] and Security Alerts to close security vulnerabilities. These releases are issued quarterly; some of these releases have updates issued prior to the next quarterly release.

Starting with Oracle Database 18c, Oracle Corporation releases Release Updates (RUs) and Release Update Revisions (RURs). [31] RUs usually contain security, regression (bug), optimizer, and functional fixes which may include feature extensions as well. RURs include all fixes from their corresponding RU but only add new security and regression fixes. However, no new optimizer or functional fixes are included.

Market position

A 2016 Gartner report claimed to show Oracle holding #1 RDBMS market share worldwide based on the revenue share ahead of its four closest competitors – Microsoft, IBM, SAP and Teradata . [32] [ verification needed ][ clarification needed ] A 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant report named Oracle a leader in Cloud Database Management Systems. [33]

Competition

In the market for relational databases, Oracle Database competes against commercial products such as IBM Db2 and Microsoft SQL Server. Oracle and IBM tend to battle for the mid-range database market on Unix and Linux platforms, while Microsoft dominates the mid-range database market on Microsoft Windows platforms. However, since they share many of the same customers, Oracle and IBM tend to support each other's products in many middleware and application categories (for example: WebSphere, PeopleSoft, and Siebel Systems CRM), and IBM's hardware divisions work closely[ citation needed ] with Oracle on performance-optimizing server-technologies (for example, Linux on IBM Z). Niche commercial competitors include Teradata (in data warehousing and business intelligence), Software AG's ADABAS, Sybase, and IBM's Informix, among many others.

In the cloud, Oracle Database competes against the database services of AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.

Increasingly, the Oracle database products compete against open-source software relational and non-relational database systems such as PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Couchbase, Neo4j, ArangoDB and others. Oracle acquired Innobase, supplier of the InnoDB codebase to MySQL, in part to compete better against open source alternatives, and acquired Sun Microsystems, owner of MySQL, in 2010. Database products licensed as open-source are, by the legal terms of the Open Source Definition, free to distribute and free of royalty or other licensing fees.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MySQL</span> SQL database engine software

MySQL is an open-source relational database management system (RDBMS). Its name is a combination of "My", the name of co-founder Michael Widenius's daughter My, and "SQL", the acronym for Structured Query Language. A relational database organizes data into one or more data tables in which data may be related to each other; these relations help structure the data. SQL is a language that programmers use to create, modify and extract data from the relational database, as well as control user access to the database. In addition to relational databases and SQL, an RDBMS like MySQL works with an operating system to implement a relational database in a computer's storage system, manages users, allows for network access and facilitates testing database integrity and creation of backups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oracle Corporation</span> American multinational computer corporation

Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology company headquartered in Austin, Texas, United States. In 2020, Oracle was the third-largest software company in the world by revenue and market capitalization. In 2023, the company’s seat in Forbes Global 2000 was 80. The company sells database software and cloud computing. Oracle's core application software is a suite of enterprise software products, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, human capital management (HCM) software, customer relationship management (CRM) software, enterprise performance management (EPM) software, Customer Experience Commerce(CX Commerce) and supply chain management (SCM) software.

A relational database (RDB) is a database based on the relational model of data, as proposed by E. F. Codd in 1970. A database management system used to maintain relational databases is a relational database management system (RDBMS). Many relational database systems are equipped with the option of using SQL for querying and updating the database.

Structured Query Language (SQL) is a domain-specific language used to manage data, especially in a relational database management system (RDBMS). It is particularly useful in handling structured data, i.e., data incorporating relations among entities and variables.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ingres (database)</span> Database software

Ingres Database is a proprietary SQL relational database management system intended to support large commercial and government applications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IBM Db2</span> Relational model database server

Db2 is a family of data management products, including database servers, developed by IBM. It initially supported the relational model, but was extended to support object–relational features and non-relational structures like JSON and XML. The brand name was originally styled as DB2 until 2017, when it changed to its present form.

Database administrators (DBAs) use specialized software to store and organize data. The role may include capacity planning, installation, configuration, database design, migration, performance monitoring, security, troubleshooting, as well as backup and data recovery.

The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of relational database management systems. Please see the individual products' articles for further information. Unless otherwise specified in footnotes, comparisons are based on the stable versions without any add-ons, extensions or external programs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LAMP (software bundle)</span> Acronym for a common web hosting solution

LAMP is an acronym denoting one of the most common software stacks for the web's most popular applications. Its generic software stack model has largely interchangeable components.

Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM) is a set of web-based tools aimed at managing software and hardware produced by Oracle Corporation as well as by some non-Oracle entities.

In database computing, Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) — an option for the Oracle Database software produced by Oracle Corporation and introduced in 2001 with Oracle9i — provides software for clustering and high availability in Oracle database environments. Oracle Corporation includes RAC with the Enterprise Edition, provided the nodes are clustered using Oracle Clusterware.

ER/Studio is data architecture and database design software developed by IDERA, Inc. ER/Studio is compatible with multiple database platforms and is used to create and manage database designs, as well as to document and reuse data assets. In 2015, Embarcadero Technologies was acquired by database and infrastructure management software company IDERA, Inc. Since the acquisition by IDERA, Inc., ER/Studio has been renamed to ER/Studio Data Architect with updated features.

Embedded SQL is a method of combining the computing power of a programming language and the database manipulation capabilities of SQL. Embedded SQL statements are SQL statements written inline with the program source code, of the host language. The embedded SQL statements are parsed by an embedded SQL preprocessor and replaced by host-language calls to a code library. The output from the preprocessor is then compiled by the host compiler. This allows programmers to embed SQL statements in programs written in any number of languages such as C/C++, COBOL and Fortran. This differs from SQL-derived programming languages that don't go through discrete preprocessors, such as PL/SQL and T-SQL.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oracle Linux</span> Linux distribution by Oracle

Oracle Linux is a Linux distribution packaged and freely distributed by Oracle, available partially under the GNU General Public License since late 2006. It is compiled from Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) source code, replacing Red Hat branding with Oracle's. It is also used by Oracle Cloud and Oracle Engineered Systems such as Oracle Exadata and others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greenplum</span>

Greenplum is a big data technology based on MPP architecture and the Postgres open source database technology. The technology was created by a company of the same name headquartered in San Mateo, California around 2005. Greenplum was acquired by EMC Corporation in July 2010.

A cloud database is a database that typically runs on a cloud computing platform and access to the database is provided as-a-service. There are two common deployment models: users can run databases on the cloud independently, using a virtual machine image, or they can purchase access to a database service, maintained by a cloud database provider. Of the databases available on the cloud, some are SQL-based and some use a NoSQL data model.

Informix Corporation was a software company located in Menlo Park, California. It was a developer of relational database software for computers using the Unix, Microsoft Windows, and Apple Macintosh operating systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SingleStore</span> Database management system

SingleStore is a proprietary, cloud-native database designed for data-intensive applications. A distributed, relational, SQL database management system (RDBMS) that features ANSI SQL support, it is known for speed in data ingest, transaction processing, and query processing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NuoDB</span>

NuoDB is a cloud-native distributed SQL database company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 2008 and incorporated in 2010, NuoDB technology has been used by Dassault Systèmes, as well as FinTech and financial industry entities including UAE Exchange, Temenos, and Santander Bank.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MSP360</span> Application service provider

MSP360, formerly CloudBerry Lab, is a software and application service provider company that develops online backup, remote desktop and file management products integrated with more than 20 cloud storage providers.

References

  1. "Oracle Database 23c: The Next Long Term Support Release".
  2. Lextrait, Vincent (March 2016). "The Programming Languages Beacon, v16". Archived from the original on 30 May 2012. Retrieved 15 December 2016.
  3. "OTN Standard License", Technical network, Oracle
  4. "Multimodel Database with Oracle Database 12c Release 2" (PDF). Oracle. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 April 2017. Retrieved 1 March 2017.
  5. "Exadata" (PDF), Technical network, Oracle
  6. Roeser, Mary Beth; Adams, Drew; Ashdown, Lance; Baby, Thomas; Baer, Hermann; Baskan, Yasin; Bayliss, Nigel; Chen, Shuo; Belden, Eric. "Oracle and Standard SQL". Oracle Help Center. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
  7. "Welcome to Larryland". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 25 August 2016. Retrieved 19 December 2009.
  8. Julie Bort (29 September 2014). "Larry Ellison Is A Billionaire Today Thanks to the CIA". Business Insider . Archived from the original on 16 January 2017. Retrieved 13 January 2017.
  9. "Free Oracle Database for Everyone". Oracle . Retrieved 19 February 2024.
  10. "Oracle Database 23c Free - Developer Release". Oracle Corporation. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  11. "Oracle Database 23c on OCI Base Database Service". Oracle Corporation. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
  12. "Oracle Database 21c". Oracle Help Center. Retrieved 9 December 2020.
  13. Hardie, William (23 September 2021). "Oracle Database 21c Now Available On Linux". Oracle Database Insider. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
  14. Giles, Dominic (13 February 2019). "Oracle Database 19c Now Available on Oracle Exadata". Oracle Database Insider. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  15. Hardie, William (25 April 2019). "Oracle Database 19c Now Available on Linux". Oracle Database Insider. Archived from the original on 5 April 2024. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  16. "Oracle Database 18c : Now available on the Oracle Cloud and Oracle Engineered Systems". Oracle Database Insider. 16 February 2018. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
  17. Zagar, Adriana (23 July 2018). "Oracle Database 18c Now Available For On-Premises". Oracle Community. Archived from the original on 8 August 2020. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
  18. "Oracle Announces General Availability of Oracle Database 12c, the First Database Designed for the Cloud". Oracle. 1 July 2013. Archived from the original on 9 September 2013. Retrieved 9 September 2013.
  19. "Oracle® Database 11g Release 2 is Now Available". Oracle. 1 September 2009. Archived from the original on 5 April 2018. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
  20. "Oracle Announces General Availability of Oracle® Database 10g Release 2". Oracle. 11 July 2005. Archived from the original on 5 April 2018. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
  21. Biggs, Maggie (5 October 1998). "Oracle8 on Linux shows promise". InfoWorld . Retrieved 7 September 2019.
  22. Nash, Kim (3 October 1994). "Oracle users ponder product overload". Infoworld. IDG Enterprise. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  23. O'Brien, Timothy (29 April 1991). "Oracle8 on Linux shows promise". InfoWorld . Retrieved 7 September 2019.
  24. Mace, Scott (30 January 1989). "DOS Version of Professional Oracle 5.1B Adds SQL Report Writer". InfoWorld . Retrieved 7 September 2019.
  25. Webster, Robin (13 November 1984). "PC Relational Database? New Answer is Oracle". PC Magazine . Retrieved 1 July 2019.
  26. Gralike, Marco (4 April 2006). "Back to the future (Oracle 4.1 VM appliance)". amis.nl. Archived from the original on 1 July 2019. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
  27. Data Processing Digest Volumes 29-30. Data Processing Digest. 1983. p. 2.
  28. Departments of Informatics. "Oracle V2". Virtual Exhibitions in Informatics. University of Klagenfurt. Archived from the original on 30 September 2019. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
  29. Maheshwari, Sharad (2007). Introduction to SQL and PL/SQL. Firewall Media. p. 12. ISBN   9788131800386.
  30. Baransel, Emre (2013). Oracle Data Guard 11gR2 Administration Beginner's Guide. Packt Publishing Ltd. ISBN   9781849687911. Archived from the original on 23 November 2016. Retrieved 15 January 2014. You should not get confused between Critical Patch Update (CPU) and Security Patch Update (SPU) as CPU terminology has been changed to SPU from October 2012.
  31. "Patch Delivery Methods for Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2.0.1) and Later Versions". Docs.oracle.com. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  32. Heudecker, Nick; Feinberg, Donald; Adrian, Merv (25 July 2017). "State of the Operational DBMS Market, 2017" . Gartner. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
  33. "Magic Quadrant for Cloud Database Management Systems". Gartner. Retrieved 18 April 2022.