Oracle Corp. Tuesday launched Oracle9i, a new version of its flagship
database.
The product, which is aimed at e-businesses, boasts a patented
cache-fusion cluster technology. The technology aims to produce linear
scalability and reliability by quickly sharing frequently accessed data
across all the servers in a cluster, resolving all manners of contention
between servers in the process.
As e-businesses move to consolidate global IT infrastructure and bring
all of their customers, employees and suppliers online, Oracle9i aims to
provide a transparent way for e-business applications to take place,
according to Chuck Rozwat, executive vice president of server technologies
at Oracle.
“The database redefines quality of service, allowing new and existing
businesses to transparently scale their infrastructure and never compromise
reliability,” he said. “In addition, Oracle9i’s unique embedded OLAP and
data mining capabilities ensure that not just the biggest and the best Web
sites run on Oracle, but also the most personalized.”
Crucial to the product’s performance, is:
- Dynamic Web content syndication.
- Internet-scale business intelligence.
- A data guard that offers zero data loss due to human error and disaster
recovery capabilities. - A flashback query that enables self-service recovery from human error
by enabling users and applications to quickly access data. - A proxy authentification technology that verifies the user throughout
the most complex, multi-tiered environments. - A virtual private database with security labels.
- A self-tuning and self-managing database.
The new database additionally offers unprecedented speed, the company
says. In fact, the company has backed that claim with a million-dollar
challenge aimed at commercial production Web sites.
“Our new Oracle9i Application Server has an integrated Web Cache that’s
so fast, we think it will dramatically increase the performance of your Web
site,” according to a company statement. “In fact, we are so confident in
the performance of our new Oracle 9i Application Server and our Oracle8i
Database that we make the following performance guarantee:
“If you have an existing commercial production Web site based on IBM DB2
or Microsoft SQL Server database technology, and you replace your IBM or
Microsoft technology with the Oracle9i Application Server and the Oracle8i
Database, we guarantee that your Web site will run three times faster than
it currently does.
“By this, we mean that your Web site will be able to support at least
three times as many page views per second as your old IBM or Microsoft based
Web site. If your Web site does not run at least three times faster than
before the change to Oracle technology, we will pay you $1,000,000.”
Oracle’s Web site, oracle.com, has the complete conditions of this
challenge.
The new product was unveiled at Oracle OpenWorld 2000, the company’s own
e-business conference. Shipping is anticipated to begin during the first
quarter of 2001.
