Oracle releases next generation database

The second version of Oracle 11g Database is now available for download.

This latest generation of the database comes almost two years after the original and with a list of new features.

Ian Abramson, president of the Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG), said, in a statemeny: "Everyone associated with Oracle's technology universe will be excited with the general availability of Oracle Database 11g Release 2."

"The IOUG was an active participant in the Release 2 beta program, and we look forward to our early adopters sharing their experiences with other customers"

The release includes Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) which spread workloads across a number of consolidated servers. It claims that this increases reliability and scalability as well as lowering costs five fold.

Another cost reduction claim centres on storage, where the company believes the use of Advanced Compression and Partitioning support, included in the database, can reduce costs. It does so by compressing data as much four times more than previously allowing the use of lower tier storage arrays.

Improvements to the database and automated self-management capabilities claim to make both the upgrade and operation much faster.

Alex De Vergori, database architect at Betfair, added in a statement: "Betfair operates a truly 24/7 global business where minutes of downtime can have extremely high costs. Until now certain database upgrades have been almost impossible to perform online.

"Our testing as part of the Oracle Database 11g Release 2 beta program has demonstrated that Edition Based Redefinition provides the tools we've been waiting for to maximise uptime during our software upgrades. We look forward to using it in production."