Oracle’s New Revolutionary Concept: Pluggable Databases
Oracle has always been at the forefront of innovation when it comes to databases and it is no surprise that the company is still the leader in providing database solutions to businesses today. Recently, Oracle was in the news about one of its biggest annual event, the Oracle Open World. While there was a lot of speculation about what the company was going to showcase in this event, the open secret was that the latest of the Oracle’s highly successful database line, the Oracle Database 12c edition would be released.
Organizations and experts were eagerly awaiting this release considering the fact that Larry Ellison, Oracle’s CEO, said that the conference was ‘a very, very big deal to the company.’ Amid all the speculation, we can safely say that the ‘c’ in ‘12c’ stands for cloud and we could see cloud support in the latest edition of Oracle’s database.
Database Virtualization
When Mr. Ellison talked about database virtualization, not many people were excited. This is not a new concept and has been around for a while now. In fact, VMWare, one of the pioneers of the virtualization technology, had introduced a fabric that allowed users to use DBs as virtualized databases last year itself. They had also released an update 6 months ago which enabled the fabric to be used with the 10g and 11g editions of Oracle’s database. But the virtualization is only a part of the upgrade. Judging by Mr. Ellison’s address, we can say that this concept was integrated into the latest version only to ease up the cloud part of the database for administrators. Then what is the big thing that Ellison was talking about the new database Oracle would release in the World event? The answer is – pluggable databases.
The Technology Behind Pluggable Databases Is Not Very Clear Yet
It is a well known fact that MySQL databases are open source software and anybody can get their hands on the source code. This will allow us to know exactly what is different and new in the latest versions of this database. But Oracle’s flagship database is proprietary software and you will have to pay to use it. The Oracle team works behind closed doors and only the final product is made public. The team is also careful not to elaborate on how exactly they have achieved the newest improvements, which is an acceptable business tactic. Since the software of this database will only be released in the next 12 months or even later, we cannot exactly say how “pluggable” databases work. Most probably, this could be one of the more interesting topics that you may discuss as a part of your Oracle SQL training classes in the future.
Oracle Technical Blog Gives Us Some Insight Into Pluggable Databases
Although you will not get any official answers from Oracle, vice president Tom Kyte’s blog gives you some valuable information about pluggable databases. Without going into specifics, Kyte has just provided an outline of Oracle’s newest technology.
To paraphrase Kyte, the new version of the database is split into two different parts in the 12c edition. This is known as ‘architectural separation’. One of the parts will be known as the container database and will hold the metadata and the functionality elements of the database. The other part of the database will be the user’s portion and this will be independent from the container.
Metadata Separation, the Key
Since the new database has two independent parts that can function with each other, the system gets a whole new outlook. The key to pluggable database was to separate the metadata of Oracle from the metadata of the customer. The customers’ database part now becomes the pluggable part and to use it with Oracle’s database, all the customer needs to do is to plug it in. Note that even the pluggable database part has all the functionality elements required to operate on its own. This is a big improvement from the previous editions, 10g and 11g.
Another interesting fact that the blog gives us is that 12c could support in excess of 250 databases. Each database would behave as a pluggable database. The blog also highlighted the fact that 250 was just a number chosen to indicate the number of databases that could work together. He said that there is a possibility that even more than 250 databases could work together, but that has not yet been tested. You might want to discuss the implications of this integration in your Oracle SQL training classes as this technology is going to completely revolutionize the way we use databases.
Please Share This Knowledge With Others!
Gertrude says
I am not sure I am clear on what a virtualized database is. It sounds like a pluggable database is sort of like a flash drive or other pluggable storage device. If this is the case, it beats the heck out of having to install a server with so many ethernet wires sticking out of it. Oracle can only hope that this technology is nearly as popular as the flash drive has become for consumers.
Marisa says
I am glad and relieved to see that we have gotten past having to read technical manuals in order to get development training and matriculated onto streaming video tutorials via the web. This is more of a natural way of learning. It is like having an instructor work with you in a class room without actually having to commute to school. It also makes training more inviting.
Kristine says
I have read that game developers are increasingly moving away from traditional C programming to Python due the advantages offered by the engine. Python is also popular for custom gaming development. One example of this trend is how Asahi Technologies, to help organizations seeking to develop custom computer games, announced custom gaming development with python programming in New York.
Tim says
So if I understand this correctly, pluggable databases will allow multiple databases to run under one copy, or instance, of the Oracle database software, a feature they called “multitenancy”, and incidentally, the same term they use in web server or cloud server hosting environments which refers to a raid server silo setup where the server is backed up by two other servers. Is this the same?
Monica says
I think this can be better understood by what Oracle’s President said: that Oracle Engineered Systems hardware and software designed to work together are simplified scalable and integrated. Hurd also claims the Engineered Systems deliver 100 times performance in many areas. So if a report took 100 minutes before now it takes one. Most customers are paying $8,000 to $10,000 per terabyte for storage, driving up IT budgets just to chase space.
Kristine says
Unlike open-source MySQL databases, work on which is largely conducted in public view, Oracle’s work on its flagship database is largely conducted behind closed doors. So, I don’t think that the public really knows precisely how pluggable databases would work and the software is not due to be released for another year. You could say this is a major transformation from traditional database architectures.
Keith says
There are a just few key challenges for database administrators especially in the area of allocating computational resources. For instance, how will the new workload characteristics of running multiple databases on a single server be determined. The characteristics of the optimum size of a server, in regard to memory and hard disk storage space; These issues may also need to be reconsidered.
Javier says
And You would think that Google would want to cater to the majority of users, but instead, they seem to push users towards the latest version upgrades of Android. I guess it is a good thing for app development students to know. It is interesting to discover that Google is not all powerful in everything.
Ruth says
I think I get this concept. Oracle 12c will allow you to have multiple databases within the same instance. The databases will be completely isolated, so users in one DB will not see anything about the other databases on same instance, and each can have its own configuration and parameters. But SGA will be shared, so you don’t have to manually allocate memory to each DB, and in general management of those databases is simplified.
Alfred says
If Oracle is going to start incorporating cloud storage in their databases then I know it has to be safe for personal use as well. I have been very leery of it because I simply don’t trust computers to not crash and lose all of my stuff. I also don’t trust the people that work at these places to not steal your identity through something like this.
Ruth says
I read some rave reviews about Day 1 at Oracle Open World. Apparently, it did not disappoint. The Oracle address focused on the cloud and how its scope is all-encompassing. They also mentioned how Pluggable databases will change the game with the gathering of huge amounts of societal data that will revolutionize the way many organizations do business. It sounds like an exciting time at Oracle.