Oracle 10g: Its the Automation, Stupid - ' Page Two ' (
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Still to come is Oracle Database 10g. With that finishing touch, Oracle will be handing the market its version of dynamic provisioning: the ability to apply computing resources to a problem at hand fairly easily, without having to buy very expensive, complex equipment.
The courts still out on whether this will actually save anybody any money. As Read pointed out, this stuffs still expensive. Oracle plans to charge the same for Database 10g as Oracle 9i: $5,995 per CPU and $195 per named user for Standard Edition One, $15,000 per CPU and $300 per named user for Standard Edition, and $40,000 per CPU and $800 per named user for Enterprise Edition.
But, as pointed out by Carl Olofson, an IDC analyst, if everything goes as planned, if the product design and intent all work as advertised, maybe, just maybe, you wont have to spend the equivalent of a small countrys GNP on consulting services to get this all up and running—thanks, again, to automation. "They put in so many self-administering features," Olofson said. "Administration is more automated, with fewer options. They trimmed the number of settings from over 100 to around 30. Theyre fairly straightforward options, and all have defaults that are fairly valid."
Users and analysts attest that yes, indeed, the administration part has been simplified, node configuration now features automated recognition of newly added nodes, and, overall, most of this vast, complex beast we call 10g has been successfully automated.
True, theres a lot to this release. It has a ton of power. It can be a little scary. But, as Olofson said, its like getting a new car with a zillion new automatic features. You know theyre there, and it can be a bit intimidating if you start poking around under the hood. Maybe, Olofson said, if you tend to become overwhelmed by details, you can still take 10g for a spin.
Just keep the hood down.
Have you played with Database 10g yet? Application Server 10g? OIM? Let me know if they live up to the hype by writing to me at lisa_vaas@comcast.net.
Do you buy into Oracles grid vision? Click here to chime in on the discussion at eWEEK forum.
