Oracle and Sun Are Faster than IBM: Proof Now Available

Oracle and Sun SPARC SOLARIS World Record TPC-4 Performance Beats IBM's Best Result on DB2 with Power 595 Server.


Oracle and Sun Publish First World Record TPC-C Benchmark using Flash Technology.

San Francisco, Calif. – October 11, 2009, Oracle announced a new world record TPC-C benchmark result for Oracle® Database 11g running on Sun SPARC® servers with CMT technology and the Sun Solaris Operating System (1). This result proves that the Oracle-Sun combination runs faster than IBM DB2 running on IBM’s flagship Power 595(2).

The Oracle-Sun benchmark used an innovative combination of Sun’s fast CMT servers to power the database, along with Sun’s new flash technology to speed I/O.

Oracle Real Application Clusters allowed Sun and Oracle to scale performance on a 12-Node Sun SPARC® Enterprise T5440 cluster. Oracle Real Application Clusters is in production use at thousands of customers, enabling transparent scaling of real-world business applications.

With this benchmark, Oracle and Sun become the first vendors to achieve world record TPC-C performance results using Flash Storage technology. Using the Sun™ Storage F5100 Flash Array, Oracle and Sun were able to set the world record using eight times less hardware than IBM used for its largest benchmark (3).

The Oracle-Sun configuration consumed four times less energy than the IBM configuration even though it ran 26 percent faster.

The Oracle-Sun benchmark demonstrated 16 times better transaction response times than the IBM benchmark(4).

Oracle Database 11g running on the Solaris™ 10 Operating System achieved a record-breaking 7.7 million tpmC at $2.34/tpmC.

Oracle is now the TPC-C world record holder in both major categories – performance(1) and price/performance(5).

Sun Oracle Database Machine: The First OLTP Database Machine

Introducing version 2 of the world's fastest database machine: The Sun Oracle Database Machine. The new database machine goes beyond data warehousing to also deliver extreme performance and scalability for online transaction processing applications (OLTP).

Extreme Performance

The Sun Oracle Database Machine combines industry-standard hardware components and FlashFire technology from Sun, Oracle Database 11g Release 2, and Oracle Exadata Storage Server Software to create a faster, more versatile database machine. "Exadata V2 is twice as fast as Exadata V1 for data warehousing, and it's the only database machine that runs OLTP applications," says Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. "Oracle Exadata V2 runs virtually all database applications much faster and less expensively than any other computer in the world."

The Sun Oracle Database Machine is the world's fastest for any type of database workload, and the only database machine that runs transaction processing applications. It is a complete package of software, servers, storage and networking for all data management, including data warehousing, transaction processing and consolidated mixed application workloads. The Sun Oracle Database Machine includes Sun's new FlashFire technology to cache 'hot' data for dramatically improved transaction response times and throughput. With the Sun Oracle Database Machine, customers can consolidate all their database applications, store up to ten times more data, search data up to ten times faster, and make faster business decisions in real time without making changes to applications.

	BENEFITS
	Extreme Performance for Data Warehouses—Improves both query performance and concurrency by offloading intensive query processing and data mining scoring from database servers and bringing it closer to the data. Extreme Performance for OLTP Applications—Addresses the disk random I/O bottleneck problem by transparently moving hot data to Sun FlashFire. You get ten times faster I/O response time and use ten times fewer disks for business applications from Oracle as well as third-party providers. Extreme Performance for Mixed Workloads—Allows you to consolidate data warehousing, transaction processing, and mixed workloads on a massively parallel server grid and eliminate the cost of third-party specialty hardware, security, and management solutions.

Oracle Buys Sun

Database giant Oracle announced Monday(20th April 2009) that it will buy Sun Microsystems for $9.50 per share—roughly $7.4 billion. The two companies reached an agreement after an unsuccessful bid by IBM fell short at $9.40 per share. Oracle has significantly expanded its reach over the past decade through a series of major acquisitions  which include PeopleSoft, Hyperion, Siebel, and BEA. The addition of Sun to Oracle's roster will have far-reaching implications and a profound impact on the technology industry.

Oracle President Safra Catz said in a statement:

We expect this acquisition to be accretive to Oracle's earnings by at least 15 cents on a non-GAAP basis in the first full year after closing. We estimate that the acquired business will contribute over $1.5 billion to Oracle's non-GAAP operating profit in the first year, increasing to over $2 billion in the second year. This would make the Sun acquisition more profitable in per share contribution in the first year than we had planned for the acquisitions of BEA, PeopleSoft and Siebel combined.

Little known facts about Oracle

• 
• Oracle is ranked among the 10 best companies for a six-month return on equity.

• Oracle's relational database was the world's first to support the Structured Query Language, now an industry standard.

• Today, the Oracle DBMS is supported on over 80 different operating environments, ranging from IBM mainframes and DEC VAX minicomputers, to UNIX-based minicomputers and Windows NT platforms.

• Oracle spends nearly 13% of their revenues for research and development.

• Oracle V1 ran on PDP-11 under RSX, 128 KB max memory and was written in assembly language.
  

• Oracle created the first database to run on a massively parallel computer.
  

• All 10 of the world's largest Web sites- from Amazon.com to Yahoo! - use Oracle. 65% of the Fortune 100 use Oracle for e-business.

Oracle: Past, Present and Future

The Beginnings.

When CEO Lawrence J. Ellison and a few associates formed Oracle in 1977, they were out to prove wrong the prevailing theory that relationship databases could not be commercially viable.

Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates found Software Development Laboratories. Inspired by a research paper written in 1970 by an IBM researcher titled " A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks", the three decide to build a new type of database called a relational database system. Their orginal project is for the government and is titled Oracle. The founders believe that Oracle, meaning source of wisdom, would be an appropriate name for their project and receive permission from the CIA to use it.

What's in a name?

In 1978, Software Development Laboratories moved from their office in Santa Clara to a new one on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, the heart of Silicon Valley. In an attempt to explain what their company does, they changed their name to Relational Software Inc., or RSI. The newly-christened company shipped its first commercial SQL-based database, V2, in 1979 (V1 was never officially released). In 1982 RSI changed its name to Oracle Systems Corporation, which later become Oracle Corporation.

Tapping the Internet.

In 1983, Oracle decided to make RDBMS portable, and introduced V3 - the first portable database to run on PCs, mini computers and mainframes. Today, Oracle targets high-end workstations and mini computers as the server platforms on which to run its database systems. Along with few others, Oracle has long been a champion of network computers. It now boasts that is was the world's first software company to develop and deploy 100 percent Internet-enabled enterprise software across its entire product line: database, server, enterprise business applications, applications development and decision support tools. In fact, CEO Ellison has said, "If the Internet turns out not to be the future of computing, we're toast. But if it is, we're golden."

A phenomenal success story.

Today, as proof of their success, they've parlayed an initial $2,000 investment in the company into an annual revenue exceeding $10.1 billion. Based in Redwood shores, California, it has more that 43,000 employees worldwide and does business in over 150 countries. Oracle (ORCL) is publicly traded on the NASDAQ.

Oracle - Company Profile

Oracle Corporation (Nasdaq: ORCL) is the world's leading supplier of software for information management, and the world's second largest independent software company. With annual revenues of more than $10.1 billion, the company offers its database, tools and application products, along with related consulting, education, and support services, in more than 145 countries around the world. Headquartered in Redwood Shores, California, Oracle is the first software company to develop and deploy 100 percent internet-enabled enterprise software across its entire product line: database, server, enterprise business applications, and application development and decision support tools.

Oracle is the only company capable of implementing complete global e-business solutions that extend from front office customer relationship management to back office operational applications to platform infrastructure. Oracle software runs on PCs, workstations, minicomputers, mainframes and massively parallel computers, as well as on personal digital assistants and set-top devices. As more and more companies transform themselves into e-businesses, Oracle's Internet-enabled solutions provide a cost-effective way to expand market opportunities, improve business process efficiencies, and attract and retain customers. By replacing expensive, unwieldy client/server computing models with the efficiency and reach of the internet, companies can deploy a wealth of innovative applications that can be accessed with a Web browser.

The only software company to offer a full suite of e-business products, Oracle provides:
• An Internet-ready platform for building and deploying Web-based applications
• A comprehensive suite of Internet-enabled business applications

• Professional services for help in formulating e-business strategy, as well as in designing, customizing, and implementing e-business solutions

What is Oracle's history?

1977 Relational Software Inc. (RSI - currently Oracle Corporation) established

1978 Oracle V1 ran on PDP-11 under RSX, 128 KB max memory. Written in assembly language. Implementation separated Oracle code and user code. Oracle V1 was never officially released.

1980 Oracle V2 released - the first commercially available relational database to use SQL. Oracle runs on on DEC PDP-11 machines. Coide is still written in PDP-11 assembly language, but now ran under Vax/VMS.

1982 Oracle V3 released, Oracle became the first DBMS to run on mainframes, minicomputers, and PC's (portable codebase). First release to employ transactional processing. Oracle V3's server code was written in C.

1983 Relational Software Inc. changed its name to Oracle Corporation.

1984 Oracle V4 released, introduced read consistency, was ported to multiple platforms, first interoperability between PC and server.

1986 Oracle V5 released. Featured true client/server, VAX-cluster support, and distributed queries. (first DBMS with distributed capabilities).

1987 CASE and 4GL toolset

1988 Oracle V6 released - PL/SQL introduced. Oracle Financial Applications built on relational database.

1989 Released Oracle 6.2 with Symmetric cluster access using the Oracle Parallel Server

1991 Reached power of 1,000 TPS on a parallel computing machine. First database to run on a massively parallel computer (Oracle Parallel Server).

1992 Released Oracle7 for Unix

1993 Rollout of Oracle's Cooperative Development Environment (CDE). Introduction of Oracle Industries and the Oracle Media Server.

1994 Oracle's headquarters moved to present location. Released Oracle 7.1 and Oracle7 for the PC.

1995 Reported gross revenues of almost $3 billion.

1995 OraFAQ.com website launched.

1997 Oracle8 released (supports more users, more data, higher availability, and object-relational features)

1998 Oracle announces support for the Intel Linux operating system

1999 Oracle8i (the "i" is for internet) or Oracle 8.1.5 with Java integration (JVM in the database)

2000 Oracle8i Release 2 released Oracle now not only the number one in Databases but also in ERP Applications Oracle9i Application Server generally available: Oracle tools integrated in middle tier

2001 Oracle9i Release 1 (with RAC and Advanced Analytic Service)

2002 Oracle9i Release 2

2004 Oracle10g Release 1 (10.1.0) available ("g" is for grid, the latest buzzword)

2005 The Oracle FAQ (this site) is 10 years old! Oracle10g Release 2 (10.2.0) available
Oracle release a free version of their database, Oracle XE (Express Edition)

In 2007, Oracle version 11g was released for the Linux operating system.

What is Oracle

OracleLarry Ellison and Bob Oats were working on a consulting project for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The code name for the project was called Oracle (the CIA saw this as the system to give answers to all questions or something such).

I guess the first question is really, "What is a database"? A database is an organized collection of data. The data can be textual, like order or inventory data, or it can be pictures, programs or anything else that can be stored on a computer in binary form.

A relational database stores the data in the form of tables and columns. A table is the category of data, like Employee, and the columns are information about the category, like name or address.

Some databases have minimal feature sets and only store data, while others include programming languages, facilities and utilities to support enterprise-level applications like ERP and data warehousing. Oracle is the #1 database and has the most advanced feature set.

Oracle is made up of a set of processes running in your operating system. These processes manage how data is stored and how it is accessed. I will cover these processes in detail in the future; but for now we just need to understand that Oracle is a program that is running in the background, maintaining your data for you and figuring out where it should go on your hard drive.

In almost all relational databases, data is accessed through SQL, or Structured Query Language, and Oracle is no exception. SQL allows you to SELECT your data, INSERT new records, UPDATE existing records and DELETE records you want to get rid of. SQL can be embedded in other languages or you can run scripts of SQL directly against the database.

PL/SQL is the procedural language extension to SQL. PL/SQL is a programming language like C, Java or Pascal. In the Oracle world, there is no better way to access your data from inside a program. SQL can be natively embedded in PL/SQL programs. I will be using both SQL and PL/SQL very heavily in my future articles.

PL/SQL is a feature-rich language geared toward developing database applications. PL/SQL is the procedural language of the database, but it is also the procedural language for most of Oracle's tools. Programs that run inside the database are called stored procedures. These stored procedures are almost always PL/SQL, but can be written in Java.