Oracle Database is a top-ranking multi-model database management system by Oracle Corporation. Through Oracle database services and products, clients receive cost-optimized and high-performing versions of Oracle Database, as well as in-memory, NoSQL, and MySQL databases. The solution is available by several service providers on premises, in the cloud, or as a hybrid installation. It can be run on vendor servers as well as on Oracle hardware, including Exadata on-premise, Oracle Cloud, or Cloud at Customer.
Users can select from various types of Oracle Database solutions, depending on what they aim to do with this product. Based on their specific needs, they can choose among options that include:
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Autonomously managed Oracle databases: This type of database eliminates the complexity of operating and securing Oracle Database, while simultaneously ensuring high levels of performance, scalability, and availability for users.
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Oracle Database on Exadata: Users who seek particularly fast platforms can select this type of running solution. Exadata is a computing platform that is optimized for running Oracle Databases and it serves as the fastest platform for Oracle Database.
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Oracle Database on-premises deployment: The product allows for deployment on-premises for clients who have data residency and network latency concerns. This option also offers customers the benefit of updated Oracle Cloud technology, including Exadata and Autonomous Database.
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Oracle Database in the cloud: Organizations can use a specific version of this tool in the cloud, benefiting from complete control over the versions they run and when these versions change.
Part of this product is a fully automated database service called Oracle Autonomous Database, which facilitates the development and deployment of application workloads for organizations. It is built on Oracle Database as well as on Oracle Exadata. This service supports various data types and simplifies application development and deployment from modeling and coding to extract, transform, load process (ETL), data analysis, and database optimization. The service achieves high results in:
- Performance
- Availability
- Security for online transaction processing (OLTP)
- Analytics
- Batch
- Internet of Things (IoT) workloads
Oracle Database Features
Oracle Database has various features which users can utilize in their work with the solution. Among these features are the following:
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Backup and recovery: Oracle Database ensures the integrity of users' data in system failure situations. This feature utilizes a tool named Recovery Manager (RMAN), which allows administrators to perform cold, hot, and incremental database backups, as well as point-in-time recoveries.
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Clustering: This feature enables high availability of systems in order to run without interruption of services on occasions when one or more servers in a cluster fail. Included is a tool called Oracle Real Application Clusters.
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Data dictionary: Through this set of internal tables and views, Oracle Database can be administered more efficiently.
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Logical data structure: Through its feature for logical data structure, Oracle Database stores data in a way that allows users to interact with the database without knowing where the physical storage of the data is located.
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Memory catching: Through the memory caching architecture feature, users can scale up very large databases and still perform at a considerably high speed.
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Partitioning: This feature allows users to divide large tables into different pieces and store the pieces across storage devices.
Oracle Database Benefits
Oracle Database offers its users various benefits. Some of these include:
- The solution decreases costs for organizations and provides a high return on investment (ROI) through the multiple services and features it offers.
- Oracle Database has high-security protection which includes encryption, key management, data masking, and activity monitoring, that secures organizations' data within the tool.
- The tool offers users the ability to use a single database for all data types, simplifying the process for them.
- Oracle Database can be deployed in multiple places, including data centers and public and private clouds, which allows great flexibility for users.
- The product allows applications from different platforms to communicate with the database through its networking stack.
- Oracle Database is ACID-compliant, which helps maintain data reliability and integrity.
Reviews from Real Users
Paul S., president at Advance Consulting Enterprise, likes Oracle Database because it gets the job done, doesn't fail, and suitable for massively scalable applications.
An Oracle DBA at a computer software company describes Oracle Database as reliable with good performance and very good stability.
SQL Server is a relational database management system (RDBMS) by Microsoft. The product's main purposes are to store data and retrieve it as requested by other software applications - on the same computer or on another computer across a shared network. The solution is built on top of Structured Query Language (SQL), which is a standardized programming language used for relational database management.
The product is tied to Transact-SQL (T-SQL), which is an implementation of SQL from Microsoft that adds several proprietary programming extensions to the standard language. SQL Server is built similarly to other RDBMS products, as its structure is a row-based table that connects related data elements in different tables to one another. One of its most important components is the SQL Server Database Engine, as it controls data processing, storage, and security. Beneath the Database Engine is the SQL Server Operating System, which is used for memory and I/O management, locking data to avoid unneeded upgrades, and job scheduling.
The solution has four editions with different sets of services and tools. They include:
- SQL Server Developer
- SQL Server Expression
- SQL Server Standard
- SQL Server Enterprise
The first two are available for free and are typically utilized by smaller companies, as they work with fewer functions and storage. The second two editions are generally used by bigger organizations and enterprises and offer more features.
The solution has several functions through which users can facilitate different data-related processes. These include:
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Aggregate functions: These functions are used to calculate one or more values and return a single value.
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Window functions: Window functions calculate an aggregate value based on a group of rows and return multiple rows for each involved group.
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Date functions: These functions allow clients to handle data and time data efficiently.
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String functions: Through the string functions, SQL Server processes an input string and returns a string or numeric value.
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System functions: The system functions of the product return objects, values, and settings.
SQL Server Services
SQL Server has a wide range of add-on services that provide additional benefits beyond database management. These services include:
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Machine learning: SQL Server machine learning services allow users to do machine learning and data analytics within the product.
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Service broker: This feature is a part of the database engine and offers messaging and message queuing for applications on the platform.
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Replication: This feature consists of transaction replication, merge replication, and snapshot replication.
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Analysis: SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) adds online analytical processing (OLAP) and data mining capabilities to SQL Server databases.
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Reporting: This feature supports the development of custom reporting applications.
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Notifications: This feature generates data-driven notifications which are sent to subscribers of Notification Services.
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Integration: This SQL Server feature provides capabilities for data integration, data import, and data warehousing.
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Full-text search: Through this feature, users can utilize specialized indexing and query for unstructured text stored in the solution.
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Visual studio: This feature supports data programming with SQL Server.
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Azure Data Studio: This is a cross-platform query editor that can be downloaded and used alongside SQL Server.
SQL Server Benefits
The solution has many benefits for users. These include the following:
- The platform ensures a consistent experience across other platforms while being fast and agile.
- Through the built-in intelligence features, users can understand their data better.
- The solution has enterprise-level security, which ensures the smooth and safe performance of users' data.
- SQL Server offers the ability to retrieve large amounts of data quickly and efficiently.
- The product installation process is fairly easy, and it offers a user-friendly interface.
- SQL Server offers improved data storage and retrieval functions through frequent upgrades.
- The solution reduces the risk of database server attacks, since it is not an open-source database.
Reviews from Real Users
A president at a consultancy evaluates SQL Server as a veteran solution with critical log shipping feature.
Harkamal S., a user at a manufacturing company, rates SQL Server with a high mark because it is a stable, scalable, and easy-to-deploy solution that pretty much covers everything.
Agncia Nacional de guas, Anbima, Aria Systems, Asiana Airlines, Astelit LLC, Australian Finance Group, Banco Occidental de Descuento, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, BT, Caja de Seguros S.A., Casas GEO S.A.B. de C.V., Comic Relief UK, Corsair Components Inc., CSAM Health AS, CSOB Group, Datacraft Solutions, DenizBank A.S., Department of Treasury and Finance WA, Office of State Revenue, Deutsche B_rse AG, Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Deutsche Messe AG, Digicel Haiti, DPR COSEA, Essar Group, Essatto Software Pty Ltd, Farmšcia e Drogaria Nissei Ltda., Fomento Econ‹mico Mexicano S.A.B. de C.V. (FEMSA), FundaÊo Petrobras de Seguridade Social, Future Group, GFKL Financial Services AG, Grupo Posadas S.A.B. de C.V., Grupo Sinosserra, Guerra S.A. Implementos Rodovišrios, Hanatour International Service, Hays plc, Henan Mobile Co. Ltd, Hochschule Hof, Hong Kong and China Technology (Wuhan) Co. Ltd (Towngas Technology), Industries Corpa_al C.A., Infrastructure Development Finance Company Limited, Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatstica, Instituto Mexicano de la Propiedad Industrial, Kcell, LinkShare Corporation, MercadoLibre Inc., MetLife Inc., Nextgen Distribution, €BB-IKT GmbH, Octagon Research Solutions, Pacific Lutheran University, Paragon Data GmbH, Ping ltd., PJSC Trustbank, Prodaub _ Processamento de Dados de Uberl_ndia, Purdue University, Redknee Inc., Robi Axiata Limited, Shanghai Infoservice Technology Co. Ltd, Shanghai Sihua Technologies Co. Ltd, Sistema de Aguas de la Ciudad de M_xico, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, Suddenlink Communications, Suprajit Engineering Limited, Tallink Grupp, Terminales Ro de la Plata S.A., Therap Services LLC, Think Passenger Inc., Trafigura, Transmed S.A.L Lebanon, ValeShop, VelQuest Corporation, Vodafone Group plc, West Virginia Network, WIND Hellas Telecommunications S.A
Microsoft SQL Server is used by businesses in every industry, including Great Western Bank, Aviva, the Volvo Car Corporation, BMW, Samsung, Principality Building Society, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario.
As always, it depends: First look is the area: on-premise server (your own hardware) or in the cloud?
If you want to use your own server, look at the operating system? In my opinion, SQL Server fits best on Windows; Oracle on Unix/Linux. Next is your size of data and the application you want to use: rule of thumb: the more data, the more I tend to Oracle; but Oracle is not 'automatically better'! You need an expert to configure the system for optimal use! A simple setup is often not enough! (There are a lot of screws you can turn, but turning the wrong ones is a negative! And more Hardware is not the solution to a slow system). I think the first step is to look at which app creates and consume which data, where in your network is your data needed and then decide the RDBMS. I have worked for years in a mixed environment; we use a large Oracle RDBMS on AIX to store the large amount of data of several production systems; but also some SQL Server RDBMS to distribute data for some evaluations or reports. In the Oracle RDBMS are 30 Years of data of the whole production process; in SQL Servers are consolidated data for reporting. So first make a compilation of your existing data and application and the future requirements; then you can decide; and the result can also be a mixed world!