Oracle Corp chief executive Larry Ellison personally launched its "in-memory" database technology that marks its entry in the hot zone of speed and the near-instantaneous retrieval of data.
The in-memory technology which has been in the offing for months enables faster database queries and transactions as companies collect, store and analyze vast data volumes. Oracle is mainly targeting the ‘big-ticket’ areas of analytics, queries, and big data that are much in demand.
Speaking at the launch Ellison said, "It’s the ability to run most of your data, all the data you frequently access, in memory and access that data basically instantaneously."
The technology will work in conjunction with the vendor’s 12c database, and enables database queries and analytics to run between 100 and 1,000 times faster than in the past. It will allow each CPU core to scan 2.5 billion rows per second.
Oracle demonstrated the power of this technology on its own applications. A customer receivables management app from Oracle JD Edwards has recorded tremendous boost with the in-memory technology.
Oracle had always been a name to reckon with when it comes to database technology, but over a period of time, it is risks losing market share to smaller, aggressive companies. Plus it is also late for the in-memory database technology party where products such as SAP HANA and HP Vertica have already taken the lead.
But Ellison said that the late move was deliberate as Oracle wanted customers to be able to use its in-memory database without making changes to their existing apps, reports CRN.
He added that the technology offered by Oracle is also designed for online transaction processing, one area, where existing in-memory databases are lacking.
Another area where Oracle says scalability has been addressed with a technology called Real Application Clusters which stores data across multiple cluster nodes, enabling it to take advantage of the memory from different machines.
High availability is another big feature Oracle is touting as in-memory databases from other vendors are vulnerable to downtime.
The technology will be on sale this coming July as an add-on to Oracle’s existing databases.
