Oracle hosting
A database is a collection of tables which can store the given data in various formats using different data types and then the same data can be retrieved in different formats based on the user’s requirements by writing queries in the database’s language. Different websites have different requirements but more or less, all the websites need to store some or the other data for reference or decision making and generating reports or taking some action based on the input data. Though the data can be written in flat files and used, but a faster and better way to store and retrieve data is by using the databases.
There are various different database service providers, which provide different tools for small-end to very high-end requirements on data on different platforms and each of these databases has its pros and cons. The main database options available include MS Access, MS SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, SQLite and others. The first decision on which of the Database Solutions to be used in the website is based on whether the web hosting server hosts a Windows Platform or a Linux Platform. This decision should be made considering the costs and the scripting language that the developers are going to use.
With a small frontend called PL/SQL, Oracle the relational database management system produced by Oracle Corporation is the most widely accepted and the biggest name in the DB industry. Oracle Corporation supports a variety of platforms and secondary platforms, which make it a viable option to be used, since it is supported on both Linux and Windows web servers. The platforms supported by Oracle are as follows:
- Apple Mac OS X Server: PowerPC
- HP HP-UX: PA-RISC, Itanium
- HP Tru64 UNIX: Alpha
- HP OpenVMS: Alpha, Itanium
- IBM AIX5L: IBM POWER
- IBM z/OS: zSeries
- Linux: x86, x86-64, PowerPC, zSeries, Itanium
- Microsoft Windows: x86, x86-64, Itanium
- Sun Solaris: SPARC, x86, x86-64
Considering the above level of support, Oracle does seem to be a very attractive option when it comes to choose a database for web hosting. Oracle has support for both a file based database system and also client-server architecture. This dual feature enables the database to be highly scalable, without even compromising on the performance quality. Oracle DB is found to be very stable and performing steadily even when thousands of users trigger different queries around the same time.
For any database to be good, there are four different parameters which are gauged to come to that conclusion.
- Atomicity – if a bunch of instructions are triggered to the database and if only some of them get executed correctly and the rest fail, then the first few correct entries should be rolled back.
i.e. either the whole transaction should go through, or none of it should get executed.
- Consistency – incorrect data should not get stored in a column, where it is not supposed to be stored. E.g. a date column should get a valid date as an input, a normal number, sentence should not get stored as date. If any inconsistent data is tried to be input the database should roll out those changes and stay in the last consistent state.
- Isolation – different transactions should be considered independent of each other, and the impact of one transaction should not happen on other transaction.
- Durability – once a transaction is completed successfully. The database should register a new stable state and maintain the good data.
The Oracle database works splendidly well at all the above four criteria. It also has various ways to resolve the races within the system and thus ensures complete data integrity and security. For companies with very huge data sizes, Oracle is the most optimal solution owing to its fast performance and stability.
The Oracle database in its latest versions has also come up with concepts like Flashback technology which can help recover data even if there is a hardware issue or a human error which corrupts the database. Apart from this, Oracle is the only company which provides proper support for other features like data warehousing and data mining.
However, though Oracle hosting looks very rosy and attractive, the biggest issue with the Oracle database is that its licenses are very expensive and hence there are very few web hosting companies which offer the option of having an Oracle DB for the backend. The high expenses also make it a poor choice if the data that is to be saved is not very huge and can be saved with decently good performance results with some of the other cheaper alternatives.
After deciding the company, always remember to do a test-recovery before transferring all your data. While choosing an Oracle database as your web host, it is important to maintain the safety of your data in the form of backups and have the ability to restore it when required.