11 Things About 11g

Warning...this is another geek tech post so be forewarned.

About one year ago, I attended my Oracle guru's workshop (Tom Kyte) in downtown LA where he presented a very inspiring presentation about Oracle 11g.

I was rummaging through some of my old notebooks and hand written notes and found this one which I wanted to share and keep for posterity, hence the blog post.

1. Encrypted Tablespaces
The database block writer now does encryption and it needs oracle wallets and keys.

2. Cache More Stuff.
The result_cache hint caches more in the shared pool resulting in a better application experience.

3. Standby is better.
The biggest thing here was the ability to have a read/write standby database.
This allows one to report, backup, develop and test on an active standby.

4. Real Application Testing.
I love this one because it solves some major testing challenges for internet applications.
Using Database replay and SQL Peformance Analyzer (SPA), one can replay production load in a QA environment and a whole new world of testing opens up.

5. Smaller Secure DMP.
This one marks the end of life of export as we know it as it gets replaced by datapump.
Datapump's compression ratio is upped to 4:33 and includes encryption.

6. Virtual Columns.
Estimated cardinality improves. More about this later...i cannot remember exactly how/what this is...i swear..:-)

7. Partitioning is better.
They have introduced more ways to partition your data.
Interval partitioning, Partition by reference, Virtual column partitioning, Composite partitioning.

8. The Awaited Pivot.
This one allows you to turn rows into columns by using the pivot keyword in your sql queries. You can clap now...

9. Flashback Data Archive.
Also known as FBDA like we dont have enough acronyms; this extends the flashback window further back by allowing you to mine the logs stored in the FBDA.
This data is tamper proof and cannot be changed or truncated.

10. Finer Grained Dependency Tracking.
PL/SQL code invalidates less frequently and we all know how annoying it can be when you touch one piece of code and the depenency tree gets invalidated.

11. OLTP table compression.
This one is all about space and performance. Let your imagination run wild with the benefits of compression.

Enjoy.