Database 12c puts Oracle private cloud deployments more in reach
LAS VEGAS -- The "c" in Oracle Database 12c stands for cloud, according to the software vendor. And one prominent Oracle expert says the new database indeed has some features that could benefit organizations looking to build out an Oracle private cloud.
Marc Fielding, a senior database consultant at database services provider Pythian, spoke with SearchOracle in a video interview at Collaborate 14, the Oracle user groups conference that took place in Las Vegas this month. Fielding has been working with 12c since it was in beta, and has consulted with clients on implementing the database since it became generally available last year.
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Fielding said that several 12c features, including its Multitenant option, could be beneficial for companies that want to deploy an Oracle private cloud. Multitenant, previously called Pluggable Database, is a database virtualization technology within Oracle Database 12c that allows several database instances to "plug" into a container database. Upgrades and patches only need to be done on the container database, which automatically passes on the changes to the pluggable databases it holds. In addition, Multitenant allows database administrators to unplug a database instance from one container database and plug it into a different one -- even if it's on a different server. That provides high availability as well as backup and recovery benefits, Fielding said.
He added that Multitenant also allows system administrators to get by with less processing overhead on servers when deploying Oracle Database 12c, particularly when a business wants to isolate databases instances from one another. Previously, that may have been done with a technology such as server virtualization. But according to Fielding, using Multitenant can be a more efficient approach.
"Traditionally, you may have been using separate VMs," he said, referring to virtual machines. "There's quite a bit of overhead for running a separate VM, because you have separate copies of the operating system, for example."
Watch the full video to get more insight from Fielding on Oracle Database 12c and the private cloud.
Mark Fontecchio may be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @markfontecchio.