Oracle Database 11g Release 2: It's All About Cutting Costs
The new release is available now for download from the Oracle Technology Network Web site, the company said.
With the focus on efficiency and cutting IT costs in the current recession, Oracle is emphasizing those same themes in the new release. The database, for example, includes new grid computing and server pooling technology that Oracle said can reduce server costs by a factor of five.
A new option, Oracle RAC (Real Application Clusters) One Node, meanwhile, lets IT managers more easily consolidate databases that aren't deemed mission critical across a grid managed by Oracle RAC. New data compression and partitioning capabilities help reduce data storage costs by compressing data by as much as two to four times and simplifies the use of cheaper storage tiers, according to the company.
New automated self-management functions take some of the burden off database administrators, improving their productivity.
Oracle said the database also offers improved performance for data warehouse applications. When paired with the Oracle Database Machine, the database server hardware the company introduced last year, Oracle Database 11g Release 2 can deliver query performance 10 times faster than older versions of the database, according to the company.