Oracle debuts 9i database suite

Oracle has unveiled version 9i of its database suite, featuring improved clustering technology.

Based on its new cache fusion architecture, Oracle claims 9i improves the clustering capabilities of the Oracle 8i Parallel Server, which was launched around two years ago.

At the Oracle Openworld event in San Francisco this week, the company also announced its Oracle 9i Application Server and associated developer tools.

According to Oracle, application reliability within the database is improved because the cache fusion architecture treats each node independently. Read requests can be served by any of the memory caches in the cluster database and the cache of each server also co-ordinates to ensure that data being read or updated is consistent.

Analysts applauded Oracle's attempt to improve the clustering technology that is currently featured in 8i, which Giga Information Group said is too complex and a turn-off for many potential users.

Terilyn Palanca, an analyst at Giga, said: "There was a concern about Parallel Server because it suffered too much of an overhead to be highly scalable. The cache fusion architecture is meant to override this. If this truly works, it is a significant breakthrough."

According to Palanca, the clustered database market is still in its early stages and IBM is seen as a significant player with its UDB Extended Enterprise Edition, while Microsoft has just taken its first steps into the sector with SQL Server 2000.

"There's a huge market for database systems to handle millions of transactions," she said, adding that true linear scalability had previously eluded Oracle.

Also announced as part of Oracle 9i is Application Server, an update to the 8i version of the software which was launched just four months ago. The latest release includes a web caching facility which Oracle claims helps to speed up web content delivery by a factor of 150.

Application Server also includes a portal developer which allows users to wrap data, such as weather information or sales updates, with Oracle's portal development kit so that it can appear on company portals.