Why Oracle Database now? What are the benefits of Oracle Converged Database with Low-Code Oracle Application Express (APEX)? 10 minutes for each subject that was the task I received the other day. I did some internet research to put together information about these subjects. The challenge was not the lack of but the big amount of information I found :). 
As a result I put together a powerpoint, that you can find here and in addition I summarized the conclusions and compiled a list of helpful links. 

First let’s review the Oracle Converged Database term. The first time I heard about it was 2020, when Maria Colgan, Oracle product manager, talked about it and summarized the term with the following sentences:  

“A converged database is a database that has native support for all modern data types and the latest development paradigms built into one product. By integrating new data types, workloads, and paradigms as features within a converged database, you can support mixed workloads and data types in a much simpler way. You don’t need to manage and maintain multiple systems or worry about having to provide unified security across them. You also get synergy across these capabilities. For example, by having support for Machine Learning algorithms and Spatial data in the same database, you can easily do predictive analytics on Spatial data. Making it dramatically easier and faster to develop data-driven apps.”  (source Maria Colgan blog).

What kind of “converged” data support is involved? What can be stored in the same Oracle database and what are the advantages? With the Oracle Converged Database, all types of data can be stored and processed – whether structured or unstructured – also usable in combination. The advantages are obvious: the use of a uniform language such as SQL, central monitoring, uniform tooling and the application of uniform backup, performance and security mechanisms. No integration of different technologies is required. The data can also be stored hybrid inside and/or outside the database – on a server or on an cloud object store. It is also possible to access the database without knowing SQL. SODA (short for Simple Oracle Document Access) and ORDS (Oracle REST Data Services) are examples. Just try it out in  Oracle Cloud Free Tier, Oracle LiveLabs, Oracle Database FREE, or Oracle Live SQL – to name only a few possibilities. 
The following screenshot illustrates the multi-model and cross-model functionality of Oracle’s Converged Database. 

Oracle Converged Database

Interesting web links:

What about a low-code application development platform? Does Oracle provide a corresponding tool? Oracle APEX is a low-code development platform that enables you to build scalable, secure enterprise apps, with world-class features, that can be deployed anywhere. Using APEX, developers can quickly develop and deploy compelling apps that solve real problems and provide immediate value. You won’t need to be an expert in a vast array of technologies to deliver sophisticated solutions. Focus on solving the problem and let APEX take care of the rest.

Oracle APEX provides solutions for a variety of use cases; whether it is simple spreadsheet replacement, any mission critical enterprise system used by thousands on a daily basis, Oracle Forms modernizations, Data Mart reporting, external data sharing and much more. Oracle APEX uses a simple 3-tier architecture where requests are sent from the browser, through a web server, to the database. All processing, data manipulation and business logic is executed in the Oracle database. This architecture guarantees zero latency data access, good performance, and scalability, out of the box.  
The following list gives an idea how you can get access to APEX. 

  • Request a free APEX workspace from hosted apex.oracle.com

  • Use Always Free APEX Service

  • Download and install Oracle APEX locally

  • Use Oracle APEX on Autonomous Database

  • Install on other Oracle Cloud services

Interesting web links: 


Last but not least why should you use the Oracle Database Long-Term release. Long-Term releases offer the highest level of stability and the longest length of error correction support. These releases have at least 5 years of Premier Support followed by 3 years of Extended Support. In contrast to that Oracle’s innovation releases that Oracle delivers in between only provide 2 years of Premier Support without any Extended Support. That means customers should standarize on long term-support versions of Oracle Database. On the other side if you are interested in the newest leading-edge features for your new application development you may choose the innovation release 21c.

Details on this can be found in the MOS note “Release Schedule of Current Database Releases (Doc ID 742060.1)“.

  
Oracle Database includes already many features to enhance Oracle Converged Database. To give you an idea the following list provides some of the features that you may already heard of:

  • Usage of Multitenant functionality with a maximum of 3 PDBs
  • Objectstore Access with the integration of the package dbms_cloud
  • Hybrid Partitioned Tables
  • JSON Features (GeoJSON etc)
  • Multitenant, In-Memory, RAC enhancements etc.

In addition some 21c and 23ai features are already backported to 19c such as SQL Macros, Database In-Memory Base Level, Oracle Blockchain & Immutable Tables, Gradual Password Rollover, enhancements to Database Resident Connection Pooling (DRCP) and more. Check out the Oracle Database 19c New Features Guide Chapter 2 to get an overview of these features and its according Oracle Database 19c Release Updates (RUs).

The best way to investigate features is the usage of Oracle Database features and licencing app – another example of a very cool APEX app. When there are questions like when was the feature xyz added to Oracle Database?” And, “Is features xyz included in Standard Edition or Enterprise Edition?” It provides not only an overview of a features, if you click the feature name, you’ll find a short description of the feature, the business benefit, release availability, and a link to the documentation page.

If you want to stay up-to-date, you may check out Oracle Database Monthly News quick links that are monthly compiled on the last friday by my colleagues and myself.  

What else can help when you want to migrate or upgrade to a new Oracle Database environment? Knowing Mike Dietrich’s blog about Oracle Database Upgrades is one important source you should use. It provides information about events, labs, scripts and gives tips and tricks.

With Oracle Database software there comes also a testing technology called Real Application Testing. Oracle Real Application Testing was designed to empower DBAs to make proactive changes while knowing exactly what to expect when a change is implemented. It is comprised of two components, already installed and available in your database.The first component DB Replay allows you to capture from production and replay workloads in another environment. You simply capture the workload, transfer the files to a test environment, and then replay the activity which was originally performed. The second component is called SQL Performance Analyzer and allows you to assess the impact of the SQL workload load on your test system through detailed SQL statement analysis.

Interesting web links:

If I missed a favourite link that you found very useful, let me know and I will add it.:)