Oracle Database Gets In-Memory

Write for InfoQ

Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1.0.2) is now available and includes the much anticipated “In-memory” feature, along with several other improvements.

Some important features introduced –

• In-memory Column Store – Storing of objects in memory in a Columnar format, with much better performance for scans, joins and aggregates
• In-memory Aggregation- improves performance of star queries and reduces CPU usage
• Advanced Index Compression
• APPROX_COUNT_DISTINCT() – significantly faster than exact aggregation for large volumes of data, with negligible deviance
• Attribute Clustering- allows storing logically related data in close physical proximity. Can greatly reduce amount of data to be processed and lead to better compression ratios
• Full-Database Caching- Can be used to cache the entire database in-memory when the cache size is greater than the whole database size
• JSON Support- Support for storing, querying and indexing JSON data, and allowing the database to enforce that the JSON stored conforms to the JSON rules

Kevin Closson points out that the In-Memory feature, which is licensed separately, could be used accidentally since it is on by default after the upgrade, and recommends caution.

You can read the “new features” guide for a detailed list of improvements in this release.

Related Topics:

• Development
• DevOps
• Commercial Product Releases
• JSON
• In-Memory Databases
• Oracle
• Columnar Databases
• Infrastructure

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