First, I asked Ault what the Top 5 features of 10g are vis-à-vis the ability to save DBAs time. Here's his list:

 

• AMM (Automatic Memory management). "Because DBAs spend a large amount of time monitoring and tuning the SGA areas in Oracle, AMM relieves them of a majority of this chore," Ault said.

   

• Automated diagnostics through ADDM ("Adam"). "This process collects the needed statistics, SQL statements and other required data to analyze performance bottlenecks and provide detailed recommendations to the DBA," he said. "In addition, ADDM can be used to do detailed analysis of SQL statements to develop a SQL profile that can be used to tune previously 'un-tunable' SQL such as third-party application SQL."

   

• ASM (Automated Storage management). "This allows the DBA to set and forget datafile, redo log and other file areas," Ault said. "ASM provides for automated striping and mirroring as well as backup of Oracle-related files. ASM replaces more expensive disk management software (as related to Oracle data files)."

   

• Enterprise manager and Grid Control. "There are so many enhancements in EM that it is difficult to pinpoint one that really shines," Ault said. "However, the automation of backups via a simple point-and-click interface has to be right up there. In addition, the fully Web-compliant interface that allows a DBA to manage [his or her] environment from anywhere they have access to the Internet is also a great convenience.

   

• Improvements to the wait interface. This eliminates the need to dig for child wait information and the grouping of related waits by category, Ault said.