Oracle8i de-support causes major rush to upgrade to 10g Oracle Tips by Burleson Consulting

After a one-year extension, Oracle8i being desupported on December 31, 2004, Oracle shops across the world are rushing to stay on a supported release of Oracle:

 http://MOSC.oracle.com/MOSC/plsql/showdoc?db=NOT&id=274864.1

The de-support notice for Oracle8i is no surprise, but many Oracle shops are choosing to bypass Oracleand move directly with a Oracle 10g migration:

Many of my clients have moved directly from Oracle8i with an Oracle10g migration are all very happy with their 10g migration decision for several reasons:

- Faster code - Both the DBMS kernel and PL/SQL are many times faster than they were in Oracle8i.

- Improved optimization - The new 10g cost-based optimizer is amazing (when properly configured) and the savings from reduced server stress usually pays for the cost of the upgrade.

- Easier Management - The ADDM and advisory utilities can quickly optimize thousands of SQL statements quickly, saving companies thousands of dollars.

- High Reliability - Many of the Oracle8i reliability problems are patched in Oracle10g, making it the platform of choice for anyone doing a database upgrade.

According to Mike Ault, noted Oracle expert, migrating directly from Oracle8i to Oracle10g is a safe bet:

"Oracle 10g has many compelling benefits right out of the box.  The source code is tighter and much faster, especially with PL/SQL, which can run 5x faster with no changes.  I found very few bugs, and Oracle10g is a very safe release.  Clients from Oracle8i find stunning performance gains, largely a result of the new SQL optimizer, automatic statistics collection, and ADDM and the SQLAccess and SQLTuning advisors.  With AMM and ASM, Oracle10g is also easier to manage".

ERP vendors such as Oracle Applications, SAP and PeopleSoft are responding by rushing to certify their applications for an Oracle10g migration:

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1571668,00.asp

 According to Jacobs, SAP has indicated that its applications will be certified on 10g in the first quarter of 2005. Jacobs said that will be the fastest turnaround ever for SAP to certify on a major Oracle database release.

Ditto for PeopleSoft, which is on track to certify on 10g by this summer, Jacobs said, in spite of "all the activity" between Oracle and PeopleSoft regarding Oracle's hostile takeover bid for PeopleSoft. "It shows that at the engineering level, we're still able to get something done together," Jacobs said.