Oracle and Data Grid Computing

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Oracle, a premier provider of database management systems, should be a natural leader to provide some kind of Data Grid.  When ?Data Grid? is heard, it is normally understood as the provision of grid focusing and unifying various data sources. At present, some pure play vendors such as Avaki and DataSynapse are in the forefront, providing grid middleware that unifies various data sources.

While the leading hardware vendors like IBM, HP and Sun etc., are working with pure play grid solution providers through active partnership, Oracle is gearing up and transforming its entire product line to make them grid-ready or grid-enabled. It is trying to position itself as the leading software player for grid technology. It is worth noting what Tabb Group says about Oracle in Grid Space:

???while naturally starting in the data grid space, Oracle is actively enhancing their product suite to be grid compliant and has recently re-branded their whole product line with a ?g? representing grid enabled. This is the first significant re-branding of its technology since embrace of the Internet when it added an ?I? to its suite?

Similar comments were conveyed when Bob Evans, editor of Information Week, wrote last year,

"Oracle itself is remarkably bullish on the technology--so much so that it's shifting the letter used in the names of its database products from "i" (e.g., Oracle 8i, 9i, etc.) to "g" in the forthcoming release of 10g. That naming convention shouldn't be taken to mean more than it's supposed to; on the other hand, Oracle didn't make this decision lightly."

Frederick Limp, a professor in the Geosciences and Environmental Dynamics department at the University of Arkansas, added this enthusiastic perspective:

"When Oracle got behind grid, I thought it was like the move from Mosaic to Netscape." And the result, he said, is that grid computing has reached a "tipping point of acceptance" among large organizations whose databases must handle huge files from disparate sources and whose underlying architectures must be secure, scalable, and increasingly cost-effective.?

Oracle?s commitment to actively support Grid Computing is a solid one. The decision by Oracle to add grid-enabling components to its latest database release has definitely given a new sense and support for Grid campaign in the IT industry.

Oracle?s Approach to Grid

Even though the idea of Grid is something that encompasses many organizations, technologies, resources and locations, many IT vendors tend to define and make it more practical for implementation. As the concept of Grid is somewhat broad and amorphous, many organizations tend to define according their vision and needs. In the same way, Oracle would like to confine Grid Computing within an enterprise. At present, they seem to be more focused on unified management of a variety of computer resources.

According to Chuck Phillips, Executive Vice President of Oracle Corporation:

?Grid Computing is coordinated use of many small servers acting as one large computer.?

The following is a look at Oracle?s vision of the scope and sizing of Grid.

Oracle's approach seems to be limited to organization. They are not referring to a multi-organization, multi-location approach. It probably boils down to aggregation of smaller servers into a Large Computing Resource; in other words, it is more like Oracle Clusters. In turn, these large flexible clusters become the building blocks for an organization?s Grid Environment.  Oracle's key technologies such Oracle Real Application Clusters, Oracle Streams, Automatic Storage Management, Grid Control Utility and Oracle Transportable Tablespace are being positioned for building the Grid Infrastructure.