Oracle Database Reviews

We are using it for inventory control. We have about 220 servers running Oracle Database, but we're migrating from Oracle to Postgres.

We've had it for a very long time, and up until they changed the way they do the billing, we were happy. A few years ago, they changed the way they charge for the product, and they hit us with a $6 million bill for one year, and that was it. People got very unhappy.

It is a mature product. It is pretty stable. I've got a lot of experience with it, so it is pretty easy to use.

The software really doesn't need any improvement, but the way they do the billing should be improved. They charge by all the chips on the server, whether you use them or not. If you have a server that has 64 chips on it and you use one chip, they charge you for 64, and that's a terrible business model.

Their support is terrible and should be improved.

I've been using Oracle Database for probably 20 years.

It is very stable. It has been around for a very long time, and it is stable now.

It scales vertically. So, the more stuff you want to do, you have to get a bigger server. That's okay if you can do that, but the strategy now is that everybody is scaling horizontally because you can buy a ton of cheap servers and spread them out all over the network.

We have about 10,000 users, and they're doing inventory control. We don't plan to increase its usage. We are planning to decrease its usage and go to Postgres.

Their support is terrible. I stand a better chance talking to my four-year-old grandson than talking to them. At least, he pays attention.

They weren't using any other product previously. They have been using Oracle for maybe 20 years.

It is very straightforward. It takes about three or four hours.

We do it ourselves. For its maintenance, there are probably seven or eight people.

Its cost is astronomical. They charge by the size of the server rather than what you're actually using. It is just a terrible business model.

It has got a ton of features that are great, but you have to pay for them, and we don't want to spend a lot of money.

If you use any of their additional products, you have to pay for those. Almost everything extra is at an additional charge. We also use RAC, and there is an additional charge for that. 

I guess they did evaluate other products, but I wasn't there.

If money is no object, it is a great product, but if you're worried about your budget, find another solution.

I would rate it a 10 out of 10. It is a great product. It has been around forever. It works, but it is too expensive.

The solution is primarily used as a relational database, or we can use it for certain kinds of AP integrations.

The performance is much better than the Microsoft SQL in some ways. The stability has been good so far. It's reliable. 

The pricing needs to be improved. 

The solution is stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable. 

There are only certain people who use the solution. Not many users have access to much of it. We only have real access to some of the databases. I would say there are only one to five of us who can access Oracle at the moment.

I've never spoken to technical support. Therefore, I cannot speak to how helpful or responsive they are. 

I'm also familiar with Microsoft SQL. However, we do not currently use anything else as a relational database at this time. 

While I can still query the database and then access it, I was never involved in deployment or installation.

The pricing could be better. It would be nice if they could offer a one-year subscription package or something similar. 

I cannot speak to which version of the solution we're using at this time. 

I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. I've been pretty happy with its capabilities overall. 

I would recommend the solution to others. If you look at the progress being made in Oracle, they are coming up with and bringing up some new features. It sounds good. They are more into the cloud now, too, and getting into new features and stuff like that there. They're improving constantly.

RDBMS, we still believe, is Oracle's core product. Hence any time we are looking at any database features or building a new database, Oracle is always our product of choice because of its stability, scalability, reliability, and flexibility.

It would be the stability that's improved our organization the most. We are a 24/7 manufacturing plant. We take one day off a year, Christmas Day. Other than that, we're building and creating drugs and the stability of the Oracle database enables us to have near 100% uptime 24/7/364.

It's so expensive, particularly Enterprise Edition, and that would be my number one gripe. It's very, very expensive. Also, Oracle makes a big show of its new features and enhancers with each new release, but it's very rare that any of those enhancements come with Database by default. You have to pay for each of those enhancement -- and pay heavily at that.

In the latter versions of the 12c product, I've actually found it a little bit more difficult to set up than it was before. I find that Oracle is introducing many, many, many new features with each part of the database. Sometimes I think they're losing focus of the core components and what customers actually need. I think if they concentrated on the core elements of RDMS, which, for me, is their number one product, I think before going on the periphery and looking at small enhancements or additions to the product, they should look into making it even more stable before they do these major releases.

It's been very stable for us.

I would say the scalability sets it apart from others. We run a big manufacturing plant and the database is growing at a very very, high rate, but we know with the Oracle RDBMS, it can sustain growth from now and into the future.

I actually found that the earlier versions of RDBMS were actually easier to set up, so I've been working with the Oracle product right from Oracle 7, and I obviously will in 12c. I find now in 12c, I would expected laying out Oracle Database to become easier, but I actually think it's a little bit more complicated now in these later versions. I can categorically say that the joining up with the Oracle agent between RDBMS and Oracle Enterprise Manager is an extremely complicated process. When we were on TNG before we'd done any upgrades, the agent to get the database to talk to Enterprise Manager was a really, really simple thing to do. In fact, right now it's extremely complicated.

For installing the database or looking at the database, I would say look at the components that you need within the database. What we generally find is that most of the features that we want, or most of the features that are available in Enterprise Edition, we actually wouldn't use, so take time and you might actually see them only by using Standard Edition.

Oracle is the premier relational database platform for enterprise environments. Any organization that purchases enterprise applications will likely have Oracle in place since so many applications require or prefer it.

The most valuable features of Oracle database from my perspective are:

• Read consistency (all queries see a read consistent view of the database so that readers do not block writers and vice versa).
• Data Guard: standby database, with options for maximum performance, availability and protection. I use it in full-synchronous mode to ensure a “hot standby” is available with zero data loss.
• Ability to run non-Windows OS, particularly Linux.
• Ability to monitor and tune; lots of instrumentation built in.

Oracle Database is a big, complex technology stack with many options, features, management packs, etc. The base product (Oracle Database Enterprise Edition) is generally rock solid. Some of the oldest, most mature options are also quite reliable (example: Partitioning option). However, most of the other optional products create additional issues. Almost every time I have pursued the implementation of an optional feature I have encountered bugs, limitations or other unexpected behavior.

I would like to see Oracle follow a model like Microsoft’s SQL Server Enterprise Edition, where all products and features are included by default. There are no “options” you can purchase with SQL Server EE. It seems like one of the results of Oracle’s plethora of optional offerings is confusion and quality issues.

I've been using Database for over 20 years. There are many additional options and management packs (examples: Partitioning, Tuning Pack, Diagnostics Pack, Lifecycle Management Pack, Active Data Guard, Advanced Compression, Advanced Security, RAC, etc.).

A “simple” deployment of just Oracle Database Enterprise Edition is generally a trouble-free activity, albeit still tedious. The RDBMS kernel is perhaps the most mature on the market (Oracle and IBM’s DB2 were released about the same time).

It is one of the most stable solutions on the market.

There are no issues with scaling it.

Technical support is very good. I don’t use Oracle Support often to open a new case. Questions and issues I have are most often answered via the support portal. On the rare occasion a new service request is opened, I find the responses timely and helpful.

In the past, I have used RAC (and before that OPS, its ancestor). In general, like most shared clustering technologies, the “solution” creates more problems than it solves. RAC’s complexity level requires full-time attention in my opinion. I abandoned the option in favor of VMware and virtual servers, which cover availability from a hardware-loss perspective. In cases where more availability is needed, the Data Guard option is sufficient and MUCH simpler to configure and use.

I started with IBM’s DB2 and used SQL Server (Sybase initially, then Microsoft SQL Server after they split in the 90’s) before Oracle, so have used and evaluated all three of the major RDBMS vendors. I no longer use DB2 because the platform it was on (mainframe) was retired, but I still actively use Microsoft SQL Server.

Both products have their place. I prefer SQL Server for the smaller, departmental applications and Microsoft-related back-office applications due to its ease of deployment and management. I prefer Oracle for most enterprise-scale applications due to its overall strength in this area (performance, scalability, availability) and ability to run on a non-Windows OS (we use Linux exclusively).

Oracle is a complex product, there is no way around that. Compared to Microsoft SQL Server, which can be installed with a few mouse clicks, Oracle takes planning, preparation and significantly more time and expertise.

We have always installed, configured, and managed Oracle with in-house personnel. I would not recommend outsourcing the implementation unless all support for the product were being outsourced. Oracle database requires expertise and constant attention. If an organization intends to support it internally, the personnel responsible for that support need to be the same that install and configure it.

Oracle is very expensive. No organization that didn’t “have to” use Oracle would do so. If I were in a small business or an organization that did all of its own applications development, I would avoid Oracle simply due to its cost. Other databases on the market would suffice in those scenarios. Any medium-to-large business will probably not be able to avoid using Oracle database. I don’t think there is an ROI to calculate, but rather a sunk cost in doing business. My advice would be to limit the number of options and features and go with the bare minimum needed to support the needed applications.

The technology behind the base RDBMS is excellent, probably the best on the market, but its cost and complexity are negatives. The personnel who will support need to get formal training and need to be dedicated database administrators. A part-time DBA will not be sufficient for anything more than a trivial deployment.

I think the most valuable feature of Oracle 12c is the ability to have portability for all the various databases. You didn't used to have that option and that functionality, so that's made things a lot more flexible in terms of availability, and shortening the time of doing upgrades, and things like that. I really like the flexibility.

I'm not quite sure exactly how long we've been using it, but in my experience, it's certainly provided us a lot more flexibility to do various things from an organizational perspective because of the database portability. It's a high-cohesion solution in terms of different applications and tools that are available to work with it.

Oracle is already working on improvements and in the process of adding new features, such as cloud support. It's just a matter of getting the resources to obtain and use them, and to build our existing system on top of it. I look forward to that.

I've been using Oracle for about six or seven years, and I've been using 12c in the last couple of years.

We didn't have any issues with deployment.

12 seems to be a little bit more stable than 11 used to be, although, knock on wood, we still use a little bit of 11.

We haven't had to do a whole lot of scaling. It's been pretty static in terms of our utilization of it. For any scaling we've had to do, it's scaled to our needs.

They're knowledgeable, proactive. It helps working in a enterprise environment as opposed to working for smaller shops that they don't get that same type of attention.

The initial setup was pretty straightforward.

It's the way to go. It's the cutting edge, but it's not the bleeding edge, and you can certainly build upon it.

Oracle Database is the database we use for one of our core solutions.

The price for Oracle Database could be better. It's a top-of-the-line product, so it's a bit expensive. We'd like for its price to be a bit lower, both for licensing and support. This is the only area for improvement I could think of for Oracle Database.

We've been using Oracle Database for two years.

Oracle Database is a stable product.

Oracle Database is a scalable product.

The initial setup for Oracle Database was straightforward.

We implemented this product in-house. The process was straightforward, so we could do it ourselves.

The licensing and support pricing for Oracle Database is a bit expensive, as it is a top-of-the-line product. We pay for this product yearly.

We used MySQL.

We are using the Enterprise version of Oracle Database, but I'm not sure about the exact version number.

I'm satisfied with this product. Oracle is a global, top database platform, so there isn't anything I'd like to change or add to Oracle Database.

We have 30 users of this product, and we currently don't have plans of increasing that number. For the deployment and maintenance of this product, we have two or three persons in charge, e.g. admins.

I have no complaints about Oracle Database, so I never got to contact their technical support team.

I'm recommending this product to others who are looking into implementing it.

My rating for Oracle Database is eight out of ten.

You can put any application on Oracle, but it is especially used for financial and billing use cases.

Oracle Database is very flexible.

Two of the valuable features are the Application Clusters and Data Guard.

The price of the Oracle Database should be cheaper.

I have been using Oracle Database for approximately 20 years.

The stability is good, and we plan to continue using it in the future.

This is a scalable product. You can grow, and you can add things to do. We have approximately 10,000 users in our organization.

I use technical support once in a while and I find that they are improving. Over the years, there has been a big improvement in terms of support.

Prior to Oracle, I ran Adabas. Currently, I also use MySQL.

We have done hundreds of installations. Some of them are quick, whereas others take a long time. There is no one answer as to how easy or difficult it is to set up.

We have five database administrations who maintain it.

The pricing is expensive, which is a major issue. We pay a yearly maintenance fee.

The Oracle Database is a monster, with many faces and many parts. It can be used for everything. I cannot see any room for major improvement, other than perhaps the price.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

I use Oracle Database to manage my organization's data stores.

Oracle Database has made my organization's data highly available.

It runs on scalable operating systems like Linux, AIX, and Solaris. It uses very many different types of indexes to improve performance. It has automatic memory management capability and large file capability.

The Oracle Database could improve on integration with other infrastructure systems like Active Directory.