Oracle Database Reviews

We are using the solution for our online transaction system - that is debit cards - and we are using it for our loan origination system as well. There are two systems that are deployed on it and we are getting a good experience from it. 

The Data Guard feature is the most valuable aspect of the solution. 

The initial setup is pretty straightforward. 

The solution is stable.

The scalability is quite good. 

I have always found the technical support to be very helpful.

The solution is expensive. They should work at making the pricing more reasonable. 

They should be putting more emphasis on the Windows platform. Usually, they run very well on the Linux platform, however, their performance on Windows is a little bit lower quality.

They have to work on their flashback feature. Right now, it is a cumbersome process.

It is actually very heavy on the storage. If Oracle could do something about it, that would be great. 

I've been using the solution for the last 23 years at this point. It's been over two decades. I've used it for a long time. 

The stability is quite good. there are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable. 

The product is quite scalable. You can add as many servers as you would like to. It's not a problem.

The product is not deployed for the user base. It is deployed for the backend service. The amount of actual users is only one or two people. 

We do not have plans to increase usage. The cost is too much of a factor now. I'm not sure if I will be using it anymore. 

Technical support has been great. I am satisfied with the level of service we receive. 

We have Oracle Database and SQL Central Server Database in our environment. We're moving to SQL based on the generally high cost of Oracle. 

The initial setup is very straightforward.

I'm very comfortable with Oracle as well, so for me, it was very, very convenient. I can't speak to the end-user or a user with the lower skillset in terms of their capabilities of setting it up. However, if you have some experience with Oracle, it's not bad.

The deployment only takes 45 minutes to an hour. It doesn't take long.

I have installed it personally and it is very straightforward. However, it is possible to use an integrator or consultant to get the proper assistance. 

We don't really calculate the ROI on the database itself. We calculate the ROI for the system. On whichever system is deployed on a database, we calculate it on a community basis. Therefore, of course, we get the ROI from whatever technology we deploy.

While I'm a fan of Oracle as a solution, I am not a fan of the cost. It is very expensive. 

For medium to small organizations, the current cost might not be viable as compared to SQL Server, which is much cheaper than Oracle and provides approximately the same functionality that they have. 

You can choose a core-based license or a user-based license. There are no extra costs above the standard licensing fees. Typically it is a five-year contract that can be paid monthly or yearly. 

We are a customer and an end-user.

I'd advise those considering the solution to always keep their logs on a different database. Also, they have to make sure the parameterization they do in their initial setup is very, very extensively thought out.

I'd rate the solution at a seven out of ten.

For the Database solution, I'm working with the 12c version. For Security Solution, I'm working with Oracle based Audit Vault and Database Firewall, versions 12 and 20.

We use the solution in Cameroon, where I reside, for payroll purposes. 

Optimization of databases, RAC, Data Guard Replication with Data Guard and RAC Database are the best features. The solution offers many features. We try to tailor the deployment to the needs of the company involved. Some need replication, others optimization and still others, RAC. 

There is a new version of Oracle and Database Firewall, version 20, for which I would be interested in receiving training. For the moment, training is not an option. Having the time to undertake this does not pose an issue for me, as I would speak with my supervisor to allot the requisite time. 

I have been using Oracle Database for nearly four or five years.

The solution is stable. 

The version of the solution being employed today is definitely scalable. 

We work as a partner company with Oracle and have a representative in our region to whom we can appeal directly for collaboratively resolving any issues which may arise with our clients.

We are satisfied with the support. While we don't encounter issues on a daily basis, there has not been a single time that we have failed to resolve one when it has arisen. 

The installation does not take long. They have provided a simplified edition on the hardware and database of the latest version of Oracle Database Appliance, a product I have recently installed. It is quite user friendly and makes things easier than has been the case in the last five years. With the improved installation, the solution is now easy to install.  

The licensing costs are on a yearly basis, although I am a technicican and am not involved in this process. This is in someone else's purview. 

In NFC Cameroon the solution is deployed on-premises. When it comes to Oracle Database, certain companies are deployed on-cloud and others on-premises. We have yet to deploy on cloud. 

We have many clients, ranging from medium sized to very large. We have assisted more than ten clients in implementing the solution in our data center. 

I rate Oracle Database as an eight out of ten. 

I primarily deal with infrastructure and do not manage applications but in the company, we use Oracle for our financial applications.

Oracle is a product that is easy to use.

The interface is user-friendly.

Oracle is not easy to integrate with other systems, which is something that should be improved.

I began using Oracle approximately 10 years ago.

This is a stable database product and we plan to continue using it.

Oracle Database is scalable. We have approximately 100 users in the organization.

I have not been in contact with Oracle's technical support.

We use SQL in other applications, including Salesforce.

The initial setup is complex.

We had assistance from a third party that we outsourced for the deployment. It was a two-person team of engineers.

Licensing is on a yearly basis.

Oracle Database is a popular product that is used around the world and has a very large market share, compared to SAP.

In summary, this is a product that is really stable and flexible with a user-friendly interface, and I recommend it.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

We use this solution to develop applications for our clients.

It's a secure market leader.

The consumption of memory and the client memory has been increased exorbitantly in the most recent past.

With performance devices, it requires the system to be upgraded to the newer version, which was something that was unlike before. 

If the memory consumption can be kept low for the client, at least, then that would be great.

We would like to see smooth reporting for the indexes, which can be easily done. If we want an entire report for each consolidation, we would have to do it manually. If the system could be smarter with artificial intelligence then it would be better.

I have been using Oracle Database for five years.

It's quite stable. We don't experience any downtime.

We are not a full data center environment as of now. We develop for our customers and we have not scaled it.

We have 20 dedicated users in our company and may increase usage in the future.

Technical support is fine.

We have some people who have been working with Oracle for a long time, so we don't usually require much support because the knowledge bases are already established.

The initial setup was fine. It was not a challenge.

Definitely, it's an expensive product.

Because it's dominant in the market for database-related products, the price is a bit expensive compared with others.

It's a pretty good solution. It's secure in the market for relational databases. It's been the best storage for several years.

If your purpose is to get into the relational schema then Oracle is the best. If you are interested in structured data then Oracle is the best choice. If you are interested in unstructured data then go with something else.

I would rate Oracle Database and eight out of ten.

The powerful SQL language for working with, analyzing and manipulating lots of data. The concurrency and consistency model that allows many simultaneous users with little or no locking. The extensibility using PL/SQL and Java to extend legacy application with modern features like webservices via the database.

Rewriting legacy procedural modules to SQL with analytic functions has on several occasions turned multi-hour jobs into few-minute jobs. High concurrency enables sales persons in shops to service customers swiftly with no waiting even on peak days with several sales per second. Even though legacy application cannot interface with external services, the database is capable of doing so, which enables the business to get new ideas without thinking of technological hindrances.

There's not much - new features come along in every version helping to keep up with
technological advances. There are some small technical issues such as support forwindowing clause in LISTAGG function and a few similar small issues in SQL. There are a few nice-to-have extensions, like allowing external table syntax on the content of a CLOB.

I've used it since 1996.

Some of the time, a Real Application Cluster version was used, which turned out on very rare occasions to performed unmotivated failover to other node. The problem really was sub-optimal coding of the legacy application in the use of the locking methods of Oracle, which was magnified when propagating locks to other nodes, however would have been nice if RAC could have handled it, even when sup-optimal. After switching some years ago to a single server non-RAC solution, the database has been rock steady - only instabilities was when O/S or hardware failed, not the database.

Highly knowledgeable and competent tech support - once you get past the first level and get the case assigned to the right people. However, it can take quite a bit of time to explain details to first level support and gather debug and log information, that in some cases aren't necessarily relevant but is merely correct procedure in order to get the case assigned. On the other hand, many key Oracle people engage in the community, so a finicky question about a PL/SQL detail might get attention and answers from product managers themselves.

Before 1996 we used a legacy application, but it would locked on a table level. That meant practically no concurrency, for example phone sales people could not enter order data while talking to the customer but wrote on paper. Then one guy would enter all orders later. After a demonstration of Oracle database giving high concurrency, it was very easy for my boss to decide to buy Oracle.

An external consultant was hired for the setup and there was no trouble with the database setup. The legacy application needed a bit extra setting up to get it to run properly with Oracle, but that was not the fault of Oracle.

Bargain with the sales representative for good discounts - particularly if you buy several licences at once. But beware when buying multiple licenses together you get them on a single CSI, which may give trouble in future if you need to cancel one license out of the total, as that in principle means cancelling all licences and renegotiating so you may get new prices with less discount on the yearly support fees for the licences you have left. Research all the things that actually is possible with the basic licence so you get your value-for-money and only pay for options if you really need them.

There weren't many options at the time. A database supported by the legacy application had to be chosen, and the native legacy database just wasn't up to concurrency demands as described above, so Oracle was the other choice.

Oracle database can do many things that you may think it is necessary to supplement with other products. Look into how you may use all of the features to get value-for-money - then it might turn out in the long run to be cheaper than having to integrate multiple products.

For us, the most valuable features of Database have been its robustness, reliability, and the fact that it's highly tuneable.

It also allows us to support large applications and to also tune them properly. Database really provides us with great performance and stability.

I really wish that Oracle had included pluggable databases in the 12c Enterprise Edition. I can understand not putting it into the Standard Edition, but it should be included in the Enterprise Edition at no additional cost.

My other gripe is their licensing practices of the database engine. If I run a VMware infrastructure, and a lot of people do, Oracle makes me pay for licenses for the entire farm. It's very expensive and I don't think it's fair that they'd charge for it.

I've been using Oracle Database for twenty-five years.

We've had no issues with deployment.

It's way better now than it used to be, but, yes, it is very stable. All of our large applications use Database because of its stability.

The scalability of Database is good. I do have to say, however, that SQL Server for the Database engine is better if you want to run a bunch of small databases. My gripe about 12c is that they will make you pay extra for it even if you've already licensed Enterprise Edition. Also, it's not as easy to tune the pluggables because the underlying infrastructure is non-tuneable. Whereas with SQL Server, there's a little more flexibility. I run both engines: my SQL Server databases are for my little stovepipe stuff and my Oracle Database is for my big, enterprise-level stuff.

In my experience, technical support is really good, as well as the knowledge base. With the KB, I'm usually able to find the answers myself. And, Oracle has automated it to the point where it's very intuitive and helpful. I would, however, like to be able to call someone if needed like I used to. I remember having to wait for long period of time, but it's nice to talk to a person who can help.

Its big advantage is from a market perspective. Over 70% of the market uses Oracle Database. It's the market leader in the mid-tier for relational databases, probably, I think, tied with IBM right now.

The support level is good and well-documented. I can go to the web and I can Google just about any problem I have.

And another reason we use Oracle is that it's going to stay in business for a long time. So it's worth investing in training in the software long-term for us as opposed to, say a, smaller open source product that comes and goes.

It's very easy to get training and resources. Because we use a Linux operating system, our preference is for Oracle. It has a full suite of products and they all play nicely with each other. So if I get something from Oracle, I'm pretty sure it's going to work on my Oracle Database.

I'd like them to expand their support for Oracle Spatial and Graph, an app for Oracle Database. It only supports a single node right now. And really, to be practical, you want something with multiple nodes.

Also, while Oracle does have a NoSQL database (called Oracle NoSQL, a version of Berkley NoSQL, which isn't widely used as far as I can tell), I'd like to have the ability to do a heterogeneous join between my Oracle Relational Database and my NoSQL database, and I'd like to be able to use SQL on my NoSQL.

I've been using it since the 1980s. We use it alongside the Fusion suite, some of the big products there. We use ADF, which is the Java framework that they provide. And we make extensive use of PL/SQL-based products. Traditionally, we used a lot of Forms, but that's being phased out. Now we're using a lot of APEX.

It's pretty easy to install and deploy.

It's very stable. It's a well-known product and, while it does have problems, they're all well-documented. There are traditional security patches and, sometimes, some problems with new functionality. As long as you apply your patches regularly, they're resolved. And Oracle Support Group does resolve them.

We've had no issues with scalability.

The level of technical support is good, but you can put in a TAR and sometimes it will just disappear in space. The challenge for the support often is that if you don't use a straight Oracle configuration, in particular if you use a virtual server, they won't won't guarantee the support because they can't support every possible configuration. However, it doesn't mean that if you have a problem, they won't try to answer it.

It's pretty easy to install. The installation process has improved remarkably since the 80's when I started working with it. It wasn't friendly then, but it's very easy for me now. You just push a couple buttons and move through. If you know what you're doing, you can do it with defaults set up on a basic Oracle Database.

Now if you want to do something a little more complex, like Grid or clustering, you need to take some specialized training.

I implemented it myself.

You're always going to find some product that's cheaper. Oracle is never cheap. You're always going to find some product that is, in certain configurations, faster.

Especially for government organizations, it would always be my first pick.

We are using Oracle Database for the database use cases.

The most valuable feature of Oracle Database is its responsiveness.

The price of the solution should be lower.

I have been using Oracle Database for approximately one year.

Oracle Database is highly stable.

I rate the stability of Oracle Database a ten out of ten.

I rate the scalability of Oracle Database a ten out of ten.

I rate support of Oracle Database a ten out of ten.

Positive

The initial setup of Oracle Database is simple.

I have not seen a return on investment because of the high cost.

The price of Oracle Database is too expensive.

We might be switching solutions because the price is too high.

My advice to others is this solution is great in capabilities and functionality but it is too expensive.

I rate Oracle Database a seven out of ten.