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1. Introduction

Enterprise database system (EDS) is the key factor for any successful
medium to large business organization. An efficient, reliable and secured EDS
enables business organizations to be productive and profitable.
In this competitive business world, any large organization survivable largely
depends on an efficient EDS. There is currently a lot of EDS available in the
market such as Oracle.
2. Oracle

Oracle is one of the market leading enterprise database systems dominating
the market choice for many small and big enterprise applications example
PeopleSoft, SAP and Siebel. Many organizations choose oracle as their primary
database customize applications.
The promise of Oracle is to provide efficient system to manage large volume of
data with high availability and security. Since its inception, Oracle has released
several versions of its database. The latest version Oracle 12c is with the
promise of more integration with cloud computing and streamlined security.
3. Overview of Oracle database system

Oracle, as an EDS, usually comprises of client-server components. From high
level view, it usually has one database server and one or multiple clients or App
servers (figure 1).

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Figure 1 Client Server Architecture
4. Oracle server

This is the place where database resides. There are two major components of
Oracle servers; these are Oracle Database and Oracle Instance.
4.1 Oracle Database

It consists of set of operating system files and other components where the
actual data resides for example customer, product or orders. Among the other
components, memory structures, disk resources, table space and background
process.
It is important to note that these resources cannot be accessed by client
directly. Client access these resources via Oracle Instance. One database can
be connected by multiple instances but one instance cannot be connected with
multiple Oracle database.

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4.2 Oracle Instance
It consists of memory structure that helps to process the data files. There are
two important components of Oracle Instance;
1. System Global Area:
a. It maintains internal data structures accessed by different
processes.
b. Read data from disk and caching it.
c. Store SLQ execution plan.

2. Background process:
a. It is directly attached to the SGA, and directly reads and writes to
the disk files making up the database.

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5. Oracle Developer Tool
Oracle provides a set of developer tool which enables developers to write SQL
program and execute stored procedure.

Figure 2 SQL Developer Main Window

Some of the main features of SQL developer are as follows:
1. User interface to create table.
2. Graphical window for writing SQL query and stored procedure.
3. User interface for creating reports
4. Creating Views.




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Figure 3 Graphical SQL query window
This tool has enhanced developer productivity.
6. Strength

Oracle is widely known for its scalable architecture and capability of providing
high performance in large data environment.

a. Database Scalability: Oracle is best known for its scalability which can
scale effortlessly from thousands to millions of users in real-time. It
provides Real Application Cluster (RAC) which can be added to
database based on demand without having to change in the database
application. This feature is unique to oracle compare to other databases.

b. Portability to cross-platform: It is one of the main strengths of oracle
database system. It has versions for almost all the major operating


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systems example Windows, Linux and UNIX which has made Oracle
unique and competitive in market.
Cross platform availability reduces learning curve for professionals who
are accustomed with one particular platform but requires working in other
platform. For example, people who are used to with windows platform of
oracle can work easily with UNIX version of Oracle without having to go
through extensive training. This increases companys productivity.

c. Efficient backup: Oracle has efficient automated backup mechanism
which allows DBAs to manage backup reliably with minimal manual
interaction.

d. Disaster recovery: Oracle provides Data Recovery Advisor (DAR) that
provides an intelligent mechanism to recover data. DAR can detect and
analyze failure early, thus minimizing damage and data corruption.
7. Shortcomings

a. Oracle has high licensing fees which is an obstacle for small medium
business to use it.
b. Oracle database software is relatively complex and requires longer time
to learn.
c. It requires high end expensive servers to work efficiently; therefore the
hardware cost is high.

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8. Possible Improvements
1. If license fees are reduced, it can be exposed to large market of SMB
(small medium business) companies.
2. User interface and installation process should be more simplified in order
to reduce learning curve.

3. Oracle should release low end version where low scale database can be
run and at the same time it can leverage all other benefits.
9. Conclusion

Oracle is one of the dominating enterprise database applications in current
business world. It is popular due to its reliability and capability of processing
high volume of data. In future, probably Oracle will have low end version with
low price.