Oracle’s Beta Program for Oracle Database 12c Release 2

Oracle launched beta version of Oracle Database 12c Release 2

Oracle’s (ORCL) annual Oracle OpenWorld 2015 conference started from October 25, 2015, and concluded on October 29, 2015. Oracle used this as a platform to announce the beta program availability of its Oracle Database 12c Release 2, or Oracle’s Database 12cR2.

Background to beta version

With its previous release–Database 12c Release 1–Oracle brought features like Multitenant Architecture and Database In-Memory that was meant to enable customers’ move towards the cloud as well as aid them in performing real-time analytics on their transactional data. In the past, Salesforce.com (CRM) and SAP (SAP) partnered with Oracle to deploy their applications on Oracle’s Database 12C.

The “Oracle Multitenant” architecture lets developers create “pluggable” databases—up to 252 of them—that run in one “container” database, as the presentation above shows. Since database administrators can do most of the common administration functions like patching, upgrade, and backup at the container database level, this could drastically lower the cost of managing databases.

The multitenant architecture allows up to five times more databases to be run on a given server or virtual machine, potentially making it more feasible and desirable on the hardware savings represented by server consolidation.

Oracle Database 12c Release 2 in 2016

Oracle Database 12c Release 2 claims to enhance further and refine the multitenant architecture and Database In-Memory capabilities. The multitenant architecture could see enhancement by the online movement of pluggable databases between servers, data centers, and the Oracle Cloud. Meanwhile, Oracle Database In-Memory could see refinements that will boost automated management, performance, and flexibility in deployment options.

Oracle also shared that since the beta program has started, it’s very likely that Oracle Database 12c Release 2 will be released in the first half of 2016, as expected.

The PowerShares QQQ Trust (QQQ) and the iShares US Technology ETF (IYW) invest around 3.1% and 3.9% of their holdings in Oracle, respectively.

Why Oracle launched Its Elastic Compute Cloud

 

Oracle’s Elastic Compute Cloud is its latest offering in cloud space

 

At the OpenWorld 2015 conference, Oracle (ORCL) announced the launch of Oracle Elastic Compute Cloud in the public cloud space. Oracle’s Elastic Compute Cloud is meant to allow customers to leverage elastic compute capabilities to handle varied workloads in the cloud from within a shared computing zone. Oracle’s offering would allow customers to choose how many cores they require along with the operating system like Oracle Linux, Red Hat (RHT), Ubuntu, or Microsoft (MSFT) Windows.

 

Oracle’s Elastic Compute Cloud offers an alternative to Amazon’s

According to a report from IDC (International Data Corporation), the public IT cloud services market is expected to grow from $56.6 billion in 2014 to $127.5 billion by 2018, a 23% compound annual growth rate. This is about six times the growth rate of the overall IT sector.

Considering the growth in public cloud space, it appears Oracle doesn’t want to lag behind the competition.

Oracle’s Elastic Compute Cloud could be an alternative to Amazon’s already dominant offering, Amazon Web services’ (or AWS) Elastic Compute Cloud, or EC2. In 2006, Amazon (AMZN) launched Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, or Amazon EC2, now widely seen as a standard in the cloud infrastructure space. Amazon EC2, part of company’s cloud computing platform, is a web-based service that enables subscribers to run application programs in the company’s computing environment.

AWS has grown to become such an integral part of Amazon that it generated $2.1 billion in its latest fiscal 3Q15. In 3Q15, AWS grew 78% on a YoY (year-over-year) basis, as the chart above shows. In comparison, AWS revenue grew by 82% in 2Q15. Amazon declared its fiscal 3Q15 earnings on October 22, 2015.

The PowerShares QQQ Trust (QQQ) invests about 3.1% of its holdings in Oracle.