Item: Oracle Database
Rating: 2
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Oracle Database 12c

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Oracle was chosen as the database to support an older ERP-type application with the actions of the vendor of the app forcing our hand to use Oracle. So it was to replace a different database. The project was to convert not only the data but also tons of code in the form of stored procedures and scripts. The vendor said it shouldn't be hard. Hah!

Pros and Cons

Pros

Flashback! With Oracle, you can flashback an entire database or just some tables to the state they were in at a certain point in time. Or you can even write a query that uses the data from a point in time. Very valuable for testing and maybe recovering from an error you just discovered you'd made! Of course, there is overhead for this feature and you need to dedicate a lot of disk space for it and you can't go back forever, but there are times where this is so handy and much quicker than restoring a backup (especially an Oracle backup in multi-tenant architecture).
There are all sorts of features for limiting the resource usage of users.

Cons

Oracle GUI tools for the developer and the DBA are lacking in polish and user-friendliness. Error handling is poor. You need to restart the tool (esp SQL Developer) at least once a day to correct non-sensical results. Enterprise Manager is known to be powerful but hard to learn/hard to use. Instead much is done on the command line which means you need to memorize commands like in the ancient days of MS-DOS. There are many GUI tools that Oracle produces each with a different idea of how user interfaces should be set up. An awful mishmash. They need to learn to write software from the user;'s point of view.
Oracle support is not helpful. Oracle is the world's most difficult database to use (especially for the DBA) but the support is lacking - not a winning business model. Slow responses. The first line of support usually knew less than I did because I had plumbed the depths of the Internet before calling them. The support folk were usually from India based on their names. The support process asks if you'd rather get help via email or a phone call. I'd usually say phone call but due to the time difference, they rarely would oblige. I hear that there are certain times of day that if you put in your support request then, you are more likely to get US-based help. It was so common to wait forever for help so you'd have to escalate it to the next level. The next level folks were more likely to know something. See the next point re: support.

Return on Investment

We wasted lots of money (Oracle is crazy expensive), time and effort on the project and were highly relieved when we found a different approach to supporting our aging ERP app that did not include Oracle.
Because of the difficulty of using Oracle, we spent a lot of money on consultants to help us over the conversion hump. Also wasted. And it was interesting to see them struggle with the software. Upgrades never went well always requiring multiple site visits, for example.

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft SQL Server, SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise, Microsoft Access, SAP SQL Anywhere and MySQL

Oracle is more of an enterprise-level database than Access and SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise isn't getting developed much (some people wonder how close it is to end of life) but SQL Server is miles ahead of Oracle IMO in terms of user experience and comparable in terms of performance AFAIK. As stated, a vendor forced our hand to use Oracle so we did not have a choice. If you are looking for help with an issue you are having, there are lots of SQL Server articles, etc. on the web and the community of SQL Server developers and DBA's is very strong and supportive. Oracle's help on the web is much more limited and often has an attitude that goes with it of superiority and lacking in compassion, IMO. For instance, check out the Ask Tom Oracle blog - a world of difference. If you choose Oracle, go into it with eyes wide open.

Key Insights

Do you think Oracle Database delivers good value for the price?

Are you happy with Oracle Database's feature set?

Did Oracle Database live up to sales and marketing promises?

Did implementation of Oracle Database go as expected?

Would you buy Oracle Database again?

Other Software Used

Microsoft SQL Server

Likelihood to Recommend

If you are a small to medium-sized business, you shouldn't consider Oracle at all. You need highly-skilled and highly paid sharp developers and DBA's to manage the beast. And there are much better alternatives for you - from MySQL to SQL Server - SO much easier to use. Things that would take me 5 minutes to do in SQL Server would take hours or days in Oracle. Even our paid consultants would have trouble making the software do what it was supposed to do. And there isn't nearly as much helpful info on the web for Oracle as there is for SQL Server. I'd always thought well of SQL Server prior to using Oracle, but now I am even more appreciative of its ease of use. If you are with a large enterprise, it could be an option if it does something that no other RDBMS does and you really need that. But such cases I'd bet are few and far between. Other databases, like MS SQL, can run large workloads with good performance. Do you really need to buy the most difficult to use the software?

Comments

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Oracle did not live up to our expectations