Immensely complicated
Updated November 20, 2019
Immensely complicated
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Oracle Database
The Oracle database is currently used in several places throughout the institute. For starters, it works as our website's back end. We don't store any LOB objects, simply base data types. Similarly, we have developed a handful of custom applications that run on top of Oracle. Each application is a bit unique, but overall the underlying structure isn't too much different from the Website. Lastly, we use Oracle to store one of our largest data provider's information. Currently, this is in the realm of 2 billion rows spread across a small subset of tables.
- The database itself rarely goes down.
- Bringing up new Oracle instances is relatively painless.
- With the help of data pumps, moving data from place to place is a breeze.
- If you pay for their support, while they aren't the speediest, they are incredibly well informed and are an amazing help.
- Immensely complicated. Of all the databases we use, this one has by far the most moving parts.
- It is highly recommended to have a dedicated Oracle DBA on staff if you want your databases healthy. We have no such difficulty with Sybase, SQL Server or SAP IQ.
- While the Support Team is incredibly informative, they are often very slow to respond and are often unwilling to answer questions that don't directly solve the problem at hand.
- Initially, we purchased oracle for our website because it had a much lower licensing cost than Sybase (our dominant DB) for such tasks.
- Over time, the level of effort required to keep it up, keep replication working, training and the like turned into a far greater expense than simply paying Sybase the extra licensing.
- For us, the Oracle database was a financial disaster.
We selected Oracle simply because we already use a lot of Oracle products (Solaris, Weblogic, Java), and the licensing for Oracle was considerably less than Sybase at the time.
However, over time we realized that Oracle was far more work than Sybase, far more complicated, required a great deal of training and was overall a much greater headache to keep healthy. Our Sybase instance almost never goes down, while Oracle needs constant monitoring. We also use SQL Server a lot, and have learned that it is also far more stable, and far easier to use than Oracle. To be honest, I have a difficult time understanding why Oracle has the market share it does.
However, over time we realized that Oracle was far more work than Sybase, far more complicated, required a great deal of training and was overall a much greater headache to keep healthy. Our Sybase instance almost never goes down, while Oracle needs constant monitoring. We also use SQL Server a lot, and have learned that it is also far more stable, and far easier to use than Oracle. To be honest, I have a difficult time understanding why Oracle has the market share it does.