Oracle is making a big, big splash with the release of Oracle 12C, touting it as “the future of the database.” If you’re as interested in the future as I am, you are probably wondering what, exactly, the future of the database will look like. In the video below, Larry Ellison lays it all out for us, but allow me to summarize. The future of the database is:
- Columnar
- In-memory
Okay, great.
Um, well…
Okay, this is awkward. But aren’t those ideas pretty much already implemented in databases that exist today? Actually, as I have probably mentioned on occasion, I used to work for a company that made one of those columnar deals. And it is hardly the only one.
(A quick side note on terminology. To tell you the truth, I always preferred the term “column-based,” but “columnar” seems to be the term that stuck. That’s fine. But it is not pronounced “co-LOOM-nar,” okay? Who says that? I think of the fun the old IQ team would have had with the fact that Oracle, literally, can’t even pronounce “columnar!”)
As for in-memory… These folks claim to have been doing it for a while. As have these folks. And there’s this. And this.
Okay, so it isn’t exactly the future of the database, but it is the future of the Oracle database. It’s easy to see how someone could get confused about that distinction.
In any case, snark aside, they have made some pretty impressive changes. Read all about it here.
Or better yet, hear it directly from Larry: