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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY / AUGUST 4, 2003; VOL. 2 NO. 31
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Special Features:
DATABASE GIANT LEAPS INTO GRID
TECHNOLOGY
Oracle plans to incorporate grid computing with the next release of its
database software in September.
Oracle announced that the product will be called 10G Database, with the
suffix
hinting at the importance of support for the grid model, where idle network
resources are allocated on demand.
Oracle plans to detail 10G Database at OracleWorld San Francisco, beginning
on
7 September, when chief executive Larry Ellison will also unveil 10G
Application Server.
Although rival IBM is more closely associated with grids, and last week
released a new version of its WebSphere software with grid support, Oracle
wants to change matters.
Grids will be the subject of four OracleWorld keynote speeches. Other
enhancements to the 10G database include XML, web services, clustering and
administration.
Oracle UK User Group chairman Ronan Miles indicated that the grid
opportunity
is enormous.
"I think grid computing will do for the computer what disk farms have done
for
disks," he said.
"Once, we were in awe of one disk and now it's a resource in a Raid array.
Grid can take processing and memory down the same road. You [will] have a
computing surface you just use."
The 10G release may also calm fears that Oracle is focusing on its
enterprise
applications business to the detriment of database research and
development.
"There has been concern about the degree of investment Oracle has put into
applications," said Miles.
"With 10G, it is indicating its commitment to database technology. If the
next
product had been 10i, it would have sounded like it couldn't think of anything
other than bigger, faster, better.
"Whether [the technology] really works or not doesn't matter because it
will
do by 11G."
However, some critics doubt the short-term benefits of the latest
technologies.
"Oracle is ... on the XML/web services bandwagon, and looks like it's going
to
jump on the grid bandwagon," read a UK database administrator's discussion
board post.
"[But] how many apps out there will store objects rather than relational
data?"
Oracle's news comes as Microsoft releases the first beta of its next SQL
Server database.
By August, the software, codenamed Yukon, will reach 2,000 testers.
Microsoft
is focusing on availability with fault tolerance and disaster recovery
capabilities.
IBM plans to add more automation to DB2, including scripts that make set-up
easier, according to Angus Falconer, DB2 European marketing manager.
Big Blue also plans to build in more DB2 support for Xperanto, its
XML-based
data integration software.
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