Description

What is Oracle?

Oracle database is a relational database management system (RDBMS) from Oracle Corporation. This article will explain a complete overview of the Oracle database, features, history, and editions. Before discussing the oracle, we will first need to know about the database.

What is a database?

A database refers to the organized collection of structured data stored electronically in a device. It allows us to access, manage, and find relevant information frequently. The flat file structure was extensively used to store data before the database system was invented. The relational database approach becomes popular in comparison to the flat file model because it eliminates redundant data. For example, suppose we have an employee and contact information stored in the same file. In such a case, the employees with multiple contacts will show up in many rows.

The RDBMS system manages the relational data. Oracle Database is the most famous relational database system (RDBMS) because it shares the largest part of a market among other relational databases. Some other popular relational databases are MySQL, DB2, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, etc.

What is the Oracle database?

Oracle database is a relational database management system. It is also called OracleDB, or simply Oracle. It is produced and marketed by Oracle Corporation. It was created in 1977 by Lawrence Ellison and other engineers. It is one of the most popular relational database engines in the IT market for storing, organizing, and retrieving data.

Oracle database was the first DB that designed for enterprise grid computing and data warehousing. Enterprise grid computing provides the most flexible and cost-effective way to manage information and applications. It uses SQL queries as a language for interacting with the database.

Editions of Oracle database

Oracle database is compatible with a wide range of platforms such as Windows, UNIX, Linux, and macOS. It supports several operating systems like IBM AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Microsoft Windows Server, Solaris, SunOS, macOS, etc. In the late 1990s, Oracle began supporting open platforms like GNU/Linux.

The following is a list of Oracle database editions in order of priority:

• Enterprise Edition: It is the most robust and secure edition. It offers all features, including superior performance and security.
• Standard Edition: It provides the base functionality for users that do not require Enterprise Edition’s robust package.
• Express Edition (XE): It is the lightweight, free and limited Windows, and Linux edition.
• Oracle Lite: It is designed for mobile devices.
• Personal Edition: It’s comparable to the Enterprise Edition but without the Oracle Real Application Clusters feature.

The Oracle Corporation

Oracle Corporation is the largest software company to develop and markets computer software applications for business. The company is best known for its Oracle database products and, more recently, cloud products and services. Its relational database was the first to support SQL, which has since become the industry standard.

Oracle database is one of the most trusted and widely used relational database engines. The biggest rival of Oracle database is Microsoft’s SQL Server.

History of Oracle

Oracle Corporation was founded by Lawrence Ellison (Larry Ellison), Bob Miner, Ed Oates, and Bruce Scott in August 1977. They have a lot of experience in building database programs for several companies and builds their first project (a special database program) for the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). Oracle was named after “Project Oracle,” a project for one of their clients named Central Intelligence Agency, and the company that created Oracle was called Systems Development Labs (SDL). Systems Development Labs was renamed Relational Software Inc. (RSI) in 1978 to expand their market for the new database. They had again changed the name of the company from RSI to Oracle Systems Corporation in 1982.

The first commercially available RDBMS named Oracle V2 (Version 2) was built using PDP-11 assembler language (SQL-based RDBMS). Although they already developed a commercial RDBMS in 1977, it wasn’t available for purchase until 1979, when Oracle version 2 was released.

In 1983, Oracle database portable version named “Oracle version 3” was released. This version was written in the C programming language. It was the first relational database that can run in mainframes, minicomputers, PCs, or any hardware with a C compiler. It also supports SQL queries and transactions execution.