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Sometimes you are amazed about systems which fulfill extreme requirements. Some applications have to react fast and flexible on changes and there are many very small databases which became business critical but are not seen as important.

We believe that Oracle database can run more effective at lower license costs. The Oracle Standard Edition for example has very many features and is able to run business critical application with large databases. With some tuning and changes to some parameters the application can be optimized. Third party software is able to achieve high availability and disaster recovery, allowing to run a backup copy for reporting without high costs and maintenance and to monitor the entire environment regardless if it is Enterprise Edition, Standard Edition, VMware or a mixture of all of it. Last but not least Cloud computing helps to create test, training and backup environments with minimum investment. Johannes Ahrends has written an article about “Oracle Standard Edition as an alternative to the Enterprise Edition” (unfortunately currently available in German only but can be translated if requested) which explains what to consider if you think about using Standard Edition.

Just review the requirements for your databases and you will probably come to the conclusion that there is room for improvement – we appreciate to support making them accessible.

Administration

We believe that database administration can be much easier if you are able to concentrate on the most important parts and are able to use tools to identify bottlenecks immediately. It doesn’t matter if your database has thousands of users, terabyte of data or is distributed around the world. Johannes Ahrends has created a presentation about “Automatic Memory Management” (unfortunately currently available in German only but can be translated if requested) which explains the impact of using the parameter “MEMORY_TARGET” with Linux OS and what you should consider while using some “automation” features.

High Availability

Certainly all business critical databases will be backed up regularly and high availability will be achieved using Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) and / or Oracle Data Guard (standby database). But: is your backup fully functional? How long does a restore and recovery take? Are there other solutions available as an alternative for the expensive RAC licenses? And how can you achieve high availability and disaster recovery using the Standard Edition? We will support you with the concept, setup and administration of your high availability environment and will show you how you can easily setup backups using RMAN (and of course for an easy recovery after a failure or just for tests).

Migrations

A database migration is always an exciting experience. We are specialized in the migration within the Oracle space and are able to assist with a proper planning and during the migration phase. One of our expertise is the migration from Enterprise Edition to Standard Edition and / or a Unicode Migration. Johannes Ahrends presented “Costsavings with migration to Standard Edition and Unicode” (unfortunately currently available in German only but can be translated if requested) during the DOAG SIG Database in October 2012 and explained what to consider and how to migrate.

Nowadays applications have to be up and running 24×7. So it’s important to minimize the downtime for the application during migration. In addition the migration risks have to be mitigated. It’s understandable that there are several risks while migrating to Standard Edition, Unicode, different hardware or OS – and probably a mixture of all. Normally a migration can only take place during night hours or on weekends – this will add pressure to the DBA and can be error prone. Replication solutions like Oracle Goldengate, Quest SharePlex or Dbvisit Replicate can help to minimize downtime and mitigate the risks.

The Oracle Migration Matrix gives an overview about the methods for migration and updates.

We are pleased to consult you finding the most valuable migration method including licenses for the software you might need and support you during the migration.

Performance Optimization

Who’s responsible for performance of the application? Due to Forrester 60 percent of the tuning potential is within the SQL statements and another 30 percent comes from correct indexing. So is there nothing a DBA can do? There are several pitfalls and therefore there is tuning potential for both DBAs and Developers for application optimization. An important role comes to the used Oracle version because over the last years a lot of features were added to the Oracle Optimizer. But a correct settings of the Oracle parameters is important as well. Johannes Ahrends presented “SQL Optimization – for developers only?” (unfortunately currently available in German only but can be translated if requested ) at the Toad user Conference 2012 and explained the potential and limits of optimization.

What can CarajanDB do for you?