Oracle 12c New Features and Release

Oracle 12c has been released this month and this is the biggest news since Oracle 11g came out some time back.

Below are some new features:

Oracle cloning

Oracle PDB

Oracle RAC and ASM enhancements

Oracle security enhancements

Oracle 12c New Features

As an Oracle RAC expert, the deployment features for Oracle 12c RAC and ASM are quite exciting and should make highly available scalable clusters with the new Flex cluster more fun and powerful for large enterprise data centers. Per the 12c new features for Flex RAC clusters:

"Oracle Flex Cluster is a new Oracle Clusterware based topology utilizing two types of cluster nodes: Hub Nodes and Leaf Nodes. Hub Nodes represent traditional nodes, tightly coupled using network and storage. Leaf Nodes are a new type of node that runs a lighter weight stack and does not require direct shared storage connectivity."

I also like the new 12c policy based approach to database and RAC deployments:

"Oracle Grid Infrastructure allows running multiple applications in one cluster. Using a policy-based approach, the workload introduced by these applications can be allocated across the cluster using a policy set. In addition, a policy set enables different policies to be applied to the cluster over time as required. Policy sets can be defined using a web-based interface or a command-line interface.

Hosting various workloads in the same cluster helps to consolidate the workloads into a shared infrastructure that provides high availability and scalability. Using a centralized policy-based approach allows for dynamic resource reallocation and prioritization as the demand changes."

Stay tuned for exciting new developments as I test out the many new 12c features from Oracle. Oracle has truly raised the bar once again for enterprise database and application technology! Bravo!