Ranko Mosic

Latest database related announcements from major vendors like Oracle and IBM enable radical shifts in the way we design OLTP/OLAP databases and applications. It is now possible to serve both OLTP and analytical needs from the same database. Traditional database and application design processes  should be modernized to fully utilize new capabilities. Contemporary corporate databases are roughly classified as either OLTP or OLAP - analytical ( Data Marts, Data Warehouses ). OLTP physical database design implies tables tied together via relationships to describe business process.  Historical information is not preserved. Year end processes in GL, AP, AR applications, for example,  typically close current and roll over into next year, thus losing historical context. OLAP databases, on the other hand, fully preserve historical information. It is possible to analyze busine... (more)

Big Data, Machine Learning and Innovation

Big Data and its most prominent technical ingredient, Machine Learning, are all the rage these days, as IT industry is trying to convince companies technology revolution is underway. ( "If you are not doing it, your competitors sure are, and by the time you realize it, it will be too late" ). Data fracking, i.e. Big Data, is 21 century new oil of that will power and grease stalled industries and reignite growth, or so the story goes. While advanced analytics (it comes under various names - predictive analytics, data mining, and data science, more recently) is great and in use fo... (more)

Mainstream Business Applications and In-Memory Databases

(Please refer to the following article: Oracle 12c In-Memory, Columnar Database & How It Relates to SAP Hana for update on IMDB/Columnar databases) Contemporary large servers are routinely configured with 2TB of RAM. It is thus possible to fit an entire average size OLTP database in memory directly accessible by CPU. There is a long history of academic research on how to best utilize relatively abundant computer memory. This research is becoming increasingly relevant as databases serving business applications are heading towards memory centric design and implementation. If you si... (more)

Oracle 12c In-Memory, Columnar Database & How It Relates to SAP Hana

All major relational database vendors are developing or already shipping  in-memory, columnar databases. The next release of Oracle 12c - an in-memory, columnar database, will be available next year. It will feature simultaneous transaction-level updates to both  row and column stores i.e. data will be stored in both formats at the same time, in the same transaction. This is quite an improvement over SAP Hana's awfully clumsy delta merge process ( data changes in SAP Hana are first accumulated in delta store, then periodically merged into column store - process which locks targe... (more)

Oracle 12c Database and How It Relates to SAP Hana

Oracle 12c database and related suite of products are just released. Columnar, compressed, high-speed, in-memory database to directly compete with SAP Hana is what is promised in the next release of Oracle 12c database. What we got so far is the familiar giant hairball that grew bigger. In order to currently achieve  Oracle's version of the  holy grail of cloud, in-memory, columnar, compressed, clustered services you must purchase, integrate and manage a variety of Oracle products: 12c database, Exadata software and hardware, TimesTen database, Oracle Clusterware, ASM etc. Oracle... (more)