Oracle joins the NoSQL fray

#1

Oracle announced a NoSQL database, no less: http://tinyurl.com/3bq6j7v
http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/f...-oracle-nosql-
database-505146.html
I did a test project for a DW type warehouse with MongoDB, my current
favorite in the NoSQL arena, and was surprised how powerful software that
is. Oracle is late to the game, there are already several established
players like MongoDB, CouchDB (shipped and activated with every Ubuntu
installation), Cassandra and Google's own Big Table. Most of the NoSQL
databases familiar to me use Javascript as the internal programming
language and map/reduce algorithm to implement parallelism. There is also
Hadoop, a massively parallel batch system which allows creating jobs that
execute in parallel, even in the environments that do not have a native
support for parallelism like MySQL or PostgreSQL, the two front runners
in the arena of the open source databases. Hadoop can also be used in
conjunction with Oracle NoSQL. Oracle's NoSQL database, if the
announcement is to be believed, is not very different from MongoDB. It
also uses map/reduce, JSON and Javascript VM to access data. There is one
crucial difference: Oracle also has an "appliance" for it. It seems that
Oracle Corp. believes that a database is not much different than a
microwave oven, toaster or a coffee machine. NoSQL databases are,
generally speaking, pretty easy to install. They come in the form of OS
packages with all easy to read and well documented configuration files
or, as in the case of CouchDB, with a handy configuration utility called
Futon. There is not much that one can gain from buying a DB toaster,
especially when you have in mind that there are several cloud hosting
companies like Amazon, Webfaction or Linode which offer MongoDB in the
cloud. I believe that in the appliance vs. cloud competition, cloud will
win, because of the lower price.
Oracle Corp. has recently started spewing out "appliances": Exadata,
Exalogic, DB appliance and now NoSQL appliance. On the other hand,
Oracle's presence in the ever expanding cloud is rather flimsy, because
of the exorbitant pricing. Another great company suffered significantly
with the advent of cloud computing: Microsoft. Mobile platforms like
iPhone, cloud services like docs.google.com and open source stuff like
OpenOffice, LibreOffice and GNOME office (AbiWord/Gnumeric) have
significantly decreased Microsoft's earnings and overall significance.
Oracle may suffer the same fate. I am not very optimistic about the NoSQL
appliance sale, that doesn't seem like a viable product to me. Your
mileage may vary and your comments are welcome.

--
http://mgogala.byethost5.com

#2

Back in my time we didn't have infantile brand names like Mongo,
Couch, Ubuntu, Cassandra, Futon or Hadoop. We had manly-sounding
brands like Cray, DEC, Hewlett-Packard, Evans & Sutherland, SGI, Pick,
and Burroughs! Reliable names... names redolent of hard work in the
hot sun, from a time when getting tattoos meant you really were an
outsider, not just some try-hard conformist.

I miss the old days. Just don't mention Wang.

Now, where's my whisky?

-- Phil

#3

On Wed, 05 Oct 2011 15:29:56 -0700, phil_herring (AT) yahoo (DOT) com.au wrote:

Quote:

Back in my time we didn't have infantile brand names like Mongo, Couch,
Ubuntu, Cassandra, Futon or Hadoop. We had manly-sounding brands like
Cray, DEC, Hewlett-Packard, Evans & Sutherland, SGI, Pick, and
Burroughs! Reliable names... names redolent of hard work in the hot sun,
from a time when getting tattoos meant you really were an outsider, not
just some try-hard conformist.

I love Hewlett-Packard, it's a wonderful printer company!

--
http://mgogala.byethost5.com

#4

On Oct 6, 12:48*pm, Mladen Gogala <gogala.mla... (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:

Quote:

I love Hewlett-Packard, it's a wonderful printer company!

On the other hand, my desktop can't make up its mind. Is it a Compaq
or an HP? It says both.

Such shennanigans would never have happened when Bill and Dave were in
charge. It would have been one or the other!

-- Phil

#5

"phil_herring (AT) yahoo (DOT) com.au" <phil_herring (AT) yahoo (DOT) com.au> wrote in
news:554104b3-3131-4c54-a9bb-41396f29db05 (AT) e9g2000vby (DOT) googlegroups.com:

Quote:

Back in my time we didn't have infantile brand names like Mongo,
Couch, Ubuntu, Cassandra, Futon or Hadoop. We had manly-sounding
brands like Cray, DEC, Hewlett-Packard, Evans & Sutherland, SGI, Pick,
and Burroughs! Reliable names... names redolent of hard work in the
hot sun, from a time when getting tattoos meant you really were an
outsider, not just some try-hard conformist.

I miss the old days. Just don't mention Wang.

Now, where's my whisky?

A manly-sounding brand, I presume?
Something like Glenlivet or Laphroaig or even Greybeard Heather Dew.
Aged for at least 12 years in real oak barrels.

Cheers!

--
Jeroen

#6

On Oct 7, 7:00*am, TheBoss <TheB... (AT) invalid (DOT) nl> wrote:

Quote:

A manly-sounding brand, I presume?
Something like Glenlivet or Laphroaig or even Greybeard Heather Dew.
Aged for at least 12 years in real oak barrels.

Certainly. As befits gentlemen of our standing.

-- Phil

#7

On Fri, 07 Oct 2011 09:38:59 -0700, joel garry wrote:

Quote:

and I think that they don't have any. I believe that they will be
bought by somebody else 5 or 6 years in the future.

...from an ad on ebay, of course.

I don't think so. I think Oracle will buy HP, after they completely mess
up SUN. After that, we'll see a slew of exciting "Oracle*Laserjet"
products, which will be able to take the data directly from your data
warehouse and send it to the waste bin, at speeds in excess of 2GB/sec.
Oracle has managed to scare most of the Java developers away from SUN,
they also managed to create a schism in the OpenOffice community and they
are now using SUN facilities to churn out guaranteed non-sellers like the
Oracle NoSQL appliance. I believe that the total eclipse of the SUN will
come about just in time for Oracle to buy HP.

--
http://mgogala.byethost5.com

#8

Mladen Gogala wrote,on my timestamp of 8/10/2011 7:43 AM:

Quote:

bought by somebody else 5 or 6 years in the future.

...from an ad on ebay, of course.

I don't think so. I think Oracle will buy HP, after they completely mess
up SUN. After that, we'll see a slew of exciting "Oracle*Laserjet"
products, which will be able to take the data directly from your data
warehouse and send it to the waste bin, at speeds in excess of 2GB/sec

while blaming the "expensive DBAs" for all the ills of that solution.
But fear not: it can all be outsourced, including the emptying of the bin...

Quote:

Oracle has managed to scare most of the Java developers away from SUN,

opinions vary as to how good that was...
(g,d&r)

Quote:

they also managed to create a schism in the OpenOffice community and they
are now using SUN facilities to churn out guaranteed non-sellers like the
Oracle NoSQL appliance.

Hard to understand where that one fits, other than in the minds of said Java
developers who go all gooey when they hear "NoSQL"...

#9

On Oct 10, 7:22*am, Noons <wizofo... (AT) yahoo (DOT) com.au> wrote:

Quote:

Mladen Gogala wrote,on my timestamp of 8/10/2011 7:43 AM:

...other than in the minds of said Java
developers who go all gooey when they hear "NoSQL"...

Isn't it what they have been doing since jdbc appeared? (I mean, the
SQL they usually write can be called NoSQL...)

Cheers.

Carlos.

#10

On 10.10.2011 08:59, CarlosAL wrote:

Quote:

On Oct 10, 7:22 am, Noons<wizofo... (AT) yahoo (DOT) com.au> wrote:
Mladen Gogala wrote,on my timestamp of 8/10/2011 7:43 AM:

...other than in the minds of said Java
developers who go all gooey when they hear "NoSQL"...

Isn't it what they have been doing since jdbc appeared? (I mean, the
SQL they usually write can be called NoSQL...)

I know it's probably fun, but please do not overgeneralize. I am a Java
developer and you can trust me that I am as skeptical about the NoSQL
and cloud hypes as other posters in this thread. Often it turns out
that if you want to have reliability and transactional safety one has to
do by hand for a NoSQL database what one gets as built in feature with
an SQL database...

Having said that there are obviously domains where a NoSQL database can
be used for good. It's the usual situation: you have a set of tools and
for every tool there are appropriate uses and inappropriate uses.
Choosing the right tool is an important task and can be tricky at times.
Hype based decisions are what you get from laziness...

Kind regards

robert

--
remember.guy do |as, often| as.you_can - without end
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