Tech talk: Oracle sharding for improved Database Performance

Why implementing newer features is vital for a Database Management System(DBMS)
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The landscape of Information Technology has changed a great deal over the last 6-7 years. Earlier too this was a field where a lot of things were happening. People were migrating from many areas to a few selected ones.
Billion Dollar Investments were being made by the consumers to modernize their systems.
Yet now the situation has changed a lot. There is a lot of consolidation that has come in.
Clients are on tighter budget. Companies are now vying for slices of a few Million Dollar deals instead of Big Billion dollars deals.
Expectations are higher. As systems grow in processing powers and complexity, so is the customers’ expectations.
Everyone is pressurized.
Database Management Systems(DBMS) or RDBMS- Relational Database Management systems or ORDBMS- Object Relational Database Management systems are also not aloof from such dynamic changes. They too need to evolve- to meet threats, stiff competition and changing rules.
So, new features need to be implemented and pretty fast too.

Oracle Sharding-a much needed Oracle Database feature
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In recent years, NoSql(Minus the Sql, or New Sql as its definition varies, but essentially systems which are not as rigid as traditional DBMS or RDBMS) have gained ground. They offer flexible schema management abilities, flexibility in coding with JSON, Great Replication features, use with Mobile Apps, and Horizontal scalability via sharding.
I won’t go into the details of the sharding feature, but in a laymen’s term, its a kind of data division or partition scheme which allows data to be divided into different zones, known as partitions or shards. It is different from vertical scalability where additional processing power- RAM, Hard drive etc are added.

But now, to counter this,the world’s No.1 relational database management system- Oracle has introduced sharding in its latest release (I will have to check but its probably Version 12 Release 2).
Let us see what advantages it offers:

1)Oracle Sharding makes shards available independent of each other. If a few shards are down, work can take place on other shards. This can also help during Database Maintenance.

2)Sometimes, data needs to be in proximity of a country’s user- This can be done via shards. These can also be helpful for auditng for Data privacy regulations and checks.

3)The Lifecycle Management is automated for tasks like automatic creation of shards and replication, elastic scalability and hugely customized resharding.

The fact that such features are within a RDBMS which also offers Great Transaction Management, complex data types, Online schema changes and ACID properties is also something which makes things great for the End customer.
Image Source: Own drawing

Post Source:
https://nageshbattula.com/2017/03/10/benefits-of-oracle-sharding/?elq_mid=73283&sh=1122226819791816192615082170&cmid=PDMK160819P00009