Oracle Database storage

Introduction to Oracle on NGS

Please note that due to the current funding situation, the NGS is no longer offering free database services. If you are interested in using the NGS database service on a "paid for" basis, please contact the NGS helpdesk.

What is Oracle?

Oracle is an incredibly  powerful database that has been  developed  and  used  for ove r  15 years.  It's a leader  in providing scalable, efficient and reliable databases giving the user the power to accomplish large tasks effectively and easily. 

The NGS offers the very latest in Oracle technology with 11g as part of its core services. These databases can offer tremendous advantages to researchers, from those who are simply looking for a convenient and secure place to store data, to those with the need to perform computationally intensive queries on very large data sets.

The NGS Oracle database has been set up to use Real Application Clusters [RAC].  This allows the NGS database to be split over several servers.  This improves not only the performance of the database as it makes use of more than a single server's power, but also the reliability.  Should a server fail, the database will continue to run normally on all other existing nodes.

The most important service that the NGS provides using Oracle is the storage of large amounts of data with the ability to interrogate this information at will.

By using an Oracle database on the NGS, you can benefit from the following:

- Ease of Use
Databases are administered by the NGS, relieving you of the burden of managing anything other than your own data.

- Advice
We have data consultants who can help advise you on the best way to store, access and extract information from your data through the Oracle database.

- Data Storage
We have significant storage space and even if you have a requirement to store very large (TB) datasets please contact us as we will try our best to accommodate your needs.

- Computational Power
Using Oracle on the NGS can help you perform queries and data analysis that would otherwise be prohibitive on many servers.

 - Data Integration
You may use Oracle in conjunction with other services on the NGS such as OGSA-DAI. OGSA-DAI allows the integration of structured data from different data sources.

- Data Protection
We configure our databases on RAID arrays and have comprehensive back up and recovery plans. This ensures an extremely high level of protection for your data.

 - XML
Oracle provides extensive technologies related to high-performance XML [extended Mark up Language] storage and retrieval. This is in the form of a database dedicated to the XML data models which can be interrogated via sql. You are able to store/query/update and transform XML data while in this way. Vice versa, you are also able to perform XML operations on sql data.

- Java
Java has emerged as one of the most popular and powerful object-orientated programming languages available.  Oracle makes full use of this by incorporating it into its database.  Instead of using just sql to interrogate and manipulate data, java can be implemented giving a large scope to what can be done. 
Java can also be used to connect directly to the database to perform transactions making it more efficient for any in-house built applications.

- Content management
Oracle Database includes datatypes to handle all the types of rich Internet content such as relational data, object-relational data, XML, text, audio, video, image, and spatial. These datatypes appear as native types in the database. They can all be queried using SQL. A single SQL statement can include data belonging to any or all of these datatypes.

The Oracle database at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory is available to those  across a broad spectrum, whether storing small amounts of data or performing  complex queries on large datatypes.  Please do not hesitate to contact us.