Chapter 1. Introducing Oracle
Where do we start? One of the problems in comprehending a massive product such as the Oracle Database is getting a good sense of how the product works without getting lost in the details. This book aims to provide a thorough grounding in the concepts and technologies that form the foundation of Oracle’s Database Server, currently known as Oracle Database 12c. The book is intended for a wide range of Oracle Database administrators, developers, and users, from the novice to the experienced. It is our hope that once you have this basic understanding of the product, you’ll be able to connect the dots when using Oracle’s voluminous feature set, documentation, and the many other books and publications that describe the database.
Oracle also offers an Application Server and Fusion Middleware, business intelligence tools, and business applications (the E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, Siebel, Hyperion, and Fusion, among others). Since this book is focused on the database, we will only touch on these other software products as they relate to specific Oracle Database topics covered.
This first chapter lays the groundwork for the rest of the book. Of all the chapters, it covers the broadest range of topics. Most of these topics are discussed later in more depth, but some of the basics—for example, the brief history of Oracle and the contents of the different “flavors” of the Oracle Database products—are unique to this chapter.
Over the past 30-plus years, ...