Oracle Announces Wide-scale Support from Storage Providers

August 5, 2002

Oracle Announces Wide-scale Support from Storage Providers for Oracle9i Database Technology

Storage Integration and Validation with Oracle9i Database Provides Customers Highest Levels of Data Accessibility

8.05.02.  Oracle today announced wide-scale support by storage technology providers that have integrated and validated their solutions with Oracle9i Database, including partners such as EMC, Hewlett Packard, Hitachi, Network Appliance, Legato, Sun and VERITAS. The collaborative work between Oracle and its storage partners provides customers with better integration, faster deployments, and better service, operation and maintenance of their total database storage environments.

Integration and testing completed by Oracle9i Database storage partners have been completed through several Oracle programs including Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Certified Configurations, the Oracle Hardware Assisted Resilient Data (HARD) Initiative, the Oracle Storage Compatibility Program (OSCP), and the Oracle Backup Solutions Program (BSP). Oracle also has validation testing programs for other new storage features, such as Oracle Disk Manager and Oracle Storage Mapping.

"EMC and Oracle have long recognized the importance of tight integration between the database and storage systems," said Don Swatik, EMC's vice president of Alliances and Information Sciences. "Our seven year alliance and more than 20 thousand mutual installations give EMC and Oracle the ability to understand our customers' information requirements and develop integrated solutions that meet those needs. As a result, we've been able to deliver proven solutions that give users the ability to take advantage of the many unique features in Oracle9i Database Release 2 and EMC's leading Symmetrix, Celerra and CLARiiON systems and software."

Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Certified Configurations
By certifying with Oracle9i Real Application Clusters, Oracle storage partners are able to provide customers with pre-tested and proven transparent application scalability that quickly and efficiently shares data across all computers in a clustered environment. The resulting Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Certified Configurations helps reduce the complexities of implementing additional hardware and software on disparate servers and ensure customers high data accessibility as their businesses grow.

"The technology collaboration and alignment between Oracle and Network Appliance enables customers to deploy Oracle9i Database with Real Application Clusters faster and more cost effectively," said Phil Williams, vice president of alliance marketing at Network Appliance. "Delivering pre-tested and certified enterprise solutions helps ensure tighter integration at a much lower cost of ownership."

"VERITAS Software has worked closely with Oracle to develop a portfolio of integrated storage management products that enable organizations to better manage, protect and access their critical database applications," said Kevin Reinis, vice president of business development and strategic alliances, VERITAS Software. "Through our various products tuned for Oracle environments, we offer enhanced performance, protection and streamlined administration of Oracle9i Database environments."

Oracle's Hardware Assisted Resilient Data (HARD) Initiative
Oracle's Hardware Assisted Resilient Data (HARD) Initiative is a comprehensive program designed to help prevent data corruption before it happens. Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) has gained a large following in the storage industry by ensuring the physical protection of data. HARD takes data protection to the next level by going beyond protecting physical bits to protecting business data. By working with storage partners to incorporate data validation directly into storage devices, the Oracle HARD Initiative seeks to extend the ability of corporations to do more with less, through validation to ensure higher levels of data integrity for mission-critical information.

The Oracle Storage Compatibility Program (OSCP)
The Oracle Storage Compatibility Program (OSCP) provides Oracle database compatibility with specialized partner storage technologies, including Network Attached File Servers or Network Attached Storage (NAS), Snapshots, and Remote Mirroring. Through OSCP, partners receive tools and resources needed to build Oracle compatible storage solutions for mutual customers.

"Through the OSCP program, Hitachi has ensured the compatibility of Hitachi TrueCopy and ShadowImage with the Oracle database," said Ikuo Kimura, COO of Information and Telecommunication Systems, Hitachi, Ltd. "These tests help assure that customer information is safely copied with complete integrity and can be used for backup, disaster recovery, data mining, or application testing within the data center or halfway across the globe."

Backup Solutions Program
Organizations need robust backup and recovery technology to address handling large amounts of data and complex queries. Oracle has created the Backup Solutions Program (BSP), designed to collaborate with partners to facilitate tighter integration between Oracle's backup products and those of third-party media management vendors. The end result provides customers with storage solutions that are easily deployed and proven when requiring integrated database backup and recovery solutions.

"Legato NetWorker continues to be Oracle's first and only third party backup and recovery software that ships with every Oracle database, including Oracle9i Database Release 2. We have been working with Oracle to deliver the best data protection solutions for Oracle databases since 1997," said Brian Brogan, vice president of Oracle Business Unit, Legato Systems. "Legato is pleased to be a partner working within Oracle's Backup Solutions Program. We understand the importance of keeping business-critical information available whether the customer has a large corporate data center or a small satellite branch office."

The complete press release can be found at:
http://www.oracle.com/corporate/press/index.html?1421541.html

Oracle is a registered trademark and Oracle9i is a trademark or registered trademark of Oracle Corporation. Press release text courtesy of Oracle.com.