Unstructured
data is machine or human generated data that does not easily fit into the
structure of a database (rows and columns). The bulk of the electronic data we
have falls into this category. Oracle Corporation has made significant
improvements in performance, security and the types of data you can store
natively in Oracle 11g, so you can now more easily store and manage your
unstructured data.
There are a
number of reasons for storing unstructured data inside of Oracle like:
·
Having Robust Administration and Tuning support
·
Streamlining Application Development
·
Improving Disaster Recovery mechanisms
·
Providing Scalability
·
Increasing Security
Hugh performance gains in
retrieving unstructured files have been obtained by the implementation Oracle
SecureFiles. SecureFiles is a new-paradigm for how file data is managing. By
using this new technology an application no longer, has to deal with relational
data and unstructured file data with two different interfaces. SecureFiles now
allows you to have your unstructured data participate in a data transaction.
This allows for better backup and recovery of your unstructured data. Also
available with SecureFiles is the concept of compression and de-duplication,
thus reducing storage cost associated with storing your data.
XML has become a standard for
transmitting and storing of data. To leverage XML, Oracle has created Oracle
XML DB. Oracle XML DB is a high performance storage and retrieval technology
for native XML that supports all key XML formats. In addition to this, Oracle
11g offers some new XML binary storage options and indexing structures for XML
data.
There are many additional
enhancements in Oracle 11g in how unstructured data types are handled and
managed. By using Oracle 11g, you will be able to better manage, secure, query
and administer your unstructured data. Additionally you will also be able to
improve the performance in retrieving and storing your data, using an open and
standard approach.
