Sebastopol, CA--When the body of knowledge surrounding a particular subject becomes too large for individuals to grasp, specialization begins to proliferate. We've seen this in virtually every mature field, from medicine to computer science. The Oracle DBMS (database management system) is no exception, comprising a wide range of managers, DBAs, developers, system administrators and technical specialists among those who work closely with Oracle technology. For each of these areas of specialization there are equally specialized how-to books and manuals, but the latest edition of Oracle Essentials: Oracle9i, Oracle8i and Oracle8 (O'Reilly, US $34.95) serves a unique role in explaining the foundational concepts of the Oracle DBMS technology and the core technical and business aspects of using it.
Oracle Essentials: Oracle9i, Oracle8i and Oracle8 was written by Rick Greenwald, Robert Stackowiak, and Jonathan Stern--whose combined experience with Oracle databases spans more than 30 years. All three recognized a need for a foundational book such as theirs. As coauthor Stern explains, "Bob, Rick and I all saw a lack of common ground in customer discussion involving management, developers, DBAs, users, etc. We felt that Oracle DBMS deployment and usage for these customers would benefit from getting the different communities to a common understanding of things like performance and high availability."
Coauthor Stackowiak adds, "Although there are a lot of detailed how-to books regarding Oracle, there is very little available describing how the database works (other than Oracle's own Concepts Guide) and nothing describing how Oracle's other technology products help provide a complete solution. This book attempts to explain all of this so that a DBA, programmer, or other user of Oracle can understand why some of the things they read in 'how-to' guides can be critical when it comes to database performance, management, and availability."
In addition to being unique among Oracle books in concept, the second edition of Oracle Essentials is also one of the first non-Oracle publications to explain the just-released Oracle9i. Stackowiak explains why this is important, "Oracle is releasing Oracle9i, a new release with over 400 new features. Many people responsible for Oracle implementations are several releases behind and don't fully understand the significance of more recent releases." He adds, "The feature list for Oracle continues to grow. At the same time, many of the features allow better performance, self-management and self-tuning, which make it easier to deploy and manage Oracle. Knowledge of these capabilities enables a more robust environment."
Stern comments, "As the technology becomes more powerful and the business needs emerge with increasing speed, the structures being built using Oracle DBMS technology are becoming more important and complex. The need for a strong foundation becomes more important under these pressures."
Oracle Essentials: Oracle9i, Oracle8i & Oracle8 distills the vast amount of information about what Oracle is into a compact volume covering the full range of Oracle features and technologies. Covered topics include all Oracle products to date, Oracle networking, management, multi-user concurrency, hardware architecture, Oracle and the Web, and much more. This book was written for anyone whose job involves managing or building systems using Oracle DBMS technology or working with staff that are using Oracle technology.
What readers and critics have said about Oracle Essentials:
"Many people are thrown into a situation where they need to understand how the Oracle RDBMS works, what it is capable of, and how it will fit into their technical environment. This book clearly defines, explains, and illustrates the Oracle RDBMS, providing a technical basis for the system administrator, DBA, developer, project manager, student or VP."
--Charles A. Pack, Oracle DBA Project Manager, CSX Corporation"Oracle Essentials is full of clear and concise explanations of the technology oin the Oracle database. A terrific foundation for using Oracle."
--Jeremy Burton, jSenior VP, Product and Services Marketing, iPlatform Marketing, Oracle Corporation"This book is extremely broad yet very well organized, technically rich yet not dizzying, relatively short yet full of experiential knowledge. What's amazing is that all this is accomplished with amazing clarity and accuracy."
--Craig Shallahamer, President, OraPub, Inc."This book provides an excellent explanation of the Oracle architecture. By the end, I was able to understand the SG, redo logs, data buffers, RAID, the listener, data warehouse applications, star schemas, Java language triggers, the Oracle Application Serverand much more."
--Alberto Dell'Era, Etnoteam
Online Resources:
Chapter 1, "Introducing Oracle," is available free online.
More information about the book, including Table of Contents, index, author bio, and samples.
A cover graphic in jpeg format.
Oracle Essentials:
Oracle9i, Oracle8i & Oracle8
By Rick Greenwald, Robert Stackowiak, and Jonathan Stern
2nd Edition, June 2001
ISBN 0-596-00179-7, 364 pages, $34.95 (US)
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938
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