What is Oracle?

[RCBH928]

For the longest time I have been hearing of this company
and its very confusing to me

because every one makes it sound like its this big advanced software
while every time I ask or make a little research , i understand its a database software

So if it is, how come it seems like it has no competition
while FIleMaker Pro is a database software
and there is Microsoft Access which is a databse software too

can any one clear this for me?

[Ack]

This may help clear up a bit of your confusion:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Database

[AppleQueso]

Oracle is Gloria Foster

[skate323k137]

There are lots of database systems, MySQL/MsSQL/postgres being pretty popular for "high availability" solutions. Using microsoft access for a corporate database system (in my opinion) would be a pretty poor choice. Working at a major web hosting company, I've never heard of anyone using it for web applications at least.

Oracle themselves offer a LOT of different stuff... http://www.oracle.com/us/products/index.html

I occasionally work with OCFS (Oracle Cluster File System) which is for server setups with multiple nodes. It replicates files/database info across multiple servers. It doesn't work great for session handling, but if you have a 'load balanced' server setup where a website requires more hardware to run than one server can offer, it's one way to sync things up across the multiple servers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCFS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shared_disk_file_system

[RCBH928]

@Ack

of course i went to wikipedia, but all the jargon created a block in my head i cant processes the information

i just want to know when do i need to use oracle
maybe i need it and not know it!

i heard our army uses it
i also saw it in use in one of the car dealerships to order car parts

and is MySQL really an alternative to it?
i think that is what i used to run a vbulletin forum back in the day
sorry am really bad with servers and databases :p

[Curlypaul]

I've worked on sites for other people who still think that Access is a good idea - which it isn't. It struggles with just a few thousand records in it and can't cope with simultaneous connections at all.

Oracle's DB is considered to the best out there and its brand of SQL is pretty good, however I don't know anybody who has ever succeeded in installing the damn thing. MySQL is pretty good but MSSQL is the one to go for IMO