Oracle Corp. expects to release pricing information for 11g, the latest version of its enterprise database today, according to a company spokesperson.
The vendor unveiled Oracle Database 11g, the first major upgrade to releases 1 and 2 of its 10g database, in New York on July 11.
Late last week, users were able to download the Linux version of the software from the Oracle Technology Network (OTN) Web site. Oracle Database 11g release 1 for Linux x86 is available in three flavors — Enterprise Edition, Standard Edition and Standard Edition One.
While Oracle executives talked up 11g’s new features at the New York launch event last month, they didn’t provide details on pricing and availability. The only thing the vendor did confirm was a probable August shipping date for the Linux version of the database. According to an Oracle blog posted on Sunday, the Windows version of 11g “is expected to come out shortly.”
The new database has 400 new features and users are eager to find out which functionality will be included as part of 11g and which Oracle intends to charge for as additional options to the software. New features include the ability to apply patches to the database while it’s still up and running, additional compression and partitioning options, improved security features, and Real Application Testing technology that allows users to record a segment of their database operations and then use that recording as a testing environment.
Figures from analyst Gartner Inc. released in June positioned Oracle as the number-one relational database management system vendor in 2006 with a 47.1 per cent market share, head and shoulders above IBM Corp. with 21.1 per cent and Microsoft Corp. with 17.4 per cent.
