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:
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
