Oracle 9i - An Introduction

At Oracle OpenWorld 2000, it was announced that the Oracle relational database and Express Server will converge in Oracle9i OLAP Services. This means that Express Server will be superseded by Oracle9i. This document will discuss the details of this announcement and assess how it will affect Express users.

This announcement does not mean the death of Express Server 6.x. Express will continue to be supported and maintained by Oracle for many years - Oracle still supports Express Server 5.x which was superseded by Express 6.x over 5 years ago. The emphasis on new feature development though will be on Oracle9i OLAP Services. 

The aim of Oracle9i is to provide a single engine which will manage all Business Intelligence and Warehousing requirements. Its components include innovative ETL (Extraction, Transformation and Load) capabilities built into the database kernel to create and maintain the database, specialised OLAP services providing sophisticated analytical capabilities as well as an integrated Data Mining engine. 

Current users of Express are likely to be most interested in the OLAP Services component of Oracle9i. OLAP Services has been designed to replicate the analytical capabilities of specialised OLAP servers such as Express within the relational database. It will provide the ability to run complex, multi-dimensional queries and calculations as well as create predictive analytical functions. It will provide rapid response times to all queries, be able to handle very large numbers of concurrent users and support multi-terabyte dimensional models. Thus Oracle9i will provide the benefits of a specialist OLAP engine without requiring the machine resources of a proprietary, overhead-intensive multi-dimensional server or without adding extra administrative complexity. Oracle9i OLAP Services is in fact the convergence of the Express and Oracle technologies, carrying the key analytical and performance characteristics of Express into the more scalable and manageable Oracle relational database. Oracle9i OLAP Services will contain a multi-dimensional cache which will replicate the functionality of Express and provide consistent performance for multi-dimensional queries. This will be a shared cache, accessible by all users, although it is likely that it will only be temporary.

Data will be accessible by Oracle9i OLAP SQL Functions - providing powerful data analysis capabilities from Oracle9i's SQL language. This will allow standard SQL based applications to provide complex analytical capabilities. The functions include standard multi-dimensional queries such as time-series analysis e.g. lag and lead; rankings, categorization and statistical functions such as correlation as linear regressions.

New tools will be available to utilise the power of Oracle9i OLAP Services. The OLAP API is a Java object orientated query API for Oracle9i OLAP Services. Oracle Business Intelligence Beans are a new set of components for building internet based analytical applications. These BI Beans will be integrated into Oracle JDeveloper to provide a comprehensive application development environment. Oracle BI Beans will supply analytically aware application building blocks such a tables, cross tabs, graphs and query and calculation builders.  

A new Analysis and Planning application is being developed on Oracle9i OLAP Services with BI Beans to replace Oracle Financial Analyzer, Sales Analyzer and Demand Planner. This  new product, Enterprise Planning and Budgeting (EPB), will support all the current functionality of these products together with new features and capabilities, and will be provided with migration tools to upgrade your OFA or OSA application. Any custom file readers will need to be replaced by SQL based loaders or with an ETL tool such as Oracle Warehouse Builder, while custom programs and custom user interfaces should be compared to the extensive new functionality available and may not necessarily need to be recreated.

Oracle Express Objects users will need to migrate to Oracle BI Beans and JDeveloper to replicate their application. The strengths of Oracle Express Objects are built into BI Beans and supported by the extensive Java development environment provided by JDeveloper. While Express Objects requires Express Analyzer as the runtime application, BI Beans uses the runtime services offered by the Oracle9i Application Server. BI Beans offer easy tools to rapidly develop and deploy analytic solutions, so migration tools will only be provided to migrate the Express Objects metadata, rather than the complete application.

The Oracle9i data dictionary or metadata for these applications will held in a Common Warehouse Metadata compliant repository. This will fully describe the multi-dimensional data model and the data warehouse. All current Express database metadata, whether built by Oracle Financial Analyzer, Sales Analyzer or the Express Administrator can be migrated into the Oracle9i CWM compliant data dictionary. Relational Access Administrator (RAA) metadata can also be migrated. Once any Express database - data and metadata - has been migrated into Oracle9i, the functionality available from Express Server can be provided by not only OLAP and BI Beans applications, but also by other query tools such as Oracle Discoverer and Oracle Reports via the Oracle9i OLAP SQL Functions.

There are implications for all users of Express Server, its tools and applications. While Express Server 6.x will continue in its current form for a number of years to come, all future development will be based on Oracle9i OLAP Services. The current release date for Oracle9i is Q2, 2001, but the planned release date of BI Beans is in Q3 2001 and it is unlikely that Analytic Services will available until 2002. This means that although Express will be superseded, current Express users are unlikely to be using Oracle9i solutions until the middle of 2002. In the meantime, Express 6.x will be continued to be developed and maintained, and new versions of the Express applications (OFA and OSA) will be released. 

Oracle9i will be of most interest to users of Express Objects or for users with very large multi-dimensional data models. Express Objects has been de-emphasised recently, and the announcement of Oracle9i and BI Beans provides all Express Objects developers and users with the promised, exceptionally powerful Java based development environment. Current users of RAM or those with very large multi-dimensional models are also likely to be the early implementers of Oracle9i. Oracle9i will provide an environment which provides all the benefits of MOLAP, while utilising the power of the relational database to handle very large multi-dimensional models.

In the opinion of Rockport Software, users with custom applications built using Express Object or those with very large multi-dimensional models should take great  interest in the development of Oracle9i and consider utilising its power and development environment at an early stage. Other users of Express (e.g. those of Express Applications, OFA and OSA) are unlikely to be provided with an early migration path to Oracle9i and should therefore continue with Express Server 6.x and upgrade to the 11i release of these applications when practicable. Considering Oracle's commitment to Express and the number of worldwide installations, Express Server will remain as a premium Business Intelligence environment for many years to come. Users should note the development of Oracle9i but be assured that the Express Server environment will remain an important and significant part of the Oracle product suite.