BerkeleyDB gets an update from Oracle |
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By Mark Brunelli, News Editor
23 May 2006 | SearchOracle.com |
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BerkeleyDB has gotten an Oracle-sponsored makeover
The company has just announced the general availability of the open source Oracle Berkeley DB Java Edition Release 3.0.
The new release of the Java embeddable database is the third to come out in three years and the first new version to come out of Sleepycat Software since Oracle purchased the open source stalwart back in February.
Rex Wang, Oracle's vice president of embedded systems and a former vice president of marketing at Sleepycat, said the latest release lets Java developers take advantage of a new Persistence application programming interface (API) that provides greater flexibility and new performance optimizations that enable applications to run faster.
"The target market for this product is sort of the high-performance Java applications [developers]," Wang said.
Wang said that current users of Berkeley DB Java Edition include business integration software vendor TIBCO Software Inc. and the Internet Archive organization, which offers historical snapshots of Web sites.
"A few months ago we announced General Dynamics was using Berkeley DB Java Edition for a real-time decision-making tool that is useful in battlefield situations," Wang added.
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More on BerkeleyDB: |
BerkeleyDB, Sleepycat honcho: Oracle deal an attempt to disrupt MySQL |
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Wang said the new Persistence API employs a built-in Plain Old Java Object-style object storage model, which provides support for complex object models without performance compromises. He said this helps Java developers avoid overhead related to storing Java objects and relational databases with object-relational mapping capabilities.
Oracle says the release also includes a new deferred-write database mode which enables pure in-memory operation designed to give developers more flexibility in prioritizing database performance. The company says the deferred-write mode is ideal for situations involving temporary databases and batch updates.
The software also include a new backup helper function that Oracle says helps streamline the hot backup of large database environments, helping to ensure critical systems are consistently backed up with up-to-date information.
Oracle has been getting more active in the open source world of late. Just last week the company contributed a set of tools to the open source Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax) community that are designed to let application developers automate the process of building interfaces.
Last October, Oracle purchased InnoDB, the Finnish open source database company that makes an add-on table storage engine for the open source MySQL database management system. At the time, Mike Olson, the former CEO of Sleepycat and a current vice president with Oracle, suggested that the move was designed to hurt MySQL's business.
"Any attempt to disrupt a competitor is an acknowledgement that the competitor matters, and I think that acquisition was in significant part an attempt to disrupt MySQL's business," Olson said during a November 2005 interview.
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