Oracle announced that Oracle Database 21c is available on Oracle Cloud, with on-premises versions set to be available later this year. Many of the features that are part of the Oracle Database 21c release were developed for the Oracle Database 20c update that was originally scheduled to be available in 2020, but was never actually publicly released due to issues related to COVID-19.
New features in Oracle Database 21c include Blockchain tables, SQL Macros (checkout the LiveSQL lab), a Native JSON datatype, In-Memory Hybrid Scans (using the in-memory column store like an index), and the ability to execute JavaScript inside the Oracle Database.
“Our goal is to provide the best-converged database,” said Jenny Tsai-Smith, Oracle VP for overall database product management. “And by that what we mean is being able to support any data type, any data model within the same database engine, as well as any workload.” According to Tsai-Smith, the objective is to provide a transparent scale-up and scale-out.
The launch follows its introduction of Oracle Database 21c in the Oracle Cloud Database Service Virtual Machine (for RAC and single instance) and Bare Metal Service (single instance) late last year. General availability of Oracle Database 21c for on-premises platforms, including Exadata, Linux, and Windows, will follow in the first half of 2021.
According to Executive Vice President of Database Server Technologies Andrew Mendelsohn, the company is also announcing a new cloud-based APEX Service designed to create a new access path for low-code developers who traditionally believed that writing apps for Oracle was complex and expensive. To entice new developers, Oracle is offering a free tier to this new cloud service.
Also announced was the new browser-based Oracle APEX Application Development tool, which is available now and gives organizations an easy way to build data-driven applications that can be tightly integrated with the Oracle database.
For developers, Oracle has introduced In-Database JavaScript, which enables them to work more efficiently in modern programming languages. The feature makes it possible for JavaScript data processing code to run inside the database, where the data lives, reducing expensive network roundtrips.
Other new features include more automation of the database’s existing in-memory capabilities, higher-performing graph models, and persistent memory support.
