The Oracle database system is quite complex relative to other database systems. This tends to create a few problems:
- It turns out more difficult to manage than many expect.
- Misinformed people purchase it because of its reputation for power in big companies even though they are not a big company or don't need so much scalability. However, they may be biting off more than they can chew. Sometimes you just need a NimbleDatabase, or something mid-sized like MySql, PostgreSql or SqlServer.
- Exposure to Oracle's complexity taints people's view of RDBMS as too cumbersome.
- Other DB products try to copy aspects of Oracle, but don't always copy the right aspects for their target market.
Now don't get me wrong, this topic is
not Oracle-bashing necessarily. Oracle is a very powerful tool that has lots of options because it is used in a lot of large organizations with complex and large-scale needs. It serves this market well and it is difficult or impossible to compete with a well-tuned Oracle system on scalability. (Only IBM's DB2 seems to even try.)
As a general rule,
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