12.1.0.2 Released With Cool Indexing Features (Short Memory)

Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 has finally been released and it has a number of really exciting goodies from an indexing perspective which include:

• Database In-Memory Option, which enables specific portions of the database to be in dual format, in both the existing row based format and additionally into an efficient memory only columnar based format. This in turn enables analytical based processing to access the real-time data in the In-Memory Store extremely fast, potentially faster and more effectively than via standard analytical based database indexes.
• Advanced Index Compression, which allows Oracle to automatically choose the appropriate compression method for each individual leaf block, rather than having to manually select a single compression method across the whole index. This makes compressing an index a breeze and much more effective than previously possible.
• Zone Maps, which enables Storage Index like capabilities to be manually configured and physically implemented inside the database, to eliminate unnecessary accesses of table storage via much smaller objects than conventional database indexes.
• Attribute Clustering, a new table attribute which enables much better clustering of table data and we all know how both compression and index structures love table data to be well clustered.

These are all topics I’ll be covering in the coming weeks so stay tuned 🙂