Conclusion

In this chapter, increasing data growth patterns in global business operations have been examined. The need for internal and external data sharing and data movement is ever-growing.

Data replication is an important function of database systems. Oracle Streams provides a new method of data replication and data sharing. The Oracle Streams data sharing methodology is based on the extraction of the database changes from the Oracle Redo Log files. Initially introduced in version 9.2, Oracle Streams is now a fully matured product. The Oracle10g release has brought in many useful features. Some of those new features were highlighted in this chapter as well.

The main points of this chapter include:

• Data accumulation and data synchronization are an important need for many business organizations. It is much more significant for the organizations with multiple sites due to the need to have data exchanged efficiently between sites.
   

• Data replication conducted by the Oracle Streams replication process helps to achieve data synchronization very effectively by offering time efficient data transfer as well as built-in functionality in the areas of failover and disaster recovery.
   

• The producer and consumer database model was introduced and was followed by a description of the Oracle Streams methodology.
   

• Additionally, some third-party products that provide replication and other data sharing capabilities were also examined.

In the next chapter, more details regarding the Oracle Streams process, architecture, and resources will be presented.