We know what Oracle is and what purpose it serves for companies. But, have you ever thought of Oracle’s role specifically in the small businesses? These are the workhorses of all companies big and small that cannot be seen from the outside. They organize all the data and information necessary for running the small businesses. But, what is the significance of an Oracle DBMS in the life of a small business?
A small business does not always stay small and a database managed by Oracle has the scope of growing in tandem with the business prospects. Oracle has introduced quite a few editions with small businesses in mind that are both affordable and extremely suitable for use on single processor servers, usually seen in small businesses.
What do we know about Oracle already?
Currently, Oracle is leading the DBMS market with a 40.8% market share that is followed by IBM at a distance (29.4%). Oracle has quite a number of versions including Oracle 7, Oracle 8, Oracle 8i, Oracle 9i, Oracle 10 and Oracle Database 11g beta.
These can be classified as midmarket products that are easy to use and require minimum maintenance. Oracle for small businesses includes its Standard Edition One version that is usually used by small info-tech companies for storing their company data and updating their sales data, consumer data and other data that may require daily updates.
Which database does your business need?
While a small business can vary in sizes between a few lines of info to a huge database filled with details, the requirements are almost always the same. Small businesses are bound by certain constraints as well as requirements that dictate their choice of databases. As far as 2016 is concerned, a huge number of small businesses have opted for Oracle as their DBMS.
While the decision making process there are a few questions that every small business owner must ask:
- Who will be using the DBMS?
- What is the quantity of the data? How often will it be modified and by whom?
- Who will be supporting the small business database software technically?
There are a few factors that should be taken into consideration as well, while making the choice:
- The size of the business and its scalability – as we have mentioned before, a small business does not always stay small. So even though a small business can have a small database to start with they should consider their prospective growth. While a home-based business may be able to manage its database on MS Access or an Excel Spreadsheet in the beginning, there is no excuse for leaving no room for data expansion later on.
- The type of the database –while databases can have several formats including flat-files, relational, network and object oriented the common factor between all the formats is the robust nature of a DBMS. All functional DBMS must be fast and flexible as well for quick data retrieval and recovery.
- The cost –database meant for small businesses usually run on a single server. The DBMS options viable for a small business needs to be affordable and at the same time of high quality. You can actually buy a competent database for a couple of hundreds and many start-ups are currently buying basic systems that can store and manage small amounts of data and later upgrading to larger, more complex systems as the need arises.
- Past client records and services –the prospective DBMS vendor should have a clean track record. You can expect to be treated similar to their past clients and a good, honest feedback should be enough to help you make the final call. You must understand that a business database must be up and running 24×7. When you are starting out you cannot afford any downtime at all. There is no point in compromising that security for a few dollars. If you have the chance of buying a DBMS from a reliable vendor at this time, for a few hundred dollars you should definitely make your move. Even if you are opting for a cloud server make sure that the installed software is debugged and of superior quality with no history of significant downtimes.
- Data retrieval and interactions –data retrieval is a process that is critical to every business and database. When you are storing data in a database all kinds of complex data are usually sorted, organized and stored by the DBMS. The ideal DBMS should store and retrieve the data accurately without any lag. A slow DBMS can stand between you and the success you deserve by delaying the retrieval process, marring consumer experience and driving them to competitor websites.
These are a few factors that should help you make the right choice from among hundreds of available DBMS in the market.
Why are most small businesses opting for Oracle?
At present, there are about 8 million small businesses operating in and out of the United States. Each of these small businesses has a return of about 10 million USD per year, which is quite less in terms of businesses prospering in the United States. Only a handful of these small businesses can afford resident database administrators or DBAs. Most of these businesses either opt for consultant database administrators or they go with the more prevalent option of Oracle remote DBA. A remote DBA usually helps in the management of company databases round the clock from a different geographical location.
Managing small business data is not as easy as it sounds
The main challenge faced by the remote DBA while managing small websites is their forever growing repository of data. This challenge has attractedOracleto target these small businesses specifically to expand their domain of DBMS and RDBMS services. Take for example, the OracleSmall Business Suite that consists of a complete suite of applications meant for small business data storage and management.
The OracleSmall Business Suite ensures that there are no hardware systems to be installed. All the deliverables are in the form of online applications and services that involve no installation fees, up-front licensing fees and set-ups. Any consumer can get an OracleSmall Business Suite and get it up and running within a few minutes only.
This is ideal for small businesses in many ways:
- It includes a number of useful features most necessary for small businesses like sales force automation, customer support management, shipping and receiving management options.
- A fully furnished start-up tab that leads the user to a series of screens and wizards to furnish the basics of a company database preferences. You can selectively turn several features on and off as per your preference.
- It has myriads of import options including Quicken, IIF, CSV and XML.
- The most recent versions of OSBS allow FIFO and LIFO inventory strategies.
- All the pages are customizable and the opening page comprises the shortcuts the user has created, reminders of pending tasks and a snapshot of key numbers including the links.
As we can see in this section, there are quite a few reasons why OracleSmall Business Suite is ideal for most start-ups and emerging small businesses. While considering these facts do not forget that even the newest version of the Small Business Suite costs a fraction of the other popular DBMS options that provide the same or even lesser number of functionalities.
What are some of the other Oracle DBMS options that are maintaining their popularity among small businesses?
Let us check out a few instances where Oracle had won over the small businesses with their niche and targeted releases. Do you know about the X6-2S and the X6-2M DBMS from Oracle? These are both 1U rack-mount solutions that are based on Intel Xeon E5 v4 processors making them two of the smoothest and fastest DBMS options for small businesses.
The X6-2M is almost twice as powerful as the X6-2S, which is a single-socket system that has been optimized for a small business database. The latter one has a 128 GB to 384 GB memory space, while X6-2M sports a 256 GB to 768 GB of memory that makes it possible for 2M to handle multiple-instance databases.
The 6.4 TB NVM Express Flash storage solutions offer a high performance level for all database applications that is yet to be matched by any other small business database solution.
The user gets a fully configured and ready-to-use database from Oracle, ideal for small businesses at a price of $18,000. The price may seem a bit steep at the moment, but it should be viewed in the light of an investment rather than expenditure.
Conclusion
All the three DBMS options from Oracle mentioned here are powerful database management solutions tailored for small businesses running on a shoestring budget. They bring with them the perfect blend of simplicity and power that is seen in most Oracle database management systems. Best of all, each of these can be deployed in less than 30 minutes and they can grow exponentially with the growth of business data.
While judging these by the aforementioned features do not forget that all Oracle users get Oracle’s exclusive Appliance Manager Software that is responsible for simplifying all administration tasks. Most of these tasks include running daily diagnostics on the system, patching the system and provisioning. All customers can move the workload to the Oracle cloud or archive critical data via the manager software.
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