what is new in Oracle 11g

Oracle Audit Vault

We know that DBAs who are skilled enough can view and change data if they really want to. They can then alter the audit trail—wipe away their footprints—to make sure no one can find out what they've done. It's always been a problem, and now it's also a major compliance issue.

Oracle Audit Vault changes that scenario considerably. The audit trail goes into a one-way "lockbox." No one, not even a highly skilled DBA, can alter that audit trail once it's in the lockbox. People can view it, but no one can change it or delete it.

Hot Patching

Another feature that DBAs will really appreciate is hot patching, which allows you to apply updates and bug fixes to the database without bringing the system down.

Data Compression

Another new feature in Oracle Database 11g is the ability to store data in compressed format—called advanced table compression. Suppose you're storing a lot of long documents. Keeping them in compressed format can save up to two-thirds of the usual space necessary.

Query Result Cache

Oracle Database 11g will cache the results of queries in memory, where they act like tables. Multiple users can see these results without repeating the same query. For common and frequently used queries, this can save system effort and improve performance. You can configure how much space to allocate to query result cache and how long to retain results.