Beginning Oracle® Application Express

1.3. Why Oracle?

You have two problems, and both of them require solutions. But why would you look to Oracle for both of those solutions?

Of course, Oracle is widely known for their enterprise strength database. You would expect systems built on the robust foundation of this database to be highly scalable, and for each database system to be able to support many different applications. But isn't this sophisticated technology both complex and expensive?

As you will see throughout the remainder of this book, the answer to both of these questions is a resounding "No!" The folks at Oracle have indeed included a host of advanced features in their database and supporting technology for decades. This leadership has given their technology a significant advantage in the market, and in the ever-increasing ease of use of their products. Typically, Oracle introduced features into their technology years ahead of other products, and has refined and simplified the interface to that technology, in cooperation with their user community, while others strove to catch up. At this point in time, Oracle has simplified the use of their standard features to the point where you get their advantages with virtually no effort on your part. The exercises in this book are an illustration of this approach — although the application you will create is robust and flexible, with the ability to transparently scale to thousands of users, you will not have to perform any special configuration or management tasks to ...