Database Trends and Applications

THE 24x7 CHALLENGE: TRENDS IN HIGH AVAILABILITY
This survey of Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG) members was completed in May, 2006. (11 pages, including 15 charts and graphs)

With the rise of Internet-based business and service-oriented architectures that require that networks of applications and data be available to enterprise users when and where they need it, companies can no longer afford the luxury of taking their databases offline for any reason. Continuous, 24x7 availability is now a necessity.

This study examines the progress companies have made towards achieving their high availability service levels and the strategies they are using to achieve their goals. Among the key findings are:

Close to nine out of 10 have experienced significant amounts of unplanned downtime over the past year, arising from infrastructure, application, and database issues. In some cases, these outages totaled more than 24 hours over a 12-month period.
One out of four companies report that their systems were down more than 24 hours for
planned downtime.
Infrastructure issues are the source of most unexpected database disruptions, followed by software
and database glitches.

The results are based on 265 responses. A majority of respondents, 51 percent, are database administrators, 14 percent come from the development and architecture community, and 12 percent are managers or executives. Respondents come from a range of industries, including government and education (22%), software and high-tech (17%), finance/insurance (12%), utilities/transportation (9%), manufacturing (9%), and services (8%).