An Oracle database is a collection of data. This data is considered as one unit. The purpose of a database is to store and retrieve related information. A database server is the key to solving the problems of information management. A server reliably manages a large amount of data in a multiuser environment so that many users can concurrently access the same data. All this is accomplished while delivering high performance. A database server also prevents unauthorized access and provides efficient solutions for failure recovery.
Oracle Database is the first database designed for enterprise grid computing, the most flexible and cost effective way to manage information and applications.
The database has logical structures and physical structures (Oracle 10g Architecture ) . Because the physical and logical structures are separate, the physical storage of data can be managed without affecting the access to logical storage structures.
Oracle 10g release offers a comprehensive high performance infrastructure
along with features mentioned in diagram.
Two common ways to architect a database are Client/Server and Multitier.
