Oracle Magazine - July/August 2012

A Convenient Truth
The Web is stored in tables, and
that’s good news.

The recent Computerworld article “ 10 Hard Truths for Software Developers” ( bit.ly/J8RKme) described “ 10 aspects of programming developers must learn to live with.” The hard truths of the article included information about the process of developing and maintaining code, the people involved in and affected by code development, and software development technologies.

The second item on this list of hard truths was this: most of the Web is just data stored in tables. For me, however, hard truth #2 was anything but difficult, and in fact, it was the best news in that article.

as well as for storage and access to various types of information for years. For internal projects, I’ve used relational database tables in situations where I first did not understand how using tables would help, but in each case the truth was that using the tables was convenient and definitely added value to both the process and the result.

NEXT STEPS

READ

“ 10 Hard Truths for Software Developers” bit.ly/J8RKme READ more about Oracle Database security oracle.com/us/products/database/security/ overview Oracle developer tools oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools

THE TRUTH ABOU T TABLES

The Computerworld article gives examples of the many types of information contained in tables on the Web and points out that programming languages have developed features specifically for working with information in tables. The hard part of the “data stored in tables” truth presented in the article appears to be that tables are not new, but rather are years-old constructs that have organized the information of the internet in clearly defined structures. The article also points out that NoSQL is new, but the hard truth there is that NoSQL is also about data in tables.

To me, the fact that most of the Web is data stored in tables is fantastic. The down-side to that truth is that only most of the Web is in tables. And as for the hard truth that even a newer technology like NoSQL works with data in tables, I see only benefit in adding new capabilities for the structures that already contain most of the information of the Web.

Like many people, I’ve counted on tables—on the Web and in intranet applications—for Web transactions and interactions

IN THIS ISSUE

An important truth about some tables, specifically Oracle Database tables, is that there are multiple layers of security designed specifically to protect table information from both outside and inside threats. “Lockdown” (page 30) describes various Oracle Database security solutions that encrypt, lock, and mask the information in Oracle Database tables. One product, Oracle Database Firewall, monitors activity on the network to help prevent unauthorized access, SQL injections, privilege or role escalation, and other external and internal attacks.

Supporting the excellent truth that the Web is data stored in tables, “Future-Proof” (page 36) describes Oracle database products and database development tools used at three organizations to manage information in database tables for sophisticated Web and mobile device applications. The solutions include a custom application for customer relationship management, a geospatial application, and an e-mail marketing application, working with table data in Oracle Database and MySQL and using Oracle Application Express and Oracle Data Provider for .NET development technologies.