The objective of this chapter is to get you started using Oracle GoldenGate 10.4. We will discuss the history and evolution of GoldenGate Software, its success in the market and ultimate Oracle acquisition. You will become accustomed with the concepts of data replication and how GoldenGate provides enterprise-wide solutions to address the business requirements.
Although an introduction, this chapter is designed to inspire thought by drilling into the key components, processes, and considerations required to build and implement a GoldenGate solution.
In this chapter, we will discuss the following points surrounding GoldenGate:
- The evolution of GoldenGate software
- The technology and architecture
- The solutions offered by GoldenGate
- The architecture and topology of GoldenGate, plus design considerations
- The supported platform and database versions
Let's begin by learning what GoldenGate is and what you can expect from this book.
Oracle GoldenGate is Oracle's strategic solution for real time data integration. GoldenGate software enables mission critical systems to have continuous availability and access to real-time data. It offers a fast and robust solution for replicating transactional data between operational and analytical systems.
Oracle GoldenGate captures, filters, routes, verifies, transforms, and delivers transactional data in real-time, across Oracle and heterogeneous environments with very low impact and preserved transaction integrity. The transaction data management provides read consistency, maintaining referential integrity between source and target systems.
This book aims to illustrate through example, providing the reader with solid information and tips for implementing GoldenGate software in a production environment.
In this book, we will not be making direct comparisons between Oracle GoldenGate and Oracle Streams. At the time of writing, Oracle is leveraging the advantages of GoldenGate by enhancing the product whilst continuing to fully support Streams.
As a competitor to Oracle GoldenGate, data replication products and solutions exist from other software companies and vendors. These are mainly storage replication solutions that provide fast point in time data restoration. The following is a list of the most common solutions available today:
- EMC SRDF and EMC RecoverPoint
- IBM PPRC and Global Mirror (known together as IBM Copy Services)
- Hitachi TrueCopy
- Hewlett-Packard Continuous Access (HP CA)
- Symantec Veritas Volume Replicator (VVR)
- DataCore SANsymphony and SANmelody
- FalconStor Replication and Mirroring
- Compellent Remote Instant Replay
Data replication techniques have improved enormously over the past 10 years and have always been a requirement in nearly every IT project in every industry. Whether for Disaster Recovery (DR), High Availability (HA), Business Intelligence (BI), or even regulatory reasons, the requirements and expected performance have also increased, making the implementation of efficient and scalable data replication solutions a welcome challenge.