ORACLE 11g Database - Very Cool new Features
Attended a presentation by Andy Mendelsohn, SVP Oracle Inc on Oracle 11g. The quote from Alfred Northhead (mathematician) that he used to describe what his organization was trying to support resonated with me: The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and preserve change amid order.

I am convinced that that the Oracle will continue to be the leader in database technology for the next several years. Andy talked about some very cool features that they expect to release in 11g:

• Database Appliances that can be easily installed within a grid
• Flashback Query Functionality: Ability to execute queries with an earlier effective date. This feature will be huge for audit and data retention requirements.
  
• Change Management Features: Simplified regression testing of production database activity and enhanced SQL performance test automation and analysis using new features to log production activity and replay it in test.
  

In addition, the Database Vault feature (released with 10g) to protect information from DBAs and system administrators has been hugely popular and is being ported to the 9i release.

Very Cool!