Oracle Automatic Storage Management, a key feature of Oracle Database 10g, helps customers to reduce IT costs, and achieve near zero-downtime at the highest levels of performance, according to a recently published Enterprise Strategy Group report. A database volume manager and file system integrated into Oracle Database 10g, Oracle Automatic Storage Management provides simplified database storage management and provisioning along with the ability to add and remove storage capacity without interrupting the database online operation.

The report, “Oracle Database 10g’s Automatic Storage Management Delivers Resilience, Simplicity and Lower Costs,” cites the elimination of third-party tools, an extremely high-level of storage management efficiency, and automation of tasks such as data rebalancing and distribution as key benefits of Oracle Automatic Storage Management.

“Our research confirms that Oracle Automatic Storage Management delivers high performance, more reliable automation and simplified operations,” wrote the report’s authors senior analysts Steve Duplessie and William P. Hurley. “This capability delivers previously unattainable levels of storage management efficiency through highly automated, application-centric rules and policies.”

The report highlights customers that have deployed Oracle Automatic Storage Management. One company consolidated more than 10 Informix databases onto Oracle Database 10g. After migrating to Oracle, the company used Oracle Automatic Storage Management to combine and share storage resources, avoiding having to allocate temporary storage capacity to accommodate billing cycles. The company was able to receive real-time billing information, bypass manual steps and unlock resources to offer new billing services to customers. The research also showed that by using Oracle Automatic Storage Management, companies have the ability to reduce manual intervention and overload by as much as 60 percent.