Oracle vs SQL Server

I don't know whether to take the bachelor's degree leading to the Oracle Certification or not. I thought that SQL was more popular, but looking around it seems that there are far less people certified in Oracle, and the jobs pay about 15-20 percent more.(maybe I'm wrong).

Stir me right, which is best to study for an aspiring DBA.

Sorry Im asking so many questions, but the deadline for my enrollment is Feb 15th. I'm trying to make the best decision.

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Comments

brad-

Oracle is still the king of the database world as far as I know. Its is more used for larger companies, government...large volume people. SQL is catching up though.

I did MS 70-431 for SQL 2005 and I'm really glad I did. I would like to have some oracle experience, but the cards havent fell right, and my current job doesnt use it.

I will say that in hindsight, I wish I had purchased the CBT Nuggets for it - the concepts and terminology were all new and meaningless to me at the beginning - took a few weeks just to understand what was going on.

"Oracle claimed 44 percent of the market, which is far and away the leadership position. IBM came in second with about 21.2 percent of the market, followed by Microsoft with an 18.6 percent market share. All three claimed healthy double-digit percentage growth year over year, but Microsoft was particularly noteworthy with a 25 percent gain in 2006 over 2005. "

dynamik

I believe Oracle is used in higher-end applications. There may be better pay and less certified individuals, but there may also be fewer positions and more competition.

aaronchristenson

I would say go with the SQL track. I have the MCITP Database Administrator certification I was able to find a good job with that, and now I am working on Oracle 11G because my job is requiring me to do so, we have both SQL Server and Oracle servers here. I have not found as many resources for study material for Oracle as there are for SQL. The competition for Oracle DBAs is high as was stated above.

eMeS

I never really see these things as picking one or the other....why not aim for both?

As has been mentioned, Oracle (and DB2) tends to be found in larger enterprises and used in more business critical applications, etc.., however, you will likely find a mix of Oracle, DB2, SQL Server etc... in many organizations. For example, my experience is in financial services. Most of the core trading systems rely on a DB2 backend database, whereas a monitoring tool might use a SQL Server database, etc... ad naseum. You will find a mix, and it's not a bad thing to be able to thrive in both(all) worlds.

Most of the DBA-type people that I know are either Oracle or DB2 people, and I know maybe 2 or 3 that hold any of the certifications. In my experience these certs are fairly rare, and hands-on database experience tends to be valued heavily in these areas. The certified people that I know do not make any more (or less) than those that aren't certified for Oracle or DB2. This is all unsubstantiated...I have no link to provide to back it up.

The other thing to mention is that although every vendor has their own flavor of SQL, IMO it's very easy to move from flavor to flavor. I hold the MCITP: DBA and have no problem with T-SQL, but I also hold the low-level Oracle SQL Expert cert and can function just fine in PL/SQL. IMO, once you get the flow and "logic" of SQL, it's only a matter of learning the minor differences between the versions. SQL is good to know no matter what your job is in IT.

If I were considering this, I would probably do this:

Earn 1Z0-047 - This is the Oracle SQL Expert exam. You can easily self-study for this with any generic SQL or PL/SQL book. What you learn hear will be useful regardless of where you eventually end up, even if it is something totally unrelated to direct database programming or administration.

Earn 70-431 - This is the MCTS exam that is the entry into the MCITP: DBA or MCITP: DBD certifications. You can easily self study for this with an evaluation copy of SQL Server and the MS Press book.

Learning the information required for these two exams should go fairly quickly (depending on the time you can devote) and will serve you well in both the Oracle or the MS worlds.

The next level of exams definitely require more in-depth knowledge. Once I gained the necessary additional experience, I would pursue the OCA and the MCITP: DBA certifications.

MS

savior faire

Based on information available to me back in August 2007, from others in the industry, if you want to train in Oracle, you really need to learn the applications that run on Oracle, rather than the technical/development aspecs of Oracle.
It was because of this advice, I decided to train in SQL Server. I had also inquired about Sybase and was advised that this db is "going by the way side", and firms are converting to SQL Server.

eMeS

savior faire wrote: »

Based on information available to me back in August 2007, from others in the industry, if you want to train in Oracle, you really need to learn the applications that run on Oracle, rather than the technical/development aspecs of Oracle.
It was because of this advice, I decided to train in SQL Server. I had also inquired about Sybase and was advised that this db is "going by the way side", and firms are converting to SQL Server.

I've heard the same thing about Sybase. In fact, I am about to do some work for a large state government that is migrating from Sybase to SQL Server.

MS

bertieb

Lots of our enterprise clients are moving from Oracle to either SQL server or even in some circumstances MySQL.

Our Oracle DBA's (who admittedly really do know their onions, but don't tell them I said that

) don't think they will remain here for too long. Oracle may be a good platform for enterprise class databases but it ain't cheap (for the product and the Oracle DBA support/costs etc) and in this day and age everyone is trying to cut costs.

We'll be back to Access one day

To the OP, I'd say go with whatever interests you the most. I think once you have one under your belt and you know it well it won't be that hard to learn another database platform - I know lots of good DBA's who know both Oracle and SQL in depth.

savior faire

bertieb wrote: »

Lots of our enterprise clients are moving from Oracle to either SQL server or even in some circumstances MySQL.

Our Oracle DBA's (who admittedly really do know their onions, but don't tell them I said that ) don't think they will remain here for too long. Oracle may be a good platform for enterprise class databases but it ain't cheap (for the product and the Oracle DBA support/costs etc) and in this day and age everyone is trying to cut costs.

We'll be back to Access one day

To the OP, I'd say go with whatever interests you the most. I think once you have one under your belt and you know it well it won't be that hard to learn another database platform - I know lots of good DBA's who know both Oracle and SQL in depth.

Interesting post on Oracle, vs SS vs mySql. My firm is a very small piece of a much larger organization. Our corp parent has a site license for Oracle. My firm uses Sybase, and there is talk of going to mySQL, and in fact, just last week there were some mySQL people in here. They specifically said mySQL is definitely not workable in our situation. We are pushing Sybase to it's limits here, we batch process nearly a few billion transactions from out clients, most of it in November through March(tax season). The mySQL people specifically indicated that their database system will not handle this. I am not an expert in any of these software products.

luckybob

I just got through working with Oracle 10g and Failsafe on a Windows x64 environment and I will say Oracle is a pain compared to SQL 2005. Honestly the only difference I see is that Oracle charges you and arm and a leg for licensing.

We run a couple SQL 2005 server and about 4 oracle 10g servers (2 of which are clustered). At one time Oracle was better than MSSQL, but with SQL 2005/2007 I think the playing field has been leveled. Like I said before, the only difference is price for licensing.

I am not a DBA, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

pan2008

savior faire wrote: »

Interesting post on Oracle, vs SS vs mySql. My firm is a very small piece of a much larger organization. Our corp parent has a site license for Oracle. My firm uses Sybase, and there is talk of going to mySQL, and in fact, just last week there were some mySQL people in here. They specifically said mySQL is definitely not workable in our situation. We are pushing Sybase to it's limits here, we batch process nearly a few billion transactions from out clients, most of it in November through March(tax season). The mySQL people specifically indicated that their database system will not handle this. I am not an expert in any of these software products.

Too late now, you may have already blown out your system, or converted to something else. But if you are using Sybase then convert to SQL Server. SQL Server is at least double the speed of Sybase worst case. Check this www.sybasevssqlserver.com for unofficial but very real results from working systems. Sybase and SQL Server are very similar and migration is simple with free tools.

it_consultant

People are paying MSSQL dba's and developers almost whatever it is they are asking. If I were you, if you already know a good deal about Windows and MS, then MSSQL is the way to go.

bertieb

pan2008 wrote: »

Too late now, you may have already blown out your system, or converted to something else. But if you are using Sybase then convert to SQL Server. SQL Server is at least double the speed of Sybase worst case. Check this www.sybasevssqlserver.com for unofficial but very real results from working systems. Sybase and SQL Server are very similar and migration is simple with free tools.

Holy 'Ancient Thread Resurrection' Batman!

N2IT

eMeS wrote: »

I never really see these things as picking one or the other....why not aim for both?

As has been mentioned, Oracle (and DB2) tends to be found in larger enterprises and used in more business critical applications, etc.., however, you will likely find a mix of Oracle, DB2, SQL Server etc... in many organizations. For example, my experience is in financial services. Most of the core trading systems rely on a DB2 backend database, whereas a monitoring tool might use a SQL Server database, etc... ad naseum. You will find a mix, and it's not a bad thing to be able to thrive in both(all) worlds.

Most of the DBA-type people that I know are either Oracle or DB2 people, and I know maybe 2 or 3 that hold any of the certifications. In my experience these certs are fairly rare, and hands-on database experience tends to be valued heavily in these areas. The certified people that I know do not make any more (or less) than those that aren't certified for Oracle or DB2. This is all unsubstantiated...I have no link to provide to back it up.

The other thing to mention is that although every vendor has their own flavor of SQL, IMO it's very easy to move from flavor to flavor. I hold the MCITP: DBA and have no problem with T-SQL, but I also hold the low-level Oracle SQL Expert cert and can function just fine in PL/SQL. IMO, once you get the flow and "logic" of SQL, it's only a matter of learning the minor differences between the versions. SQL is good to know no matter what your job is in IT.

If I were considering this, I would probably do this:

Earn 1Z0-047 - This is the Oracle SQL Expert exam. You can easily self-study for this with any generic SQL or PL/SQL book. What you learn hear will be useful regardless of where you eventually end up, even if it is something totally unrelated to direct database programming or administration.

Earn 70-431 - This is the MCTS exam that is the entry into the MCITP: DBA or MCITP: DBD certifications. You can easily self study for this with an evaluation copy of SQL Server and the MS Press book.

Learning the information required for these two exams should go fairly quickly (depending on the time you can devote) and will serve you well in both the Oracle or the MS worlds.

The next level of exams definitely require more in-depth knowledge. Once I gained the necessary additional experience, I would pursue the OCA and the MCITP: DBA certifications.

MS

My mother was a COBOL / Fortran programmer, however she eventually transisitioned into M204, Informex, DB2, Oracle 9i Database developer. She has 0 certifications like you said MS. It is all about experience in that field. Of course she has been a DBA/programmer for over 35 years.

Bl8ckr0uter

N2IT wrote: »

My mother was a COBOL / Fortran programmer, however she eventually transisitioned into M204, Informex, DB2, Oracle 9i Database developer. She has 0 certifications like you said MS. It is all about experience in that field. Of course she has been a DBA/programmer for over 35 years.

Don't take this the wrong way but your mom is awesome. I love to hear about non traditional ITers!

N2IT

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

Don't take this the wrong way but your mom is awesome. I love to hear about non traditional ITers!

Hehe

Yeah she is old school man. I dropped an Oracle thread in the Oracle forum. Maybe you can take a look at it and tell me what you think.

I am all for education and wish everyone on this forum the best.

Slowhand

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

Don't take this the wrong way but your mom is awesome.

This is a phrase we don't see nearly enough here on TE.