Oracle hails new internet file system for PCs

By ADAM GIFFORD

Oracle, never lost for words in the marketing department, is hailing its Oracle Internet File System (iFS) for the Oracle 8i database as the most significant innovation for personal computers since the Netscape internet browser.

"The thing Microsoft got upset about with Netscape was that Navigator broke the link between the desktop and the operating system. With Navigator you no longer needed to launch applications from the desktop, you could launch them from browsers. That was a huge threat to Microsoft," said Jeremy Burton, Oracle's vice-president for internet platform marketing.

"In the same way iFS breaks the link between the file system and the operating system, so you no longer need to store documents in the operating system."

Content scattered across PC desktops, document management systems and web sites can be managed by iFS in a single repository, which supports the storage and management of more than 150 different file types.

Mr Burton said iFS lowered the barrier for storing data in an Oracle database by making the process one familiar to ordinary PC users.

"Currently 99 per cent of the world's content is not saved in a database but a file system," he said.

"If it's so bad, why is so much content stored there - because it is easy to use, it's familiar for people to use. Drag and drop is a simple metaphor.

"But a file system just holds information, it doesn't manage information."

Oracle iFS allows users the benefits of Oracle 8i's professional management information system, making content accessible, secure and extremely reliable.

It makes searching much faster. Searching a file system requires every file to be opened and checked. A database indexes each file as it is put in, so a search only requires a query to the index.

Mr Burton said the growing amount of content people had to deal with, driven by downloads, e-mail and e-mail attachments, made the file system an inadequate place to store data.

"We've had the same file system for 20 years with no innovation. The biggest innovation was in 1995 with Windows 95 which allowed file names to go from eight characters to unlimited characters.

"It's also tightly coupled to the operating system, so the rate of innovation is limited. You only get a new file system when you get a new operating system."

In contrast to the Microsoft view that its tightly held operating system provides a standard which assists innovation, Mr Burton said an uncoupled file system would enable third-party developers to introduce the features they wanted.

Developers could download iFS for free from the Oracle Technology Network web site.

He said iFS was "the killer application for XML" or extensible markup language, the descriptive format for data which is seen as the key enabling technology for business-to-business communication.

"The big problem to solve with XML is not the format but the management of XML documents."

E-commerce will mean companies will quickly be swamped by thousands of automatically generated XML documents arriving daily.

"The way to manage it is to get XML documents into a professional information management system as soon as possible."

He said iFS marked the end for companies trying to develop and market native XML databases.

"There's no need. Why not store this in a relational database."

Databases also give greater security. Mr Burton said viruses or worms like the Love Bug, which work because of the easy access the Microsoft operating system allows to the file system, cannot get similar access to the database.

Existing Oracle 8i customers will get free upgrades to the new system.

A Linux version will be released in a few weeks, and other operating systems will follow.