Amazon RDS Update – Oracle Database 12c Now Available

AWS Official Blog

by Jeff Barr | on 02 APR 2015 | in Amazon RDS | Permalink

I’ve got good news for users of Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS). You can now launch Database Instances that run Oracle Database 12c (version 12.1.0.1.v1 to be precise).

This version of Oracle Database introduces over 500 new features! Here are a few that I found interesting:

Data Redaction – You can mask sensitive data fields such as SSNs or credit card numbers to hide it in query results. Read Introduction to Oracle Data Redaction to learn more.

Adaptive Query Optimization – This feature allows the query optimizer to adjust execution plans based on stats gathered at statement execution time, improving query performance. Read the Optimzer with Oracle Database 12c white paper to learn more.

Inline PL/SQL Functions and Procedures – You can now define stored procedures and functions in the WITH clause and use these inline objects in your queries. Read about With Clause Enhancements in Oracle Database 12c to learn more.

Top-N Queries – You can now retrieve the top or bottom N rows from an ordered set and more easily page through the results. See the blog post, Row Limiting Clause for Top-N Queries in Oracle Database 12c for some helpful examples.

APEX Update – You can take advantage of version 4.2.6 of Oracle Application Express. Read the Application Express Release Notes to learn about what’s new and read the APEX Options to see how to get started.

Launch an Instance Today
You can launch an RDS Database Instance running Oracle Database 12c today using the AWS Management Console, AWS Command Line Interface (CLI), AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell, the CreateDBInstance API function, or a AWS CloudFormation template. You can read the Oracle Concepts section of the RDS documentation to learn about parameter changes, APEX option changes, and other information on how to use this new release of Oracle.