DB Training - Oracle vs DB2

AudibleReady

I'm looking to learn some more about databases and I'm looking for some info from Oracle or DB2 people.

Which of Oracle and DB2 would be the most widely used in Irish companies?

If you were starting from scratch and were to concentrate on just one of Oracle or DB2 which would you choose?

How valued are certifications in this area?

Do you know of any good courses run in Ireland for either Oracle or DB2? For DB2, I see IBM have a good few listed on their website - but none of these are running according to their training schedule. For Oracle all I could find was an evening course run in the Fitzwilliam Institute.

Any help appreciated. Thanks,

Noel

Evil Phil

Hi Noel,

Software Paths run oracle courses. I'm sure other places do too. I'm going to move this over to the I.T. Certification forum, you'll get a much better response there.

DublinWriter

Oracle would be the most widely used by far.

I wouldn't bother with DB2 unless you were going to specialise in other IBM techologoies aswell.

There are plenty of 'Dummies' type guides for Oracle plus you can download a legit copy of almost any Oracle product from the Oracle website.

is_that_so

Agreed go with Oracle, more marketable, better DB(IMO). You can also get a copy of Oracle 10g XE (Express) to play with. Have a look at OTN .
If you are a complete newbie you might look at online stuff as well, about Db, structures , design etc. OTN has a lot of stuff there as well. I would get a foundation before shelling out on a course through tutorials , dummies books etc. .
DBA courses, should you choose to go after them are very very expensive. Main Certification is Oracle Certified Professionl(OCP) but have a look here as well for courses Oracle University offers.

AudibleReady

Thanks for the replies.

Anyone that has done the certification - what kind of workload is involved?

Is it easy to just get a good book on the subject and follow it through and pass the certification?

cousin_borat

Don't get hung up on certification just yet. Spend a month with the XE version or Oracle and go through some tutorials.

AudibleReady

cousin_borat wrote:

Don't get hung up on certification just yet. Spend a month with the XE version or Oracle and go through some tutorials.

DB work wouldn't be a major aspect of my everyday work so I would find working towards a certification would have me more focused - I'm just trying to get an idea of the sort work load involved in order to have some sort of timescale, I know this will be different for different people, but a rough idea would be good.

Kali

Balls. just lost my post by pressing backspace

Anyway.... Oracle certs come in two parts, the first 9i/10g Administration I (concepts and basics) is the OCA, the second Administration II is the OCP level.
The OCA exam isn't extremely difficult technically however on the theory side there are a lot of Oracle concepts, ideas, products which all need to be learnt and a prior understanding/experience with the Oracle family of products (or at the very least relational databases) does help quite a bit. I'd reccomend picking up the Sybex Administration I book if you are interested, be warned if you don't have a passion for databases I would avoid this route altogether, as it's incredibly tedious studying something so inherently boring (if http://www.adp-gmbh.ch/ora/concepts/segments.html doesn't send you to sleep then go for it!)