SecureFiles compression

Oracle SecureFiles is a new feature in Oracle 11g that offers the best solution for storing Large Object (LOB) data in a database. This feature also provides native compression for the data stored in the lob columns. The SDO_GEOMETRY column has two VARRAYs that can be optionally stored as lobs in the database. The default storage for VARRAYs uses the old style lobs, but by specifying storage parameters for these VARRAYs, one can use the new SecureFiles storage for the VARRAYs. However, this is not always recommended, as there are cases where the default storage for the VARRAYs will be better than the SecureFiles storage option.

VARRAYs by default are stored inline with the rest of the row data if the size of the VARRAY is less than 4000 bytes. When the size of the VARRAY goes beyond the 4000 bytes, the data is stored in a lob in the LOB segment storage. If the users specify storage parameters for the VARRAY, then they are always stored as lobs; inline lobs if the...