Multiple Instances of ORACLE

We are in the process of developing an application that provides Multi-Company support.

The technical issue that we face is whether to include all records for all companies in a single instance of ORACLE or to place each companies database in their own instance of ORACLE.

For example, if we have a single instance of ORACLE, our customer table would carry a company identifier as part of the primary key. This way if we wanted to view company A's customers, the select statement would include a where clause that would select the customers for company A.

Alternatively, each company could have a separate instance of ORACLE running that would keep the databases separate. The problem is that the user's may need to access data from several instances simulatenously.

In our environment, if each database had its own instance, we would have 22 instances running. Does this make sense or should we consolidate all of the data into a single instance and use a company identifier as the leading edge of the primary key in all tables?

Any help or past experiences with this type of issue would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
Jerry Received on Mon May 05 1997 - 00:00:00 CDT