When Do You Want the Job? Now? Next Year? Later?
One of the important considerations for choosing the 8i or 9i DBA track has got to be employment. Many of you going down the certification route are either looking to get a job in the field or to improve your position. The overriding consideration has to be: "What will get me a job when I want one?" If the timing of your job search is now, or six months from now, stick to Oracle 8i.

The reason for this recommendation is simple: Most companies are holding off on the rapid move to 9i and sticking with Oracle 8i -- or even earlier versions. I recently spent time at a client that is currently in the process of migrating from Oracle 7.2 and 7.3 to Oracle 8i. They do not foresee moving to Oracle 9i for a couple of years at least: maybe not at all. Many of my clients and others that I have talked to are also taking the cautious route, which makes and Oracle 8i certification a better bet today -- at least in the short-term.

If this is a long-term job hunt, 9i becomes a much safer option (more on that below).

To Succeed with 9i, You Need To Know 8i
The reality is that most of the work related to 9i today, at least for the next few years, will be migrating from previous releases (8i or earlier) to 9i. This means that employers will be looking for those individuals that understand both versions of the product and can help them determine whether or not the migration is worthwhile, and then help them do it. Nobody wants to spend the kind of money that Oracle is asking to upgrade to 9i (not to mention the hardware needed to run it!!) without being pretty certain that it will work and the applications currently deployed will continue to run. For this reason, being certified in only 9i may not be enough to land the position that pays the big bucks.

Oracle 9i DBA Has Fewer Exams
Here is one reason to look at 9i: it requires one less exam, saving you $125 U.S. (or your local equivalent). This won't make getting the certification any easier because the material being covered is similar to the 8i DBA track, but the networking and backup & recovery exams have been combined into one. Now, is the $125 you're saving worth it when you consider that to properly pass the exams you need to work with the product and/or take training? Maybe not.

If you take training with Oracle, the 9i DBA track will require about four weeks of training and cost just over $10,000. Third-parties may offer this same or similar content for less, but it will still be in the thousands. For those of you who wouldn't require training with 8i but really should take it with 9i, what what does having one fewer exam save you?

If you want to learn 9i on your own, you will need some pretty big hardware to make it go. The typical installation of Oracle 9i Enterprise Edition (on which all the exams are based) on WindowsNT/2000 requires 1.3GB of disk space and at least 256 MB RAM. If you want to create your own databases you will need additional storage and lots more RAM. A proper machine (and two or more should really be used to simulate a typical working environment) for working with 9i needs to be a Pentium III 800MHz with at least 512 MB RAM (preferably 1GB). Oracle 8i Enterprise Edition on Windows NT/2000, on the other hand, works fine with 256 MB RAM and much less disk space.

Oracle 8i Is Here for a While
Oracle recently announced that they are retiring the Oracle 8 DBA certification. This is as much for reasons of getting their customers to upgrade to at least 8i as it is to get people to start certifying on 9i. Like Microsoft before them, Oracle does not want their OCPs to rest on their laurels and stick with what they know: They want you to move forward as they release products, thinking that if the OCPs out there are on newer technology this will drive clients to newer technology.

While there is some truth and logic to that argument, the simple fact is (as Microsoft has found out), people don't move to new versions of a product just because you want them to. There are far fewer MCSEs out there that have certified on Windows 2000 than Microsoft wants. Both Microsoft and Oracle need to understand that there needs to be sound business reasons to move to new technology. One of these is "Will the applications that I have run on the new technology?" and the other is "What benefits will I derive from migrating now rather than later?" The simple fact is that until SAP, PeopleSoft, Baan, JD Edwards, and the myriad of other application vendors in the marketplace are confident that Oracle 9i is worth it, the vast majority of clients won't rush to adopt it.

I'm an OCP Already. Should I Upgrade to 9i?
In my opinion: Yes, and the sooner the better. With apologies to those folks that are looking to get certified for the first time in Oracle, the real winners in the 9i game will be those individuals that already have an Oracle 8i or Oracle 8 DBA certification. Like I mentioned earlier, the majority of work with Oracle 9i will be in migrating from Oracle 8i or earlier. Knowing both Oracle 8i (or even 7.3 or 8) and Oracle 9i puts you in a pretty good position to help companies make the transition.

If you are certified in Oracle 8i, prepare for and write the upgrade exam (Oracle 9i Database: New Features for Database Administrators). If you are certified in a previous release, you may want to take the four 9i exams or the corresponding upgrade exams to get you to 9i. Generally, the upgrade exams tend to be harder than the core exams, so you need to decide which is the best route for you. Because a lot of the architecture is similar between Oracle 8, 8i, and 9i, your prior knowledge could help you.

So What Does 42 Mean?
Aside from being the answer to the ultimate question of the life, the universe and everything as postulated by Douglas Adams in "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy," it means there are no easy answers. If you are new to the OCP game, you may want to start with an Oracle 8i DBA certification and then work your way to 9i later. It may seem like you're taking a step backwards, but there are and will be plenty of opportunities with 8i: it will be around for a while. This can help you get a job today and work your way towards 9i by gaining experience in migrating to that version -- if, that is, your timing is right.

In the end, the road you take is up to you. The road always curves and there are many forks. Take this advice, like any other, with a grain of salt and make the decision that you think will work best for you and reflects the environment you see yourself in. After you have progressed down that road, e-mail me and let me know how it has worked out for you. Good luck!