It looks like the holidays have come early this year for those of you with an Oracle Cloud account because starting today you can now create an Oracle 21c database!
That’s right, Oracle Database 21c is now production in the Oracle Cloud on the Oracle Cloud Database Service and the Autonomous Database Free Tier Service in Ashburn (IAD), Phoenix (PHX), Frankfurt (FRA) and London (LHR) regions. General availability of Oracle Database 21c for on-prem platforms (including Exadata, Linux and Windows) will be in 2021.
New features in Oracle Database 21c include Blockchain tables, SQL Macros (checkout the LiveSQL lab), a Native JSON datatype, In-Memory Hybrid Scans (using the in-memory column store like an index) and the ability to execute JavaScript inside the Oracle Database!
More details on what to expect from Oracle Database 21c can be found on the main Oracle Database Blog or in the Oracle Database Documentation.
If you don’t have an Oracle Cloud account yet, you can always sign-up for an Oracle Always Free Tier account at https://www.oracle.com/cloud/free/