Santosh, you are quite right, Oracle has definitely improved the database management utilities over the years. I remember Server manager and now look at Grid Control. certainly a world of difference.

Oracle got it right when it moved Enterprise Manager to the current web-based OC4J (Oracle container for Java) and Application server based architecture, which is inherently much more scalable (more on that later). The EM management server is a cut-down version of Oracle Application server in that respect.

You said "I feel very relieved today to have EM for DBA work that can be accessed using a browser only." You are right. Some Dbas who say they are traditional Dbas frequently look down on EM, but the question is how long they can afford to do so, and is it wise to do so? Oracle database facilities are becoming more and more sophisticated. For eg. sure you can create 10g tuning sets in the command line, and run the tuning advisor, and other 10g performance things, but you have to issue an awful lot of complicated commands. Why do that when you can simply and easily use Grid Control? Find the busiest period on your database, drill down to the top statements during that period, select them and create a tuning set, then run the tuning advisor. It is that simple and cuts down on the manual time of typing all those commands.

Also Oracle strongly recommends the use of Grid Control for managing sophisticated systems like RAC, especially for performance. Sure you can have RAC and manage RAC without Grid Control, but would you drive a Ferarri with bullock cart reins? Would you run RAC with just SqlPlus? (I do apologize to the writers of SqlPlus for comparing SqlPlus to bullock cart reins, but that is how we see it, as compared to powerful tools like Grid Control). Management also should be convinced that when they go in for RAC, they should have it managed by Grid Control.

As consultants we frequently strongly recommend this to management of any company who wants to use RAC.

Your analysis of the benefits of using Grid Control over Database control is also spot on. With Grid Control you can manage multiple databases, set up RMAN backups, see all RMAN backup jobs, set up Dataguard, monitor Dataguard and so on, just as you have pointed out.

Thanks Santosh for your excellent feedback on the advantages of Grid Control.
Do keep writing to this blog.