Formerly known as Project Raptor, Oracle SQL Developer is a free tool featuring drag-and-drop functionality. It is intended to simplify development cycles. Although third-party graphical tools have been available for Oracle databases from companies such as Quest, all Oracle has offered was the character-based SQL*Plus tool. Now, developers will no longer need to go to third parties.

"Granted, we should have done this 10 years ago but we didn't," said Mike Hichwa, vice president of software development at Oracle.

An early user of the product concurred. "It's really first-rate. The surprise is that it took Oracle so long to come into this market," said Paul Dorsey, president of Dulcian, a consulting firm and an Oracle partner.

Since being offered in an early release format in December on the Oracle Technology Network, the tool has been downloaded 76,000 times in 130 countries, Hichwa said.

By developing its own graphical tool, Oracle can offer ease of use. "You get the Oracle database and you get the Oracle tool that comes with it," Hichwa said.