What Database Does NetSuite Use?

NetSuite is a cloud-based business management platform that offers a suite of applications for various functions such as finance, accounting, inventory, orders, procurement, CRM, HR, PSA, ecommerce and more¹. NetSuite is used by more than 36,000 fast-growing organizations across the globe¹, but what kind of database does it use to store and access its data?

NetSuite and Oracle Database

NetSuite was founded in 1998 by Evan Goldberg, who was convinced by Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison of the promise of web-based software¹. NetSuite has always been built on Oracle’s database, which is the most popular database for over 40 years². Oracle database is a relational database, which means that it is composed of tables or mini Excel sheets that are linked together by references or keys². For example, an item record may have a reference to a location record, which may have a reference to another table, and so on. This creates a chain of related data that can be queried efficiently.

However, NetSuite does not use Oracle database for its logic or functionality. It only uses the database for physical storage of data³. NetSuite built all of its administration and provisioning tools, including multitenant management, on top of the database³. Multitenancy is the ability to serve multiple customers or tenants from a single instance of software and hardware resources. This allows NetSuite to offer its software as a service (SaaS) model, where customers pay a subscription fee to access the technology but are not responsible for any underlying infrastructure or system maintenance¹. Oracle NetSuite handles all of that for customers, with two new software updates per year¹.

NetSuite and SuiteQL

To retrieve information from the NetSuite database, NetSuite uses a query language based on the SQL-92 revision of the SQL database query language. This language is called SuiteQL, and it provides advanced query capabilities to access NetSuite records and data⁴. SuiteQL also supports querying the analytics data source, which is a special data source that contains aggregated and calculated data from various NetSuite records and transactions⁴.

When you load a list of items in your NetSuite account, NetSuite behind the scenes is actually running a search (and more specifically, a SuiteQL search of the NetSuite database) to find your list of items². And things really begin to make sense when we look at a Saved Search in NetSuite. The “joins” are using the references within each table to find the related table with our information. Sorting, grouping, and essentially every other part of a Saved Search is simply describing what SuiteQL does².

Conclusion

NetSuite is a powerful and versatile cloud-based business management platform that uses Oracle database for physical storage of data and SuiteQL for querying data. By leveraging these technologies, NetSuite can offer its customers a scalable, reliable, and secure solution that can handle various business functions and processes. NetSuite also provides a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to access and manipulate data without requiring technical knowledge or skills.

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