So simply widening our analysis breadth brings our analysis back in order and actually strengthens it. And that's a good place to be.

This section focuses on collecting performance statistics (not optimizer statistics) in modern Oracle architectures. The difficulty associated with this type of data collection is the result of the end users being increasingly separated technically and possibly physically from where their requests are processed. This separation causes significant technical challenges when profiling a single end user's activity. To understand the challenges and truly appreciate the solution, we need to first look at the dramatic changes in Oracle system architectures.

Oracle architectures have changed greatly over the years, making session profiling (Oracle session-level response-time analysis) nearly impossible without purchasing a product. Keep in mind that there are always architectural variations, but the core dynamic remains true.