Running multiple databases in an organisation is quite common. Unfortunately having multiple copies of data that is never quite the same in different databases is also all too common. The solution to this is generally replication.

This book starts off with a nice gentle introduction, but quite soon starts giving a lot of detail about exactly how to configured Oracle (both versions 7 and 8) to perform the replication you need. As the book moves through different types of replication, there are generally good overview explanations, and then a lot of detail that none Oracle DBAs are not going to understand. I found the overview sections well written and explained, but my knowledge of Sybase and MS-SQL server administration (a bit patchy I must admit), was definitely insufficient to fully appreciate the more detailed sections on Oracle administrations in the text.

If you are looking for a general overview of Oracle replication, I think you will find this book rather diluted by the explanations of the nitty gritty, and need to do a lot of skipping forward. Oracle DBAs, on the other hand will, I'm sure, appreciate the detailed explanations and copious examples, and probably find it a useful addition to their bookshelves.