Table partitioning considerations

Here is an excerpt on how to plan for table partitions in Oracle.

"The Partition Decision

Now that you've seen the basics of partitioning, here comes the tough part: How do you decide on the type and columns used for partitioning? Your choice of partitioning has to address key partitioning objectives for manageability and performance. How you partition will be based on the priorities you assign to your objectives. I break down the objectives into the following categories: 

• Performance
• Ease of administration
• Data purge
• Data archiving
• Data movement
• Data lifecycle management
• Efficiency of backup"

The full article here at:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/issue-archive/2006/06-sep/o56partition-090450.html