How is PostGIS Raster different from Oracle GeoRaster (SDO_GEORASTER) and SDO_RASTER types?
For a more extensive discussion on this topic, check out Jorge Arvalo Oracle GeoRaster and PostGIS Raster: First impressions The major advantage of one-georeference-by-raster over one-georeference-by-layer is to allow: * coverages to be not necessarily rectangular (which is often the case of raster coverage covering large extents. See the possible raster arrangements in the documentation) * rasters to overlaps (which is necessary to implement lossless vector to raster conversion) These arrangements are possible in Oracle as well, but they imply the storage of multiple SDO_GEORASTER objects linked to as many SDO_RASTER tables. A complex coverage can lead to hundreds of tables in the database. With PostGIS Raster you can store a similar raster arrangement into a unique table. It’s a bit like if PostGIS would force you to store only full rectangular vector coverage without gaps or overlaps (a perfect rectangular topological layer). This is very practical in some applications but practice
