11g 'hot patching'

One feature which caught my extreme attention while installing 11g was 'hot patching' feature.

Oracle says: ''hot patching,' which improves system availability by allowing database patches to be applied without the need to shut databases down."

For me, it is really hard to digest about upgrading (applying patches) while they are currently running. However, if this is believed to be true, then, definitely this feature going to resolve the hassles of shutting down the production databases while applying patches.


Jaffar