MacLochlainns Weblog

This was a day with a busy schedule because of the publisher’s seminar. It’s where the authors, like me, learn about Oracle products and market focus. Andy Mendolsohn went over the Oracle Database 11g R2, and other VPs presented BI/ERP solutions and the effect of Oracle’s Essbase Plus (previously known as Hyperion), Java’s position and direction, Solaris’ position and direction, and the Fusion Applications. A summary of the highlights I noted follows:

• The Oracle Database 11g R2 presentation explained the idea of quarterly patch set updates (PSUs), advanced compression, the new Oracle Database Firewall, OCFS (Oracle Clustered File System), and the Exadata Server. Three quarterly PSUs, then a point release is a change but a welcome one.
• Advanced compression qualified three subgroups: (a) A 3 times compression for OLTP systems; (b) A 10 times compression for data warehousing, and (c) a 15 to 50 times compression for archive data. If we apply this with the capital cost figure of 40% for storage as valid, compression may substantially reduce costs.
• They shared Gartner statistics that 82% of Fortune 500 companies use Oracle BI/ERP solutions was very interesting. The idea that the largest customer deploys an Oracle BI/ERP solution to 1 million users turns the demarcation between traditional data warehouse explorers and farmers into a historical footnote. They positioned Oracle BI EE Plus as targeted to the development of dashboard and BI Publisher (formally XML Publisher). Oracle Essbase Plus for Model-OLAP (Online Analytical Processing – focused on resolving the discrepancies between R-OLAP (Relational-OLAP) and M-OLAP (Model-OLAP). Oracle Scorecard and Strategy Management tools are reserved to planning Long-Range Objectivs (LROs), Short-Range Objectives (SROs), and Key Indicators (KPIs). The last requires a carefully modeling of the objective needs of the business and data model capability.
• The Exadata server now comes in two types, the X2-2 and X2-8. The first may be a quarter, half, or full Exadata server while the latter is always a full Exadata server. The X2- has 128 cores, 2 TB of memory, a Linux/Solaris 10 GB Ethernet connection, 14 storage servers with 6 core CPU in each storage server.
• Oracle’s commitment to Java is very solid but a question on NetBeans leaves one to believe that it isn’t part of Oracle’s solution space and it may not see much if any evolutionary change. They said that NetBeans would be supported to help external Open Source developers. My guess is that we should plan to migrate NetBeans or bear the cost of owning solutions with a higher integration cost.
• Solaris has come through the merger with new strength and a commitment to four goals that I caught: availability, scalability, and efficiency, and security. They also committed to make Solaris fully virtualizable, which will more effectively support private clouds. You may also note that Oracle has improved efficiency of MySQL 5.5 on the Solaris platform.
• Fusion Middleware Applications focus on: (a) Best Practice – leveraging the best in class of applications from the Oracle eBusiness Suite, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, and Siebel; (b) Re-inventing User Experience – A role-based user interface, embedded decision support, and pervasive collaboration; (c) Cloud – Support for both private and public clouds; (d) Platform – Standard-based, configurable, adaptive, and secure Fusion middleware. Customers will have three options for the future. They may continue the current path and upgrade eBusiness Suite to eBusiness Suite, et cetera. Alternatively, they can adopt a co-existence strategy that lets them mix and match components form multiple suites. Lastly, they may embrace the complete suite as a whole.

After the Publisher’s Seminar, we went to the Nikko for Oracle Develop. On the way, we had to cross Powell Street. I snapped a photo of John Harper, co-author of Oracle Database 11g Programming Workbook, with the Cable Car. The Nikko’s door is on the right, and the sessions were on the third floor.

After one session, we went back to the Moscone South Exhibition hall to snag a copy of Guy Harrison’s Oracle Performance Survival Guide: A Systematic Approach to Database Optimization. It’s the fresh version of his prior SQL Tuning books. I’d already bought one two months ago, but I couldn’t resist a signed copy for the office when it was free. I recommend the book as worthwhile and have promised Guy to write a review when I get home.

At the conclusion of the day, John and I went to the Oracle Press party to meet other authors. Ric Niemiec, founder of TUSC and author of Oracle Database 10g Performance Tuning: Tips and Techniques, and we took a photo. He’s also mentioned that the next edition covering Oracle Database 11g will include coverage of the Exadata Server. It’s awesome that he gets to write after the terminal release of the database.