As Published In
Oracle Magazine
January/February 2012

COMMUNITY: Community Bulletin


Instructive and Transformative

By Justin Kestelyn

 

Oracle OpenWorld 2011 was an instructive experience for participants and the launch platform for a game-changing technology.

Oracle OpenWorld is always an instructive experience on multiple levels. Customers and partners receive transmissions in bulk about roadmaps across the Oracle product and technology stack, as well as access to a set of best practices that have been battle-tested across a huge community. Less obvious, but no less important, is Oracle’s opportunity to listen to customer and partner feedback across literally thousands of personal touch points.

The Oracle ACE Director Technical Briefing that occurs just prior to the conference at Oracle headquarters is the ultimate microcosm of this process. During this intensive and interactive session spanning two days, approximately 50 Oracle ACE Directors examined Oracle’s strategic “blueprints” in detail and offered feedback and advice about them—the customer-vendor feedback loop in action.

This year’s briefing was perhaps the most interesting in the Oracle ACE program’s history. The technologies discussed are pertinent to the hottest topics in enterprise IT today: Oracle Application Development Framework Mobile Client (Oracle ADF Mobile Client), the Oracle Exalytics In-Memory Machine, Oracle NoSQL Database and the associated Oracle Big Data Appliance, and Oracle Public Cloud.

Oracle Public Cloud: Game Changer

Oracle Public Cloud is the most significant offering, in the context of Oracle Technology Network. Thanks to the availability of a one-month free trial, anyone with interest and an internet connection can get hands-on with a full-blown Oracle Database application development environment through a variety of methods (including a RESTful Web service, which enables a number of programmatic access options). And anyone with similar qualifications can deploy a Java application to the Oracle WebLogic Server–based Oracle Java Cloud Service, a component of Oracle Public Cloud, for evaluation as an enterprise-grade home for it.

Web Locator


Oracle ADF Mobile Client
 

Oracle Exalytics In-Memory Machine
 

Oracle NoSQL Database
 

Oracle Big Data Appliance
 

Oracle Public Cloud
 

Oracle Database, Express Edition 11g

 

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The Oracle ACE Director reactions to the session on this topic were interesting, and perhaps suggestive of what a technical end-user audience wants from a cloud service. For example, there was a strong preference expressed by some for more-granular control over a cloud “sandbox” (cloudbox?) than that wanted by a software-as-a-service (SaaS) user, who ostensibly looks to the cloud to completely abstract away the complexities of IT and software provisioning. (This preference may have been influenced by the presence of high-profile infrastructure-as-a-service [IaaS] options in the marketplace, which tend to provide the dials and knobs that are typically not delivered by SaaS providers.) The platform-as-a-service (PaaS) category, of which Oracle Public Cloud’s database and Java services are an example, is the proper model through which technical end users can seek a balance between its two alternatives. (Oracle Public Cloud’s Oracle Social Network—which has a more general-purpose audience—is pure SaaS, by comparison.)

Regardless of where it belongs in the cloud-computing taxonomy, Oracle Public Cloud may change the way we run the Oracle Technology Network program. Although prebuilt VMs and raw-install, developer-license software will always have their places, the availability of a cloud service will give developers and evaluators yet another springboard for a deep-dive into Oracle Database and Java.

Oracle Database 11g the “Express” Way

Speaking of raw-install resources: Oracle Database, Express Edition 11g is now available on Oracle Technology Network. This edition of Oracle Database, which was initially based on Oracle Database 10g Release 2 code when it was released in 2007, was a major success in introducing Oracle Database technology to new users. It was easy to install, easy to manage, and easy to use to build lightweight Web apps. And, no small thing, it was free to use and distribute.

Oracle Database, Express Edition 11g moves the ball forward, aggregating the essential updates made to Oracle Database, Enterprise Edition from version 10.2.0.1 through 11.2.0.2—including Universal Connection Pooling, Edition-Based Redefinition, and many other compelling features. Furthermore, the user data limit has expanded to 11 GB (from 4 GB). You can follow the “Web Locator” link to the download as well as to a “quick tour” article.

Justin Kestelyn Headshot



Justin Kestelyn (justin.kestelyn@oracle.com) is senior director, Oracle Technology Network and developer programs, as well as Oracle Technology Network editor in chief.

  


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