IOUG blogs

We plan for the conference for a year and then during the week of the conference, everything seems like it goes by in a blur. There were so many interesting discussions, events, presentations and meetings I could talk for a week about all my thoughts and insights regarding the conference.

Some final thoughts regarding the week at Collaborate 07 in Las Vegas, 2007:

• The key Oracle user groups: the IOUG, OAUG and Quest are working better and better together.  The provides increased value to all attendees.
• Oracle continues to provide more functionality, features and products that the user community has to try to figure out. Attendees see the user groups as being a key component of helping them understand the key issues.
• Attendees have been struggling to understand Oracle Fusion technologies. However, a number of key presentations during this week provided some great insights and are starting to shed the light on Oracle Fusion. There is more work to be done but this week was a strong step towards guiding the user community towards Fusion technology.
• More Oracle customers are working in multi-tiered heterogeneous environments and are struggling with strategies for managing these environments.
• Security is increasing in importance and there is a lot of discussion determining the best approaches to addressing security.

See you in Denver!

George J. Trujillo, Jr. – IOUG Board of Directors
george.trujillo@trubix.com
www.trubix.com
trubix.blogspot.com

There were a number of great comments on the conference but the top outstanding comments were on the last half-day university events. Everyone I talked to about the last half-day university events, said the event was the highlight of the conference and the best presentation they have ever been to.

This shows that even though the major part of the conference ends on Wednesday, sometimes the best part of the conference is at the very end.

George J. Trujillo, Jr. – IOUG Board of Directors
george.trujillo@trubix.com

Instead of talking to you about all the benefits and exciting features of the Oracle Fusion Architecture, I am going to leave you with 10 facts on Oracle Fusion technology.

• If you are an Oracle technologist it is in your future whether you like it or not.
• Successful and marketable DBAs are going to see how Oracle Fusion is going to open up some new opportunities for them.
• Oracle developers are going to need to understand fundamentals of Java, ADF and SOA from an Oracle perspective.
• Most Oracle developers are not going to need to know all the technology surrounding the Oracle Fusion Architecture in great depth. Declarative programming will be the key for customizing Oracle Fusion applications.
• The increasing role of security is going to create some strong opportunities for Oracle Fusion DBAs.
• To work with Oracle you are going to need to be good at SQL, PL/SQL and XML.
• Smart companies are going to start using Oracle Fusion middleware immediately to make sure their customizations they are making today will work when they upgrade to Oracle Fusion applications.
• The entire Oracle technology stack is referred to as the Oracle Fusion Architecture. Traditional DBAs are going to need to learn that when the entire technology stack has Fusion in the name, that it is going to impact the traditional DBA world.
• The Services Oriented Architecture is a key to understanding Oracle Fusion.
• To stay marketable, Oracle professionals need to start learning Oracle Fusion components.

During the conference I seen attendees either trying to understand where Oracle Fusion is going to take them and other attendees that like making jokes about Fusion and talking about conFusion, etc. Oracle technology is going through an incredible evolution as we move in Oracle Database 11g and the Oracle Fusion Architecture. Old ways of doing things are not the ways of best practices for today and in the future. We all need to step into the light and look at where evolving Oracle and industry technology is taking us.

George J. Trujillo, Jr. – IOUG Board of Directors
george.trujillo@trubix.com
www.trubix.com
trubix.blogspot.com

The Collaborate 07 conference has come to an end, and to cap it off, there was another great debate. This one focused on what development tool to use. JDeveloper, Ruby on Rails, APEX were mentioned often and oddly enough there was even the mention of a Cadillac automobile – had to be here. However there still seems to be complexity to overcome as well. So not surprising there is not just one that is the best for all, it depends on your needs and requirements.

Steve Lemme

Collaborate 07 attendees were able to experience one of the largest vendor halls with over 200+ vendors to see and hear about some of the very latest technology just announced. With all the sessions going on the likelihood was that not all attendees got a chance to visit them all. Whether you attended Collaborate 07 or not, you don’t have to wait until next year. Contact IOUG headquarters about the newly announced Vendor Bureau and have them assist your region in getting some great vendor speakers to visit you region and share the latest in technology. While the exposition hall is now closed, more great sessions continue. And then finally the event closes with the Great Tool Debate. 

Steve Lemme

A number of points came out during the IOUG conference, especially among the key technology leaders of the IOUG. A key point throughout was that the IOUG maintain their voice of truth in the Oracle community. Oracle is growing in the market and is collaborating very well with the different user groups.

However, I constantly heard throughout the membership that the IOUG maintain its reputation about being the “voice of truth” for the user community. If there are areas that do not work as well as advertised or there are things to watch out for or gotchas with different features of Oracle, that the IOUG point them out.

Members constantly said they can go read the marketing literature from Oracle and go to OTN, but they count on the IOUG stating how things really are. A few comments I remember that reflect the overall feedback I heard were:

• “Oracle does not always get it right, we need the IOUG to support the user community and tell Oracle when it is wrong”.
• “Members do not join the IOUG to hear how great Oracle features are, that is what the Oracle website does for us. Tell us the ‘truth’, what are the issues we need to be aware of when we work with Oracle products and features”.
• “We are working with environments that are running MySQL, SQL Server, WebLogic, WebSphere, Eclipse, etc. This is the real world we deal with. We have to get better at supporting multiple environments. Help us more with the entire enterprise environments we are supporting. Oracle is just one part of our world.”
• “Help us read between the lines of Oracle marketing and Oracle sales. Don’t let Oracle bully you into just toeing the party line.”

It is good to hear from the membership and attendees and hear what is important to them beyond the technical presentations. I also believe it is important the IOUG continue to be the “voice of truth” for the Oracle community.

The IOUG changed its name from the International Oracle Users Group to the Independent Oracle Users Group.   The Independence from Oracle, where the IOUG technology leaders continue to point out what works with Oracle and what does not work is important to the user community and to Oracle Corporation.

George J. Trujillo, Jr. – IOUG Board of Directors
george.trujillo@trubix.com

Overall Hot Topics

There were a number of hot topics discussed during the Collaborate 07 conference. Some of the hottest and most interesting discussions occurred during lunches, between presentations and during evening events. There are a lot of hot topics that attendees wanted to discuss with other attendees.

• Fusion Middleware Technical Components
• A lot of tools discussion on .NET, Fusion Middleware, Ruby on Rails, PHP, APEX, and Flash.
• Customizations to make to current Oracle applications to prepare for future Fusion migrations.
• Changing role of the DBA.
• Oracle Database 11g.
• Oracle licensing.
• SOA
• Increasing role and importance of middleware strategies.
• Business Intelligence.
• Role of .NET, PHP, Ruby on Rails and other development outside of Oracle Fusion.
• Best tools to manage heterogenous database environments and their relative costs. Understanding how tools like Spotlight, Grid Control, UniCenter, Toad, JDeveloper, Eclipse, SQL Navigator and SQL Developer all fit in. Is there a best tool or is it best to integrate all the options.
• Role of MySQL and SQL Server in environments running Oracle.

I was surprised to see the number of new and intermediate DBAs looking at improving their skills on core DBA products. There were also a lot of experienced DBAs trying to understand their role and upcoming skills as we get closer to Oracle Fusion technology. DBAs are looking to increasing their marketability and skills to get the best jobs possible.

George J. Trujillo, Jr. – IOUG Board of Directors
george.trujillo@trubix.com

Oracle President Charles Phillips during his keynote presentation outlined the Oracle Application Integration Architecture, this is a standards-based solution for business process management. The Oracle Application Architecture addresses Oracle, third-party and even custom applications.

Integration of applications is a constant challenge for enterprise environments. There have been numerous presentations on Oracle products and features that focus on integration solutions. Presentations that have shown historical methods for integration in comparison to Oracle products has created a lot of discussions on strategies and best practices.

I thought that Thomas Kurian and Edward Screven from Oracle gave strong presentations to help understand the direction of key Oracle technologies and products.  If you want to keep your value up in the market place, both of these presentations identified important areas for skilled professionals.

George J. Trujillo, Jr. – IOUG Board of Directors
george.trujillo@trubix.com

Yesterday, I had the great please to meet with many of our great members who make up the Oracle User Community within the IOUG. Many woke up early to attend Breakfast at 7:30am with the Board to share their feedback directly with the board for improving the IOUG. The annual Regional User Group (RUG) lunch meeting had leaders from all over sharing best practices on how to network, grow membership and leadership within their respective regions. 

I find it unfortunate that every single RUG did not have representation for possibly workload or travel budget reasons as this is really is what makes up the IOUG respectively. Since it is all about you, your experiences with Oracle technology, and zest for learning and sharing, I encourage you to get more involved. Whether that is authoring a quick tip, submitting and article to Select Journal, submitting a presentation abstract or volunteering on one of the committees; IOUG is really all about YOU and what you make of it. Well have to head out now and meet and great to more members and future members and see what they need from the IOUG once they get back to their respective communities. 

Steve Lemme

Oracle Fusion Middleware is something I have to learn now, not in the future.

I believe there has been a tremendous perspective shift on the whole subject of Oracle Fusion Middleware at the Collaborate 07 conference. All attendees are seeing the importance of Oracle Fusion Middleware and the direct relevance it now has to anyone writing Oracle applications, today! There has also been a lot of discussion on how Oracle Fusion Middleware can be used as a technology for applications outside of the traditional Oracle EBusiness Suite, PeopleSoft, JDEdwards and SAP environments.

The IOUG has been an industry leader in pushing our members to understand the importance of Oracle Fusion Middleware direction. Within the IOUG are the top leaders of Oracle Fusion Middleware technology in the world.

The power of the IOUG technical leadership is our technology leaders understand the issues of application development, deployment and integration for an entire enterprise. Oracle Fusion Technology involves the entire multi-tier technology stack which includes Grid, Information Lifecycle Management, deployment strategies, integration strategies has always been a key strength for our organization. It is a strong understanding of the enterprise technology of Oracle Fusion that is going to help companies implement their solutions properly. It’s great to see that the IOUG has really hit the nail on the head in understanding the correction technology direction for our members. It is the great technology leaders in our memberships that we can thank for that.

The Enterprise Architect

The IOUG emphasis on the Enterprise Architect, or what I have always referred to as the Database Infrastrucure Administrator, reinforces the IOUG industry leadership that from the beginning we have understood the importance of emphasizing best practices across all tiers of the entire enterprise for Oracle Fusion technology. The IOUG strategy also ties into the Oracle Application Integration Architecture as discussed in the keynote presentation by Charles Phillips.

George J. Trujillo, Jr. – IOUG Board of Directors
george.trujillo@trubix.com