Oracle Fusion: Could there be a major announcement today?

I’ve been here at OpenWorld 2007 in San Francisco wondering one main thing: What is Oracle founder Larry Ellison’s big announcement going to be when to takes to the stage for his keynote address later today?

I’m an OpenWorld veteran now, and one thing I’ve learned is that Ellison likes to drop major bombs whenever he gets on that stage. Last year he announced that Oracle would undercut Red Hat Linux, which was a pretty big deal.

This year, a story written by my colleague Barney Beal got me thinking that there may be some type of Fusion announcement coming. In that story, Barney quoted Chuck Rozwat, Oracle’s senior vice president of application development, “…we clearly said we would begin shipping Fusion applications in 2008. Stay in tune the next couple days; you’ll here more about that.”

Could it be that they’re moving up the release date in a surprise move? Doubtful, but if I turn out to be right, you’ll all write emails calling me an evil genius. (I know, I read too many comics.)

Anyhow, stay tuned for more coverage of Oracle OpenWorld 2007 all week long.

Updates from OpenWorld

We’ve posted a few new articles from here in SF at OpenWorld:

Oracle Database 11g and information management - Oracle Database 11g’s new features were designed to combat the latest and most prevalent information management problems, according to one Oracle executive speaking at OpenWorld.

Application integration takes center stage at OpenWorld - Oracle’s plan to simplify the application integration process could cause a stir among its systems integrator partners, one expert says.

More to come…

–Tim

IBM acquires Cognos

This just in: IBM has announced it will buy BI vendor Cognos Inc. for $5 billion cash. I wonder if the timing of the announcement right at the start of OpenWorld is in retaliation for Larry Ellison’s quip about IBM — “a pig with lipstick” — at the conference a few years ago?

The plot thickens! Stay tuned here at SearchOracle.com and our sister site SearchDataManagement.com for complete coverage of the purchase and its implications.

UPDATE : We’ve posted an article analyzing why IBM is acquiring longtime partner Cognos and outlining the implications for the business intelligence and performance management industry, customers and buyers.

Doubts about Oracle virtualization

Our surveys have repeatedly shown that interest server virtualization is high and growing. However, there are detractors that urge caution.

A detailed, informative conversation is going on about the pros and cons of virtualization over at Howard Roger’s Dizwell Informatics blog. Howard himself is a fan, having used VMWare and Parallels for learning purposes since 2001 (when, he says, “it barely worked, given the speed of the available physical hardware”).

However, he (and others) have become increasingly concerned with security issues. Indeed, he writes, “the best that current virtualisation products can do is not make security much worse… but given the exploits possible with another layer of code at your disposal, they almost certainly do make it worse. What they definitely don’t do is make it any better.”

This elicited a lively conversation. Some came to the defense of virtualization, saying “VM is my favourite technology since the invention of the CPU.” Others say that virtualization is great in learning, development and test environments, but putting it into production does elicit security concerns. Howard argues that

“There are three main arguments made for virtualising production systems: server utilisation increases; server consolidation; and increased security through ‘compartmentalisation.’ The point is that the third of those is a myth — and a dangerous one to boot.”

If you want to know what the Oracle community is thinking about virtualization security, this blog conversation is very informative.

Speaking of information, virtualization is a hot topic here in San Francisco at OpenWorld. Many of the big keynote speakers will be talking about their virtualization strategy, including Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz, who will unveil a virtualization strategy called xVM and new products to bridge the gap between virtualization and management.

UPDATE: Here at OpenWorld, Oracle has just announced a new product, Oracle VM, which is server virtualization software that supports both Oracle and non-Oracle applications. Tim Hall blogs about VM here.

Bring Devo back to OpenWorld!

One thing can be said for Oracle conferences like next week’s Oracle OpenWorld 2007, which is being held in San Francisco: Oracle doesn’t skimp on entertainment.

I can attest to this first hand. At last year’s Oracle OpenWorld attendee appreciation event, which was held at the very cool Cow Palace, conference goers got to see a bunch of well known acts like Elton John, Joan Jett and Berlin. But in my opinion, the best entertainment of the night centered around a handful of grown men who like to wear terracotta planters on their heads: That’s right, Devo.

I found myself cramming into a packed stadium to see Elton John that night, and he started singing some crybaby ballad or some other God awful thing when it hit me like a brick: I don’t even like Elton John. So I immediately B-lined it for Devo’s stage, all the way dodging swarms of drunken OpenWorld attendees who were shoveling piles of free shrimp into their mouths and offering up unsolicited high-fives.

And it was worth it. Devo was awesome. I felt like a ten year old kid watching MTV all over again. Everyone was grooving out to greats like “Whip it” and “We are Devo.” Sure the guys from Devo weren’t looking nearly as young as they used to, but their unbelievable weirdness will always be timeless to me. 

A good time was had by all.  Here’s hoping that we get treated to another Devo show next week.

Bloggers gearing up for OpenWorld

Bloggers are gearing up for OpenWorld next week, including the somewhat controversial paid-for bloggers invited by Oracle. Here is a sampling of what they are saying:

• Andrew Clarke - “I think the key thing is to make the best use of the opportunities for personal contact. A lot of the conference resources will be available as downloads, podcasts, blog articles and whitepapers. So don’t get hung up on attending presentations (although make sure you do go to some, just in case your boss asks). Instead, take advantage of the main thing which online can’t offer: talking face to face with actual people. I think the evening events tend to be rather too crowded and noisy for networking. So look to some of the extra-mural daytime sessions, particularly the OTN Unconference and the No-Slide Zone which should provide useful arenas to engage with like-minded delegates.“
• Jason Jones - “It seems like anything big that’s going on at Oracle in the second half of the year gets queued up so when OpenWorld attendees ride the escalator down into the Moscone on Christmas… I mean Monday… morning they will have shiny new presents to unwrap.” Read on for some helpful advice for surviving OOW…
• Lee Kroon - “If you’re going to be attending the JD Edwards program at Oracle OpenWorld next week, I have some good news and some bad news for you. The good news is that the folks in Denver have assembled an incredible lineup of sessions for you. The bad news is that you may not be signed up for them.”
• Floyd Teter - “I need one thing from Oracle OpenWorld above all others: information on Fusion Applications. . . . Now, however, we’re getting relatively close to the planned 2008 releases. Like many customers I’ve talked with, I’m getting frustrated over the limitations on my ability to plan due to the lack of available information on Fusion Apps. I’ve worked hard to read the tea leaves, search the Gartner reports, make projections bases on Fusion Middleware directions, guess on the basis of 10-second sound bites, and so on…it’s not enough anymore. “
• And dozens more

I’ll see you in San Francisco!

Patching Oracle: Readers respond

As I wrote last week, ask any Oracle DBA and they’ll tell you that the bane of their existence — well, one of them at least — is keeping up with Oracle’s continuous stream of patches and upgrades. Will the fixes actually work? Will they break other unrelated systems? Welcome to the life of the DBA!

I asked for your opinions of the process and suggestions for improving it and received some interesting responses, such as:

• “Haven’t we always wanted Oracle to do a better job regression testing their released code? And haven’t we always wanted to know about a critical flaw before RMAN is involved?But who has the time to pour over metalink looking for possible (recent) hits? I think they’re going in the right direction, with automated patch downloads and SR generation. Human DBAs will never be able to scale the possible permutations to predictively find an appropriate available patch. Let alone the ramifications of applying it.”
• “Patching was a real pain until we came up with a technique for creating a Gold Oracle home and cloning this home. This technique saves a LOT of DBA time, reduces system downtime, and makes patches easy.”
• “Patching the RDBMS is manageable . . . [if you] download and install it on TEST server first. . . . As for automatic patch update like Microsoft Windows, forget it.”
• “Oracle has a tool that does patch management: it’s call Grid Control.”
• “Life would be much easier as a DBA if the products undergo extensive security tests and fixes before release.”
• and a lot more

If you have any additional thoughts, tips or best practices, let’s hear them!

Cheers, Tim

What an Oracle-BEA merger would mean for the IT market

Oracle’s bid to take control of middleware provider BEA Systems Inc. appears to be off for the moment. But it wouldn’t surprise me if we heard more about another Oracle attempt to take over the company in the near future.

I recently got an e-mail from Forrester Research Inc. principal analyst Ray Wang, who had some interesting thoughts on what an Oracle-BEA merger would mean for the IT marketplace and for Oracle. Here’s what he had to say:

From Ray Wang:

Oracle added fuel to fire in the rapidly consolidating enterprise software market recently with its $6.7 billion unsolicited bid for BEA. Here are a few quick thoughts:

Oracle seeks to dominate middleware
Middleware platforms provide the nexus for software ecosystems. Each vendor’s last mile solutions depend on a strong middleware tool and a community of individuals and solutions providers who build and extend the platform for vendors. Whoever owns the future platform, an applistructure on middleware or a SaaS platform like SalesForce will emerge as winners in the post Internet era.

BEA brings high end clients to the table
With a blue chip base of the best internal IT shops, those in telecom and financial services, Oracle or any acquirer could cement its leadership in middleware over IBM, MSFT, and SAP. These custom development shops represent the best and brightest user base and the most lucrative.

Oracle should expect a fight for BEA
Other vendors like SAP, IBM, and HP need BEA more than Oracle does. SAP’s NetWeaver is among the weakest of middleware platforms, despite one of the strongest ecosystems. IBM will be threatened by an Oracle dominance in middleware. HP could use this as an entry point to gain traction in the market. Oracle’s potential acquisition takes away the last remaining independent major middleware platform provider leaving future competitors without a large install base and a third party player.

Will Fusion Apps Still be Built on Fusion Middleware or BEA?
Recent rumblings about a delay in Fusion apps delivery and the future of leadership in delivering Fusion apps, add speculation to whether or not Fusion Middleware will still be the basis of Fusion apps. The BEA platform reaches out to more non-Oracle shops and provides a truly open platform for integration with less lock in at the meta data and process levels.

The bottom line
Oracle’s long term M&A strategy centers on gaining the biggest install base around not only business applications, but also middleware. At the end of the day, its still about selling more database and gaining the largest share of the IT wallet. With so much liquidity in the market, expect continued and accelerated consolidation along key battle grounds of middleware platforms such as MDM, BI, Portals, BPM, and other information management tools. Don’t expect the competitors or BEA to sit still!

Warmest regards,

-R

Fixing the IT “mess”

Respected consultant and author Steve Jones wrote an intriguing and funny post recently about the contributors to the mess IT finds itself in. For example:

“First off is the view that new technologies and solutions will clean up the mess. This is wrong for the simple reason that in almost all companies this represents less than 20% of the total IT spend (often its less than 10% or even 5%). This means that 80% of the spend isn’t being touched or looked at. A simple 80/20 rule would tell you that this approach is wrong. Unfortunately IT continues to believe that yet more lipstick on the pig will make the pig attractive.”

Steve’s blog is definitely a worthwhile read in general, especially with other rants like these:

• Why republicans don’t like SOA
• Narcissistic IT, same old challenge, same old idiots
• Why procurement is meant to be hated

My favorite quote: “IT suffers from a massive dumbing down, people make arguments based on out right stupidity, a stupidity based on little or no understanding of the principles of computer science. The complexity of IT is ever increasing but the average intelligence is plunging. Things that were plain dumb 10 years ago are now being promoted as “best practice,” not because they have become good ideas but because there is a volume (as in barrel) of people who think that their mickey mouse experience is all that anyone ever needs to know.”

Tell us what you really think Steve!

OpenWorld 2007 preview

If you thought last year’s OpenWorld was an exercise in information overload, you haven’t seen anything yet.

How about 45,000 attendees, 1,500 technical sessions and 450 exhibitors? Enough information for you? It’s going to be a long, fun week!

We have a lot of great coverage planned, starting with our new podcast previews of key sessions:

• The E-Business Suite user’s guide to Oracle OpenWorld 2007 - Oracle E-Business Suite expert Ray Wang talks about the latest E-Business Suite news and gives his picks for the best E-Business Suite sessions to attend at Oracle OpenWorld 2007.
• Hyperion and performance management: An Oracle OpenWorld 2007 preview - In this podcast interview, John Hagerty, a performance management expert and vice president and research fellow with AMR Research, gives his picks for the most relevant and informative Hyperion-related sessions to be held at Oracle OpenWorld 2007.
• The PeopleSoft user’s guide to Oracle OpenWorld 2007 - Oracle Applications Users Group president Jan Wagner talks about some of the latest news affecting PeopleSoft users and gives his picks for the best PeopleSoft sessions to attend at Oracle OpenWorld 2007.
• The Oracle Database user’s guide to Oracle OpenWorld 2007 - Independent Oracle Users Group president Ari Kaplan talks about the latest Database 11g news and gives his picks for the best Oracle Database-related sessions to attend at Oracle OpenWorld 2007.
• Oracle’s Application Integration Architecture: An Oracle OpenWorld 2007 preview - Integration expert Ken Vollmer gives his picks for the best Oracle Application Integration Architecture (AIA) sessions to attend at Oracle OpenWorld 2007, and explains how AIA fits into enterprises’ SOA plans.

Our OpenWorld 2007 Special Event page will be continuously updated throughout the week, so stay tuned for more dispaches from the show. Hopefully, you will be able to attend — for sheer volume of information, there’s nothing else quite like it for the Oracle geek. If you see any of us wandering around the Moscone Center — Mark, Barney or myself — feel free to pull us aside and tell us what’s on your mind.

Tim