Well we all have had a love hate relationship with My Oracle Support/Metalink or Metablink as it was satirically known by some in its earlier days. More recently I along with some friends and colleagues have had issues with how the flash interface altered how we do some things and I have had a grievance with using the knowledge base in particular how to return to a prior location when I click through support notes. It has neither been intuitive nor has it really worked all that well. This would not be my only gripe but I did what I could at various times raising concerns with things that bothered me.

I raised a call about a problem I was encountering with the function to log in again when the session expired and had a surprising response, stick with my work around as the Flash interface is leaving us. Of course the usual Safe harbor statements where included, but joy oh joy it is going, one can only hope the usability of the next iteration is a whole lot better. The question I am now interested is will it be HTML5 and does that mean the next update of APEX is html5 compliant. I can see a lot of developers being very happy about that.

I gues teh other question everyone will now want to know is when?? OpenWorld or sooner, this is the big question, I guess when the next Apex release is out might be the time.

See ya round

 

Peter

The decision that was announced on the 23rd March 2011 to drop Itanium support for new development seems to have ruffled some feathers and is being taken as an anti competitive stance. Well this is probably a very long bow to draw. Oracle may have an agenda to force people to use Sun/Oracle hardware. This will only have one benefit and that will be for IBM as a database vendor with wider cross platform support. Customers who bought Oracle for its open platform availability that there is no vendor lock in probably didn’t buy it for all the right reasons. Of course it is also a pretty hard to argue that they are somehow shrinking the vendor options with Oracle supporting the database and other products on Linux of various flavours as well as hardware vendor of choice. I think many bought Oracle for its feathres and whilst cross platform has enhanced its power as a vendor its not the key reason businesses bought it

Itanium has had a troubled history and as a result probably never reached the market penetration it might have had. I can remember going to a HP roadshow back around1998, where HP touted the replacement of the current PA-Risc architecture with these new fancy Itaniums. Unfortunately they had many performance issues in the early days that took the gloss of the platform. I think it was being touted as a Alpha killer. This never eventuated and the Alpha only got killed when DEC was sold to Compaq who on sold to HP who sold the Alpha to Intel and then Intel after studying it scrapped it as they had already made an investment in Itanium.

So this now looks like the end of Itanium and it is probably a lesson to the world on outsourcing. HP outsourced the chip which was a flagship product in effect and now suffer the consequences of this decision. Without Microsoft and Oracle on the platform that takes a lot out of the software choices for that platform.

Image via CrunchBase

I suspect it will take more than ten years to see its end and the last one to end its life in business.

 

So is it anti-competitive as it pulls the rug from under HP well no not really unless you some how equate databases as only being from Oracle and that means you haven’t looked very deep in the market. HP will still have Oracle on Intel. IBM still have Oracle on P series and with the choice of any Intel vendor with Windows or Linux there is little place for calling it anti-competitive.

I am sure Larry will sell HP some Sparcs for a few servers if they want them

 

See ya round

 

Peter

 

 

Related articles

• Practical Analysis: Oracle Vs. HP — Who’s Got Your Back? (informationweek.com)
• Oracle on Intel Itanium: HP misleading customers (zdnet.com)

I was  just read again the article at ITNews about how Larry sees the future of Oracle under his stewardship. I can only say that for someone that relies on the Oracle ecosystem for my bread and butter I can’t be happier. The business that will keep me going with employment is in the middle of this and will require myself and many others that want to be involved for some time to come. I must say I am surprised by the Exadata figures, $1billion in the pipeline is pretty impressive and shows how the future of the Sun Oracle relationship might improve the livelihood of those people that relied on the old Sun ecosystem and that there is a lot of life in the old Sun dog yet and that can only be good for them. Interesting the statements about Silicon it makes sense, there is a number of technologies that Oracle has that will excel as embedded technologies in the silicon. These would include database functions for data handling, already doing this in the Exadata, but expect it to become more widespread as time goes on. There is crypto capabilities in some of the inherited hardware for Sun and this will become more tightly coupled for Advanced Security, SSL on the middle tier  and other functionality where crypto is required in some measure. Embedded databases using say Times Ten might become a reality Coherence embedded in the network layer., so caching is very close to the network adaptor.

What else did Larry say of interest EMC is vulnerable, thats interesting they have a great product group and solid products with a strong market share in virtualization and yet Larry has in effect said watch this space. Interesting fight ahead is what I see.

See ya round

Peter

AUSOUG QLD is running the FNQ roadshow again. This is a chance for those in Central and North QLD to get a chance to see a number of presentations from Oracle and Implementers of Oracle solutions. if you are in the north of the state I would recommend you making an attempt to attend these presentations

The location, venue and timing details are as follows:

Rockhampton – kindly sponsored by SPARQ/Ergon Energy:

Date: Tuesday, July 20th Time: Starting at 12:30pm, concluding by 5:30pm Venue: Ergon Energy Building, Barcoo Room Level 1, Cnr Alma & Fitzroy Streets Rockhampton Townsville – kindly sponsored by James Cook University: Date: Wednesday, July 21st Time: Starting at 12:30pm, concluding by 5:30pm Venue: TBC, James Cook University, Townsville Cairns : Date: Thursday, July 22nd Time: Starting at 12:30pm, concluding by 5:30pm Venue: TBC Similar to last year, there will be presentations relating to database and middleware, with potential additions this year for applications, SOA governance and Primavera. Invitations will be sent separately, for each location, within the next two weeks … please stay tuned for more information and the final agenda. For more information or if you are not a member or are from interstate and in one of these locations at the time and would be interested in attending send an email to the Vice-President of the QLD section to get further information. Other Information from the Bulletin AUSOUG QLD Committee 2010 Mark Lancaster President Loretta Bayliss Vice-President Michael Krogh OAUG Representative Jon Gooding Committee Member Kris Downey Committee Member Peter McLarty Committee Member Victoria Clarke Committee Member Cameron Hawthorne Committee Member

We have had some very successful events already this year, which include:

Creative Conditional Compilation – sponsored by Sage Computing Services

Scott Wesley of Sage Computing Services in WA presented on “Creative Conditional Compilation” in an evening timeslot in March. The change from a daytime to evening event had a very different vibe, harking back to the traditional “beer and pizza” get together. Scott commented on how well the beer was going down midway through the presentation, and everyone stayed around after the presentation for far longer than a daytime event. Expect to see one or two more evening events later in the year.

R12 Forum – sponsored by Prescience Technology

March saw us run the second of our “R12 Forum” invitation events, with a focus this time on patching, post-upgrade complexities and the sustainability of R12 solutions.  This event was conceptualised as a result of a number of similar organisations, all of which have been early adopters of Oracle’s R12 upgrade roadmap, expressing a strong desire to consult closely with each other with regard to issues, experiences and resolutions they had each encountered.  The event has now evolved into a National Conference Call and presentation, which we aim to run quarterly, for the forseeable future.  Interest has been strong from organisations seeking more information on the upgrade and re-implementation process … please let us know if you would like more information.

APEX Training - sponsored by Sage Computing Services

Both the 3 day beginner and 2 day advanced Oracle APEX training courses in April were well attended, and the feedback received has been very positive. The special discount we arranged through Sage Computing Services meant the more attendees, the cheaper the course became. Final pricing saw a saving of approximately 40% for each course – a great result.

EU says U.S. comment on Oracle, Sun deal unusual | Reuters

The line in this article made me wonder as to what it was that the EU was trying to really protect with this deal. I originally thought it was SAP, as they had an arrangement with MySQL, however I see that they may have closed that arrangement in 2007, cant keep up with all the news. You have to wonder though at the comment “It could be very difficult for a competitor using MySQL codes to sufficiently replace the competitive constraints currently exerted by MySQL in a timely manner,” What competitor are they referring to if its not SAP. What other application companies such that there existence or failure would have ramifications within Europe to suggest that Oracles management, I wont say control of MySQL, would impact a competitor. Does BAAN use MySQL or some other EU application developer with a sufficiently large market share?

But then just as some were not entirely happy with Suns management of MySQL they forked the codebase to do as they wanted. The same will happen under Oracle if Oracle cannot manage the product for the betterment of MySQL and the community. Many will then commence migrating their websites etc to the fork as word extends of Oracles troublesome ways. MySQL will move on and Oracle will be left with a brand and there own version. Don’t forget and old adage, “keep your friends close and your enemies closer”. This would seem to be a great example of where Oracle will need to work hard to do just that.

I think it is a load of rubbish and the EU is stalling for an EU company and regardless SAP would seem to be the one with the most to loose.

If I was a shareholder of SUN stock I would be seriously questioning this and whether the damage that it is inflicting on the company warrants a lawsuit.

So EU fess up as to the real motive or step out of the way

See ya round

Peter