The Data Warrior

Changing the world, one data model at a time. How can I help you?

01 Oct 2012
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Oracle Open World 2012: Day 2

A crazy group of us got the day off to a rip roaring start by heading down to the Dolphin Club on San Francisco Bay for an early morning swim in the bay. We cabbed it down and were greeted by a full moon over the Golden Gate Bridge.

Good Morning San Francisco Bay!

It was about 62 degrees (F) and the water was purported to be 59 degrees (F), even if it felt much colder. Here I am with my friend Debra Lilley (@debralilley) and few other crazy Oracle people, right before we took the plunge.

Ready to swim the bay!

Well, we all survived. You can see more pictures on twitter (@kentgraziano) and Facebook if you really feel the need.

Thanks to our buddy Chet (@oraclenerd) for setting this up and shaming us into doing it. It was quite invigorating and great way to start the day. (I did some Chi Gung on the beach too in order to prepare and to warm back up). Next year, we want ribbons or t-shirts or something for the effort.

After trekking back to the hotel and cleaning up, it was on to the conference.

Missed the keynotes but instead got to attend a real live press briefing (thanks to my blogger status) with Mark Hurd, the president of Oracle Corporation.

Mark Hurd Press Conference

It was great to be in the small room with all the reporters and bloggers getting the scope first hand from Mr. Hurd about Oracle’s strategy.

Oracle Strategy

The slide sums it up well – simplify IT by providing a complete stack of software and hardware and by giving customers complete choice. The choice now is host your own set up, use a private cloud, use a public cloud (hosted by Oracle), or use a hybrid model. You pick where and what you want hosted. You can mix and match and change your mind later. Sounds like a good idea. The next year or so will show us how will it works as a model.

Mark had a lot to tell us, much of which you will be able to read elsewhere in the main stream tech media. The thing that got my attention was the fact that Oracle  has spent over $14 billion (with a B) in the last two years on R&D, and over $6 billion in the last year on mergers and acquisitions. It is good to be Uncle Larry.

Most memorable quote from Mark: “we are the best”.

In other news…

The exhibit halls opened today. Bigger and more stuffed than before . A dizzying array of vendors hawking their wares. This year there is even an Airstream trailer and a very large Buddha in the hall (check my twitter stream for pictures of those).

OOW 2012 Exhibit Hall Opens

I spent some time in the hall today catching up with some product managers, learning about Oracle NoSQL, and even talked to the MongoDB guys (another NoSQL engine). So much information, so little time.

Went to a few sessions as well. Checked out Big Data Mining and RDF Graph Tools. Still trying to get my head around why you use these other technology approaches like RDF, NoSQL, and Hadoop. Spatial I get, since I did some GIS work in the past, but these others are harder.  Lots of companies seem to be including them in their overall solution architecture so there is something to it. I think I just have not run across a real need on my projects (at least not yet).

Like Oracle Endeca, there are a lot of advances in what Oracle is building in this space.

I am sure it will sink in eventually.

Oracle In-Database Analytics Platform

On the networking side, I attended the ODTUG reception this evening and manage to hear the last two tunes from Jimmy Cliff who was performing at the Oracle Music festival.

Tomorrow – chi gung in the morning, two keynotes and a few sessions. Then the first every Tweet Meet at OOW.

More to come…

Kent

 

 

Posted in Chi Gung, Oracle and tagged , , , , ,
30 Sep 2012

Oracle OpenWorld 2012: User Group Sunday

Yes, today was the first day for #OOW 2012. Affectionately known to many of us as User Group Sunday. Along with a ton of other activities, this is the day the various Oracle user groups get to “own” the agenda and put together the sessions they think Oracle customers, and their members, might want to see.

By users; for users.

For the 2nd year,  ODTUG asked me to curate their agenda. I was fortunate enough to “recruit” some great track leads who invited and vetted speakers and sessions to fill five rooms for most of the day. It was quite successful. (Thanks for the hard work guys.)

I attended quite a few myself and captured a few photos and thoughts. I was tweeting all day so you can also go to Twitter and search on @Kentgraziano to see my twitter stream.

After checking in at the User Group kiosk, I went to my first session given by Gwen Shapira and Robyn Sands who spoke about Flexible Design and Data Modeling. Great topic. They gave some very practical advice on do’s and don’t if you want to be more agile.

“Just good enough” does not scale.

Plan for Change

Worst Practices for Database Design

If you want some more modeling best practices, check out my ebook on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Check-Doing-Design-Reviews-ebook/dp/B008RG9L5E/.

Next I went on to see Kellyn Pot’vin and Stewart Bryson do a DBA vs Developers show down with No Surprises Development.

Release Planning Questions

Best advice – practice your deployments several times before going live…

Next: Guy Harrison talked about Hadoop, Bug Data, and Exadata. This was a very helpful intro talk about the space. I have been trying to wrap my mind around Hadoop, NoSQL, unstructured data, etc. and how we deal with it. Lots of great diagrams and examples to help explain.

Google’s Software Architecture

The Hadoop Ecosystem

Sigh…more to learn.

Next was a very interesting session by Mark Rittman about the Oracle Endeca software and how it can be used in a BI environment and how it compliments OBIEE.

This gives a quick view of what is involved with the Oracle Endeca Platform.

Oracle Endeca Information Discovery Platform

It looks like a very interesting platform that uses key value pairs to store the data. This enables search and analytics on some realtively unstructured data stores (i.e., not relational tables)

Final talk of the day (for me) was Jon Mead telling us about how they helped a customer develop event driven analytics using ODI and OBIEE and the Oracle Reference Architecture for data warehousing.

After all this, a  little break and networking, then on to the opening keynote.

It started with the Corporate Sr VP of Fujitsu  who talked about some cloud applications they have deployed in Japan. They have the Agricultural Cloud project to help farmers be more efficient and bring more and better crops to market. They also have developed a Healthcare Cloud Service for optimizing patient care and early diagnosis.

Very cool cloud applications.

Last up was CEO, Lary Ellison who announced Oracle 12c and Pluggable Databases (to support cloud deployments). I had heard about these (under NDA) at the Ace Directors meeting so now I can share a few pictures related to those since it is now public information.

Oracle 12c

Bigger, badder, faster…

Oracle Cloud Ecosystem

Pluggable Database Architecture

With PDB, you can develop a plug and play database. Many cool applications for this one.

To end out the day, I went to the 9th annual Oracle ACE dinner hosted by Oracle at the St Francis Yacht Club. Great food, drinks, and networking was had by all. Then back to the hotel to write this blog post.

Now off to bed so I can swim the bay with some other crazy people tomorrow morning. Wish me luck. Brrr.

Later.

Kent

Posted in ODTUG, Oracle, User Groups and tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment
28 Sep 2012

Oracle ACE Director Meeting: Day 2

So the 2nd day was as filled with brainiac conversations as day one…and most hush hush under NDA.

However, I was able to get shots of a few more slides today that were not under NDA.

First, here is the agenda. Sadly the Exadata session got canceled. 😦

Day 2 Agenda

Oracle has been recognized in the Gartner Magic quadrants in several areas related to integration & SOA.

You will see this as a major theme at OOW2012 – “Integration Everywhere”. Lots of sessions related to apps and the cloud.

Well, you have to have something about Big Data. What is Big Data? Opinions vary. At OOW you will hear that there is Big and there is Fast. Oracle believes they have constructed solutions that handle both.

Have you heard about Oracle Golden Gate? I have. My current client even did a pretty decent POC on it. Basically it is the newest approach to streaming and replicating data for a variety of use cases. It does replace Oracle Streams as the approach of choice for real and near-real time data movement.

The evolution of Oracle Portal – meet Oracle WebCenter.

My good friend JP came an talked to us about Big Data and did this great drawing about the architectures and where all the parts, tools, and engineered systems fit in the overall picture. Pretty cool. As you see below – no PowerPoint slides were used. Instead he used a tool called Paper Show and drew as he talked (like the old days with transparencies).

JP and his Big Data Picture

Here is just a shot of all the ACE Directors hard at work listening to a session, asking questions, pondering, taking notes, pictures, and of course Tweeting up a storm.

Oracle ACE Directors at Work

So that is it for my very first ACE Director meeting. Thanks to OTN and Oracle for putting this on and letting me participate. Quite the learning experience.

On to OOW and the Oracle Music Festival (with a rest for my brain first on Saturday).

I’ll give you another update in a few days (and maybe fill in a few blanks)

Cheers.

Kent

ACE Director and Oracle Data Warrior

Posted in Oracle and tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment
28 Sep 2012
1 Comment

If I tell ya…Oracle ACE Director meeting: Day 1

Wow.

This is my first time at an ACE Director product briefing and it is pretty amazing. It is a who’s who of Oracle talent from around the globe getting updated by Oracle execs and product management.

I feel very privileged to be part of it.

Lots of cool things coming your way, but until it is all public next week at OOW 2012, well…I can’t tell you much. NDA and all. Sorry.

I think I am safe showing you the topics and presenters:

Agenda Day 1

And here is a picture of me and my longtime friend and colleague Rich Niemiec, world-class DBA extraordinaire. This was in front of the main Oracle buildings in California, and the old Oracle racing yacht early this morning before the meeting started. I had not been on the Oracle campus in a very long time.

Kent and Rich at Oracle HQ

Here is one cool slide I can share. It shows the oracle Fusion Apps that Red Robin has implemented. Not that I care that much about Oracle Apps, but I do like to eat at red Robin. 🙂

It was a great day. My brain is tired.

More stuff tomorrow. Then downtown to prep for OOW 2012.

Stay tuned to this bat channel…

Kent

P.S. Check out this infographic about Oracle OpenWorld. Huge!

Posted in Oracle and tagged , , , , , ,
23 Sep 2012
11 Comments

Five Days Only – Get it Free: A Check List for Doing Data Model Design Reviews

Later this week I travel to Oracle HQ for my first product briefing as an Oracle ACE Director. In celebration of this momentous event, I have decided to give all me readers and followers a gift:

For the next five days (Sept 24 – 28, 2012), my first solo Kindle book will be ON SALE for the low, low price of FREE!

Don’t delay. You can get it here: A Check List for Doing Data Model Design Reviews: Kent Graziano: Kindle Store.

In case you missed my earlier post about the book, here is a brief description:

Tired of crappy data models and whiney data modelers? Need to deliver a high quality design in a short period of time? Need a better way to enforce standards? As part of trying to be more “agile” in my approach to developing databases, I have adopted a concept from the agile world: peer reviews. Before any data model moves from analysis (logical model) into development (physical model), the development team needs to gather to review what the modeler has done. If the model passes the review (almost never on the first round), the physical model is constructed. The physical model is then subjected to a rigorous review as well (including metadata). Only then can DDL be produced and deployed. This guide book will discuss the actual modeling and design process I follow and give you a check list of questions to ask in any model review session. This is a “take no prisoners” approach that has left many a would-be data modeler in a withering heap, but in the end you will have solid models and designs that deliver value.

The book has been doing pretty good (sells for $2.99 normally) but it could do better. 😉 Currently it is #32 if you search for Data Modeling under Kindle ebooks.

Will you help me get it into the top 10?

[ Update: as of Sept 24, 2012 at 12:45 PM CDT the book is now #2 in the Kindle store for Databases! Thanks everyone. Let’s keep it rollin’]

[ Update #2: as of Sept 25, 2012 at 12:45 PM CDT the book is now #1 in the Kindle store for Databases! How long can we keep it there?]

Head on over to Amazon and get it today: A Check List for Doing Data Model Design Reviews.

Thanks a bunch. Hope you can put the information to good use.

Oracle ACE Director

Kent

P.S. Do me another favor? After you get the book (for FREE), please log back into Amazon and leave a review so other data modelers know if it is a worthwhile book for them to read.

P.P.S. Don’t forget to like this post! And click the Follow button (upper right) if you want to get my posts sent to your email directly.

Posted in Data Modeling, Oracle and tagged , , , , , ,

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