vesterli.com

Oracle announced a number of cloud offerings at Oracle Openworld. However, as is often the case with OpenWorld announcements, we are still waiting for actual products to materialize.

The first cloud offering likely to appear as a real product is the Oracle Database Cloud Service. This is because Oracle has already been running this service for free at apex.oracle.com. The only difference I expect is that it will now have a monthly fee and the wording about not using it for production purposes will be removed.

The Oracle Java Cloud Service is still pending and we probably won’t see it until 2012.

For both of these cloud services, Oracle has apparently not worked out the pricing yet. This supports the hypothesis that Oracle felt they had to rush something with a “cloud” moniker to market at OpenWorld, but they don’t really know what their value proposition is yet. Oracle has a history of building great software products, but tends to attach “enterprise” (= very high) price tags to them, pricing them out of reach of 90% of the market. Since the technical cloud offerings should appeal to the wider market, it will be interesting to see if Oracle gets it right this time.

No Comments »

With social computing, cloud and mobile being the big buzzwords in IT right now, it makes sense to ask where Oracle is in relation to these hot topics. Having attended various briefings, sessions and keynotes at this year’s Oracle OpenWorld, and discussing with knowledgeable people, I’ll offer my opinion below.

First, does Oracle get social? Well, they’re paying it lip service with Larry Ellison demonstrating social features in Fusion Applications. But they don’t really understand that users already have Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ - and adding yet another social network inside your enterprise application is unlikely to take off. Oracle has hinted that Oracle Data Service might allow you integrate information from other social networks, but that’s still vaporware. And since Oracle has both a suite of proprietary social applications and an OpenSocial product, their strategy in the social space is still unclear. Grade: D

Next, does Oracle get cloud? Not completely, but they are moving in the right direction with the cloud offerings announced an OpenWorld. However, this is still vaporware, and if the thrice-announced Fusion Applications is anything to go by, it will take a while before this offering actually materializes. All we know right now is that they are moving from the usual paid-up-front perpetual licenses to monthly licensing - but that’s still a long way from the hourly billing of a real elastic cloud service. Grade: C

Finally, does Oracle get mobile? Definitely, yes. Many demos included iPads for running enterprise applications, though it is still done using a Safari web browser. But they are working on a mobile container to be installed on your mobile device, which would allow much better integration with other apps and native widgets on your mobile device. Grade: B

2 Comments »

Well, the hardware part has been announced - more big iron from Oracle: Exalytics specialized BI box, big data appliance and yet another “plug in and forget” database appliance. Interestingly, Oracle is offering R (the open source statistics package/language) in a licensed enterprise version together with the Big Data box - clearly, they’re going after a slice of the lucrative SAS market.

On the Java and Open Source side, I believe Oracle is starting to get up to speed as champion of the Java language with JavaFX 2.0 announcements, proper support for Mac OSX and the Java EE 7 and Java SE 8 roadmaps.

This morning, I’ll be at the keynote as part of the Fusion Nation - about 500 Fusion Applications evangelists wearing characteristic red vests. If you want to know about Fusion Applications, stop one of the guys or girls wearing these vests.

Tomorrow, at 9 am, right after the big party tonight, I’ll be giving my tools overview presentation. So if you are wondering if you should stay with Oracle Forms, where APEX is a good fit or when you should use ADF, come by the Marriot Marquis Golden Gate B room to hear “Choose Your Weapon: An Overview of Oracle Development Tools”.

No Comments »

After two days of ACE Director briefings at Oracle HQ, I’m starting the conference today with a presentation in the very first slot: 9.00 am in Moscone West room 2000. My topic is “Starting an Enterprise Oracle ADF Project”, and it covers the material in my book (slightly abbreviated - 60 minutes can really cover the same as 400 pages).

All of Sunday, there’s going to be presentations by members of the ADF Enterprise Methodology Group in room 2000 - if you’re interested in Oracle ADF, this is the place to be.

I thought this would be a dull year at OpenWorld, but after the confidential briefings last week, I have had to change my mind. Since I’m under a Non-Disclosure Agreement (maybe the lawyers do run Oracle…), I can’t share any information right now - but do follow the blogs and announcements from Oracle this week.

No Comments »

Oracle is currently killing off their web sites, yanking lots of useful content off the web with little or no warning. Both the Oracle Wiki and usableapps.oracle.com  died this week, and all Oracle can offer by way of explanation is vague noises about maybe something else will come later.

The death of the Oracle Wiki without a replacement further detracts from Oracle’s already not too high standing in the Enterprise 2.0 space. Oracle is proudly claiming to use their own databases and applications, but apparently don’t feel that Oracle WebCenter is up to the task of running their wiki.

Even more mysterious is that UsableApps was taken down. Given the fact that usability is the KEY selling point of Fusion Applications, it’s baffling that the site that showcased Oracle’s work in usability and giving credence to Oracle’s claims of superior usability in Fusion Apps has vanished.

This is very strange behavior for a company that used to call itself “the information company” - but maybe the lawyers that run Oracle have decided it’s safer to replace all of Oracles websites with safe harbor statements?

No Comments »

I’m just back from the ODTUG Kscope11 conference in Long Beach, where I presented my regular tools overview presentation, a WebCenter session, an enterprise ADF development session and an ADF tuning session as well as various panels.

One thing I noticed very clearly is that almost all the non-Oracle presenters in the Fusion Middleware track were from outside the U.S. For example, the Lunch and Learn panel on Fusion Middleware consisted of

• Guido Schmutz (ACE Director, Switzerland)
• Sten Vesterli (ACE Director, Denmark)
• Ronald van Luttikhuizen (ACE Director, Netherlands)
• Chris Muir (ACE Director, Australia)

In Scott/Tiger, we are busy with ADF development, and I know from my ACE Director friends in Europe that they are also working on ADF and SOA projects.
Is nobody in the U.S. actually using Fusion Middleware? Or are they just not talking about it?

No Comments »

The important discussion where to use APEX and where to use ADF tends to get bogged down in an unproductive argument about the relative merits of PL/SQL or Java. However, this is not really the most important factor that should drive your decision.

Instead, you must first determine if your application is

• Data-driven, or
• User interface driven

A data-driven application is one where the data structure determines the user interface. Existing Oracle Forms applications tend to fall into this category, and if you only want to do a one-to-one replacement of a Forms application, the wizard-driven, browser-based approach of APEX works well.

A user interface driven application is one that starts from a set of requirements to support a work process. This is typically the case for new application development, or where an existing Oracle Forms application is being redesigned. User interface driven applications are typically specified with detailed screen designs that are easier to implement with the flexible architecture of ADF.

If you are in Norway for the OUGN spring conference, you can hear me talk on this topic in the presentation called “APEX or ADF? From Requirements to Tool Choice”.

No Comments »

As part of the “Fusion UX Advocates” team, I visited the Oracle Applications User Experience team this week and had the opportunity to play with a real, running Oracle Fusion Application installation. And I can tell you:

• It’s real

• It’s good
• It looks cool
• It’s like no enterprise application you have ever seen before.

But once Fusion Applications hits the street, it will set the standard for all enterprise applications from now on.

There are two ways to build applications: Based on product (data) or based on process. And up until now, we have had to build applications based on data, because that was all our tools allowed. An accounting system has a table of invoices, so our application had a screen for handling invoices. And when an accountant had to decide whether to approve an invoice, he would have to go to several other screens, based on other tables, to gather the information he needed to make a decision.

But with the ADF components, Oracle has been able to build an application based on the actual work process, providing all the information the accountant needs to make a decision on one screen.

The usability revolution has finally caught up with enterprise applications; they will no longer be built based on the capabilities of the database, but on the needs of users.

No Comments »

Oracle Fusion Applications!

It’s been “announced” at OpenWorld 2009 and again in 2010, and we have seen demos and screenshots - now is the time for Oracle to deliver. I want to see real-life Oracle Fusion Applications installations, so we can really have a look at how Oracle is building a serious enterprise application with ADF - I’m sure there are lessons to learn.

Additionally, I would really like Oracle to offer a “Fusion Applications Services” license - just the engine, not the UI. That would allow me to use the rock-solid data model and services, but put together a custom application on top. If the engine license was reasonably priced, we Oracle partners could start breaking into the middle market with vertical solutions to compete with SAP. But Oracle is very much an enterprise software company selling big bundles to big companies, so I’m not holding my breath…

No Comments »

For my upcoming book (”Enterprise Applications with Oracle ADF”), I am currently writing a chapter on productive teamwork with ADF. This was a good reason to have another look at Oracle Team Productivity Center (OTPC), which is Oracle’s Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) tool.OTPC offers integration to Bugzilla, Jira, Rally and Microsoft Project Server, as well as an undocumented chat client. Since I use Jira and other Atlassian products, that’s the integration I tested.What I like:

• Ability to acces my Jira items from within JDeveloper
• Google Talk client within JDeveloper
• Ability to link code checkins to issues
• Ability to save and restore context (open files)

What I don’t like:

• Whole product has an unfinished, v0.9 feel. Usability leaves quite a bit to be desired
• Auto-update can’t install OTPC - you need to jump through some hoops to perform a manual install
• Jira integration is still rudimentary and slightly flaky; you need to switch to regular Jira too often
• No ability to connect a document repository
• Link between issue and checkin can only be seen in JDeveloper. If Jira Issue ID was automatically put in SVN commit comments, I could match code with issue in Jira/Fisheye as well

Should you use it? If you wish to map issues to source commits, you should use it. If you are running Jira and Fisheye for better issue-to-source mapping, you must manually add Jira issue ID to comment to establish the mapping. If you don’t need this mapping, you are just as well off staying with stand-alone Jira in a browser.I haven’t tested the Rally integration - but it is promising that the Rally extension is developed by Rally Software themselves. So if you’re into Agile and running Rally software, I encourage you to look at OTPC.Oracle Team Productivity Center definitely looks promising - now Oracle just needs to finish the tool…

No Comments »