Exploring the possibilities—and the needs— of the future.

Exploring the possibilities—and the needs— of the future.

tinued growth is the “greening” of tech- changing for technology. Today’s

he past 10 years have been game-

that will provide its store owners with a

single source of information from which

nology. The dual challenges of protecting

technology connects people to informa-

the environment and reducing the use of tion—and to each other—in completely

they can all glean data—and value—

resources mean that shrinking our energy new ways. We now take for granted the idea

interactively. One goal of the project is to

footprint will be essential. The 2010 IOUG that information—a vast reservoir of con-

enable all the dealers to exchange ideas

enterprise platform decisions survey con- nected information—is available to us 24

In addition to storing, ducted by Unisphere Research and VMware

hours a day. found that in 2009, half of all enterprises So what will the next decade bring? And

retrieving, managing, increased their use of virtualization, pri-

how will technology enable us to access this

marily to reduce costs. These cost savings information and use it to better our world?

and sharing data,

result from consolidation and lower hard- The Data Decade has already begun.

people must be

ware costs, but the side benefit is that What does that mean? To begin, we must

enterprises also reduce their energy and look for new infrastructures that can deliver

able to decode the resource usage.

information quickly and securely, because

These areas will see significant changes it will be imperative to support the huge

information.

in the next decade. The goals that will drive volumes of data that will be generated in

IT in the future will be gaining control of the coming years.

and strategies that will help them grow

and managing our data so that we can dis- One way to do this is with data appli-

their businesses.

cover the value and wisdom it contains and ances such as the Oracle Exadata Storage

The solution leverages most of the

improve our enterprises and our lives. W Server, which is based on Sun hardware

Oracle technology stack, including Oracle

Database 11g, Oracle Universal Content

from Oracle. The Oracle Exadata appliance

Management, and Oracle WebCenter Suite

Ian Abramson

has forever changed how Oracle software

11g. The goal is to create an environment

and hardware interact, providing amazing

(ian_abramson@ performance for data warehouses. The

that is open and flexible and that can

ioug.org) is president speed of this appliance enables many

leverage new technology.

of Independent Oracle new options for drilling through masses

Oracle WebCenter Suite 11g was

Users Group (IOUG) of data, and machines such as these can

selected because it meets current needs

and an Oracle data store and quickly retrieve vast amounts

and is extensible for future requirements.

warehousing expert. Based in Toronto, Canada, of information for data users. The Oracle

Because the suite provides so much out-

he is the director of the Enterprise Data Group Exadata Storage Server is just one example

of-the-box functionality, the client is con-

for Thoughtcorp, a technology consulting of the kind of enabling technology that will

fident that future enhancements in Oracle

company. A frequent presenter at Oracle and provide seamless access to both structured

WebCenter Suite 11g will be compatible.

industry conferences and seminars, Abramson and unstructured data with utmost speed

In addition to storing, retrieving, man-

is also coauthor of Oracle Database 11g and accuracy.

aging, and sharing data, people must be

Beginner’s Guide (Oracle Press, 2008) and an Resolving queries is not enough: com-

able to decode the information they already

Oracle ACE focused on business intelligence panies need integrated data solutions, and

have. They need tools and methodologies

and data warehousing. enterprises are adopting master data man-

that will help them glean greater value

from their data. Business intelligence tools

NEXT STEPS

agement and data hubs to provide centers

provide the analytics companies need—

of knowledge.

for both structured and unstructured

JOIN IOUG

A project that I’m involved in illustrates

content—to make better decisions, take

ioug.org

this shift. The customer, a major retailer

more-effective actions, and build better

READ the 2010 IOUG enterprise platform

with a network of more than 1,000 inde-

business processes.

decisions survey

pendently owned stores, needs a portal www.ioug.org/tech/introresearch.cfm One final area in which we will see con-

ORACLE MAGAZINE MAY/JUNE 2010

Technology Convergence for Enterprise Workloads

Oracle’s acquisition of Sun will yield new integrated solutions.

O entire business solution. Oracle also plans

racle Magazine spoke with Jean S.

in 2010, and we expect that customers will

to simplify Sun’s supply chain, distribu- IDC’s Worldwide Server Group, about what’s

Bozman, research vice president of

be thinking about how they can deploy

tion system, licensing policies, and how it ahead for enterprise customers as Oracle and

new technology as efficiently as possible

engages with channel partners, and that will Sun combine their engineering teams and

going forward.

be of great interest to customers, regarding develop new types of integrated solutions.

Oracle Magazine: What are the main deter-

the impact that may have on server pricing. Oracle Magazine: What is the primary

rents to completing these projects?

Oracle Magazine: How might Oracle’s owner- value of the Sun acquisition in terms of

Bozman: Typically IT projects take months

ship of Solaris [now Oracle Solaris] and SPARC- Oracle’s customers?

or even years to get to the deployment stage.

based servers affect its Linux offerings? Bozman: Oracle now has a complete tech-

However, now that the engineers from Oracle

Bozman: Many people have asked whether nology stack, from disk to application. The

and Sun can collaborate on system integra-

Oracle will choose SPARC and Oracle Solaris acquisition bolstered Oracle’s extensive

tion work, Oracle will be able to deliver highly

or the x86 platforms with Linux. In our view, product lineup to include many types of

integrated solutions that can be leveraged

Oracle has a great opportunity to pick the servers, storage devices, microprocessors,

from the beginning of the planning process

pieces that will work best for each solution operating systems, and networking equip-

for a new customer-site deployment. The

and for each market, and then to optimize ment. And of course Oracle now owns Java,

[Oracle] Exadata servers are an example of

them accordingly. which is fundamental to many Oracle prod-

preintegrated hardware/software appliances

There are so many possibilities for cre- ucts, including Oracle Fusion Middleware.

for horizontal applications such as data

ating integrated-stack solutions. Some Having this technology in-house will allow

warehousing and OLTP [online transaction

of them will play more to the strengths of Oracle to further develop Java and keep its

processing] transactional workloads.

Linux. Others will play more to the strengths products in sync. Ideally, this will be realized

Equally interesting are the possibilities

of Oracle Solaris. I think we will see a variety through something like the Java Community

involving industry-specific software stacks

of unique solutions within the Oracle Process to encourage industrywide collabora- thing it needs to pull together integrated

running on servers. Oracle now has every-

portfolio as it emphasizes the strengths of tion with other vendors. Oracle also obtained

various hardware/software combinations. W important software tools from Sun. There are

solutions for specific vertical markets as

well, such as transportation, retail, and

some interesting possibilities for how Oracle

telecommunications. For example, Oracle

David Baum (david@dbaumcomm.com) is

will utilize them.

could create turnkey appliances using small

a freelance business writer based in Santa Oracle Magazine: How does having this

servers that are optimized to run its trans-

Barbara, California. complete stack influence the solutions that

portation applications. It could bundle its

Oracle can provide?

IDC (idc.com) is a global provider of market Bozman: Oracle is now extremely well

Oracle Database 11g software, Oracle Fusion

intelligence, advisory services, and events for aligned to help customers create complete

Middleware, and the vertical applications,

the information technology, telecommunications, business solutions more quickly than in

and then help a customer to distribute these

and consumer technology markets. the past. Oracle and Sun can do a lot of

appliances to multiple locations within the

customer’s organization to manage trans-