I was privileged to attend Oracle OpenWorld 2014 last month in San Francisco, and I have to admit that it was one of the better OOWs in recent years. Even though my presentation on Oracle 12c Database features was scheduled for 08:00 on the very first day of the conference, I was excited to see so many eager faces at that time of the morning, and by 08:15 our room was almost filled to the rafters with folks hungry for knowledge about 12c Container and Pluggable Database features, RMAN enhancements, and new ways to migrate databases to 12c. We even had a chance to explore – albeit briefly! – how simple it is to implement In-Memory Column Store in release 12.1.0.2.
I also spent quite a bit of time hanging out at the IOUG user group pavilion to meet prospective members as well as my colleagues there. I’m getting really pumped about COLLABORATE15 next April in Las Vegas. 
Larry Ellison’s keynotes were also filled with new revelations like Database As a Service (DBaaS) – the ability to provision Oracle Database technology on the Oracle Cloud under short-term licensing on a day-by-day basis – and a brand new all-flash storage system (FS-1). Larry also reinforced that every application enabled within the Oracle Cloud includes immediate access to its mobile capabilities. It was also good to hear that application and database security is Oracle’s most important focus; as Larry paraphrased the old Ford Motor Company slogan, “Around here, security is Job #1.”
Perhaps the most intriguing revelation was that Oracle is working closely with chip manufacturers to build both security features and incredible query execution speed directly into the processors. Larry termed this “software in silicon,” and he demonstrate a sample query that ran completely within the processor core itself to return data at a blazing 120GB/second. And it was almost humbling to see Larry typing on a keyboard, live on stage, to demonstrate the latest DBaaS features. He even cracked wise that since he’d moved to the role of CTO, “I gotta do my demos by myself. I use to have help – now it’s gone. Almost no one works for me.”
I picked up a huge amount 0f new information about Oracle 12c, especially the latest features of release 12.1.0.2, and it confirmed my belief that 12.1.0.2 will be one of the strongest, most feature-packed releases in recent memory. I am already working on new presentations for next year’s COLLABORATE15 and Hotsos15 conferences, and I hope to see many of my fellow IOUG members at both venues.
Now if I can just figure out the best way to get a presentation slot that’s just a bit later than 8 AM on Sunday morning for OOW 2015 … 🙂
