2022
From DBA to DE: Becoming a Data Engineer
DBAs spend years acquiring extremely valuable skills, even while facing increased responsibility for growing numbers of diverse multi-version databases, demands to transition to public cloud computing Infrastructure, and a never-ending drumbeat for upskilling and relevance in our industry. Let me show you how to transition your career by leveraging your expertise in a new role: Data Engineer (DE).
Graphing Grifters: Identify & Display Patterns of Corruption With Oracle Graph Studio
Uncovering patterns of suspicious behavior is no longer something only an experienced gumshoe or fraud investigator can ferret out. Using Oracle’s powerful Machine Learning algorithms and Property Graph plug-ins, I’ll show you how to quickly identify and display potentially suspicious financial transactions.
Charge Me Up! Using Oracle ML, Analytics, and APEX For Finding Optimal Charge Points
So you think finding a close parking space is a challenge? Finding the closest charging station for your EV when you’re running short on battery power will be the next nightmare for drivers in Smart Cities. I’ll show you how to use existing Oracle Machine Learning, Analytics, and APEX to find the closest charge point while driving, as well as determine where it makes the most sense to placed charge points to benefit utility customers.
Access Denied: Real-World Use Cases for APEX and Real Application Security
Limiting users’ access to data is still a thorny issue in many Oracle shops: How do we insure only the right people view – much less change! – only the data they’re allowed to? I’ll show you how we solved those issues for a large government agency with hundreds of external users via Real Application Security (RAS), whether they’re using APEX applications or direct-access tools like SQLcl.
Going Native: Leveraging the New JSON Native Datatype in Oracle 21c
Need to incorporate JSON documents into existing Oracle database applications? I’ll show you how the new native JSON datatype introduced in Oracle 21c makes it simple to store, access, traverse, and filter the complex data often found within JSON documents, often without any application code changes.
2021
JSON, A Splash of SODA, and a SQL Chaser: Real-World Use Cases for Autonomous JSON Database (AJD)
JSON is the new XML! It’s everywhere, from NoSQL databases to REST APIs.
I’ll share with you how Oracle’s Autonomous JSON Database (AJD) makes short work of handling JSON-resident information, especially when paired with robust functions and features of Oracle 19c and 21c.
Fast and Furious: Handling Edge Computing Data With Oracle 19c Fast Ingest and Fast Lookup
The Internet of Things (IoT) has deep use cases – energy grids, communications, policing, security, and manufacturing.
I’ll show you how to use Oracle 19c’s Fast Ingest and Fast Lookup features to load IoT data from “edge” sources to take immediate advantage of that information in nearly real time.
Where the %$#^ Is Everybody? Geospatial Solutions For Oracle APEX
Geospatial use cases are common – closest coffeeshop, efficient delivery routing, other stores near me – and I’ll demonstrate how to use Oracle’s Spatial and Graph feature set to tackle them within a simple-to-build APEX application.
Cluster, Classify, Associate, Regress: Satisfy Your Inner Data Scientist with OML and Analytics
The modern data scientist has a daunting task: Probing petabytes of data, figuring out which Machine Learning (ML) algorithms to apply to filter the grain from the chaff, and producing meaningful intelligence on which to base digitally-driven strategies for their organization.
I’ll demonstrate how even a fledgling citizen data scientist facing new real-life opportunities to discover unseen patterns and relationships within sample data can quickly leverage the powerful ML capabilities already built into the Oracle Database and available for use at no additional cost.
Keep Your Code Low, Low, Low, Low, Low: Getting to Digitally Driven With Oracle Converged Database
In the brave new digitally-driven world, IT organizations can no longer focus on internal-only RDBMS databases as the central pillar of their infrastructure; data must be accessed externally as well, regardless of format or location, with utmost security. Fortunately, Oracle’s Converged Database strategy makes it simple to satisfy these demands.
We’ll explore the myriad facets of a Converged Database strategy and what it means for your career’s future path, regardless of whether you’re an application developer or DBA.
2020
Politics Ain’t Beanbag: Using APEX, ML, and GeoCoding In a Modern Election Campaign
Oracle announced in December 2019 its Spatial and Graph features are now included without additional licensing costs for Oracle databases. This means application developers now have low-cost access to powerful geolocation, routing, and mapping capabilities – a welcome addition for any Application Express (APEX) application that previously shied away from implementing those features.
I’ll demonstrate a real-life use case – handling the changing demands of a modern election campaign, including managing widely-dispersed volunteers and voters, using geolocation for merchandise distribution, and identifying “flippable” voters with ML and analytics – through a mobile-capable APEX application.
What’s Your Super-Power? Mine is Machine Learning with Oracle Autonomous DB.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are a lot like preserving the Earth’s environment: Almost everyone is talking about what should be done to save it, but very few people have committed to actually doing something about it.
I’ll demonstrate a few real-life opportunities to discover unseen patterns and relationships within sample financial and election data by leveraging the AI and ML capabilities already built into Oracle Autonomous Database.
One Less Thing For DBAs to Worry About: Automatic Indexing
You’re a busy Oracle DBA. Your phone rings. It’s your most troublesome user, once again complaining that her query is running slow. You take a quick look at the execution plan, find a possible choice for a new index to improve its performance, and drop it in place: Problem solved. Or is it? Even an experienced DBA may not immediately realize the impact that new index will have on the performance of dozens of other queries and DML statements.
Finally, there’s a better way: Let the database decide.
I’ll show you how Automatic Indexing (AI) – one of the newest features of Oracle Database 19c – provides an intriguing alternative to reactive performance tuning methodologies for index creation. We’ll look at how AIC reacts to a heavy hybrid application workload and then holistically builds, tests, and implements the most appropriate secondary indexes needed to improve database performance.
An Autonomous Singularity Approaches: Force Multipliers For Overwhelmed DBAs
Autonomous Database Services have expanded well beyond their original scope of heavy analytical workloads (ADW) and hybrid transaction processing / reporting workloads (ATP) to include dedicated Cloud-based instances to eliminate contention between “noisy neighbors” in the same region and domain.
I’ll explain how Oracle DBAs at any skill level can immediately leverage Autonomous resources as force multipliers to free them from most mundane administration tasks so they can concentrate on mastering the new skills required to become an Enterprise Data Architect – the emerging post-DBA role – and shift their focus towards building better enterprise systems in concert with their organization’s application developers, business analysts, and business units.
2019
Vote Early, Vote Often: From Napkin to Canvassing Application in a Single Weekend
The frenetic pace of application development in modern IT organizations means it’s not unusual to demand an application be built with minimal requirement gathering – literally, from a napkin-based sketch – to a working first draft of the app within extremely short time frames – even a weekend! – with production deployment to follow just a few days later.
I’ll demonstrate a real-life application development scenario – the creation of a mobile application that gives election canvassers a tool to identify, classify, and inform voters in a huge suburban Chicago voting district – using the latest Oracle application development UI, data modeling tools, and database technology. Along the way, we’ll show how Oracle APEX makes short work of building a working application while the Oracle DBA leverages her newest tools – SQL Developer and Data Modeler – to build a secure, reliable, scalable application for her development team.
Autonomous Transaction Processing (ATP): In Heavy Traffic, Why Drive Stick?
Autonomous Transaction Processing (ATP) – the second in the family of Oracle’s Autonomous Databases – offers Oracle DBAs the ability to apply a force multiplier for their OLTP database application workloads. However, it’s important to understand both the benefits and limitations of ATP before migrating any workloads to that environment.
I’ll provide a quick but deep dive into how best to take advantage of ATP – including how to load data quickly into the underlying database – and some ideas on how ATP will impact the role of Oracle DBA in the immediate future. (Hint: Think automatic transmission instead of stick-shift.)
Conquer Big Data with Oracle 18c, In-Memory External Tables and Analytic Functions
There’s an onslaught of Big Data coming to our IT shops – zettabytes of it! – but instead of your application developers struggling to learn new languages and techniques to analyze it, why not leverage Oracle Database 18c?
I’ll demonstrate how to tackle handling the coming Big Data tidal wave with the best tool ever designed to filter, sort, aggregate, and report information: Structured Query Language. We’ll also take a closer look at using some new Analytic Functions in 18c to make short work of complex analyses and how best to leverage 18c’s new Database In-Memory features for External Tables.
An Airline Pilot, A Urologist, and a DBA Walk Into a Bar: Thinking Like a Professional
It’s no joke! The IT industry is undergoing a maelstrom of change – ever-increasing data volumes, horrendous security incursions, the promise / threat of Cloud-based computing, and a gradual loss of its most talented people through age-based attrition. What’s needed more than ever is a revival of professionalism within our ranks, and it’s time for us to rise up as a community to strive towards that goal.
Seriously – if you are just doing your IT job and are perfectly satisfied with your status in our industry, please don’t waste time reviewing this presentation. (Just kidding!)