Author: jczuprynski

My latest article on Oracle Database 12c features has just been published in the 2015Q1 edition of IOUG SELECT Journal. Entitled A Go-Faster Button: In-Memory Column Store in Oracle 12.1.0.2, it dives relatively deeply into the features of Oracle 12.1.0.2’s In-Memory Column Store, including a discussion on the concepts behind those features and extensive source code for demonstrating its efficiency.

If you’re an IOUG member, you can view it immediately; I will be posting a PDF version of the article early next week on my blog’s Articles page. And while you are at it, check out IOUG SELECT Journal’s brand-new, all-electronic format! It makes it super-easy to read articles, look up listings, and browse other content on just about any mobile device, laptop, or e-device.

If you’re an Oracle DBA who’s just been tasked with upgrading your 9i, 10g, or 11g database to 12c, then you are in luck: Our new book, Oracle Database Upgrade, Migration & Transformation Tips & Techniques, is due out from Oracle Press in June 2015.

My co-author Ed Whalen and I have spent most of 2014 compiling best practices, techniques and tips about how to best migrate and transform data as well as upgrade Oracle databases. Our new book is packed with practical advice on planning your upgrade/migration/transformation project, and we’ve included dozens of examples and checklists on how to tackle your project with the best-in-breed Oracle utilities and techniques. We also discuss in depth the best techniques for migrating your databases to Exadata and how to leverage the latest tools in Oracle Database 12c – including multitenancy – to quickly clone and upgrade pluggable databases.

You can also pre-order our book at amazon.com. Just like all Oracle Press books, it will be available in e-book format as well.

The 2014 New Zealand Oracle User’s Group (NZOUG) conference finished up yesterday afternoon, and I wanted to thank my NZOUG hosts for a most wonderful time. I had the privilege to speak to, meet with, and hopefully inspire some of the top Oracle Database professionals in New Zealand and Australia over the past few days about Oracle 12c Database features.

The cordial reception I received from my fellow colleagues was second to none. I made many new Kiwi friends over the past few days, shared some great Oracle stories, and touched base with several Oracle ACEs and ACE Directors I rarely get a chance to see. A special thank-you goes out to Francisco Alfredo Munoz Alvarez, without whose involvement our annual APAC conferences would be nearly impossible to conduct. Thank you all for the opportunity to attend a fantastic user conference, and I look forward to seeing you all again at the next NZOUG conference in spring 2016!

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 … 🙂

I wanted to give a quick shout-out to my new-found friends in LA (Latin America, not Los Angeles!) for their hospitality and professionalism during my two sessions in Bogota, Colombia and Quito, Ecuador. As the first person in my family to ever tread on South American soil, I was thrilled to visit places I’d only read about before.

My reception in Bogota was simply wonderful! I did two sessions on the newest features of Oracle Database 12c to a welcoming crowd who were kind enough to listen to me carefully even when my translators struggled to keep up with my rapid-fire delivery. Giovanna Paez and her ASUOC team did a great job keeping everything moving along. The university campus was an oasis of beauty in the midst of a classic South American city, and our hosts kept us revved up to present with the real thing: true Colombian coffee, leche only on request.

 

Landing in Quito was an experience – some of the roughest turbulence I’ve ever encountered in my travels, then a mild temblor in the 3.5 Richter scale, followed by a drive through some of the more precarious highways I’ve ever seen – but my driver’s skills would’ve shamed those of any NASCAR driver. Paola Pullas and her ECUOUG team in Quito were top-notch, and all of my presentations on Oracle 12c went off without a hitch. I did get a chance to see Quito intimately, especially the fantastic Virgen de Quito.

And Paola’s team made sure that none of us were ever hungry. I have never seen an empenada larger than my head until our dinner at Los Geranios (“The House of Geraniums”) in the old colonial section of Quito.

I sincerely thank both the ASUOC and ECUOUG teams for an extremely warm reception! I hope I was able to transfer my enthusiasm to the eager participants of both venues, and I promise that by next year, my conversational Spanish will have improved enough to understand the questions I’m asked during my presentations. Until then, my colleagues, hasta la vista!

I’ve spent the last week feverishly preparing a new chapter for our upcoming book on Oracle Database Migration, Transformation and Tuning. The Cross-Platform Transportable Tablespaces (XTTS) feature set is looking to be an awesome tool for migrating tablespaces en masse between platforms … especially when migrating to Oracle 12c!

In the midst of all my XTTS research and experimentation, I found out that I’m officially going to attend the last two legs of the OTN Latin America North Tour in Bogota, Colombia on August 15-16 and in Quito, Ecuador on August 18-19. I’m absolutely thrilled to finally visit places in South America that I’d only read about while translating Spanish literature to English in high school sometime during the last millennium. A warning to my Colombian and Ecuadorean colleagues: Por favor digame tus preguntas mas despaciamente! I promise to slow down my usual rapid delivery of the English language as well during my four presentations.