Recent Posts by Jeffrey Erickson

What becomes a mighty oak starts as a tiny acorn. Software application development follows this same ageless pattern. And that’s the idea behind Oracle offering a new “Always Free” version of Oracle’s database—to give ideas a place to take root, no matter how much noodling they need, with the potential to grow an idea into a useful app, or even a juggernaut. Launched at Oracle OpenWorld in September, the Always Free version of Oracle’s Autonomous Database has quickly taken root...

Autonomous databases signal change, and DBAs can make that change pay off with new data-focused opportunities. By Jeff Erickson October 14, 2019 A technology shift can be painful for those who aren’t ready for it but a boon for those who prepare. As more enterprise database management work is taken over by autonomous databases—which deploy, tune, upgrade, and secure themselves with no human intervention—the options for the DBAs who do this work remain broad and intriguing. Why?...

Machine learning in Oracle Autonomous Database provides a path to one of the hottest jobs in tech. By Jeff Erickson October 4, 2019 Charlie Berger wants DBAs and database developers to click a link in their autonomous database service console that can open a new world in their careers. It’s there alongside the common data management options for downloading clients or setting passwords, and it’s called Oracle ML Users. “You click on it and now you’re going down a different...

Shifts happen. And when they hit the enterprise technology world, it sets off a ripple effect where thinkers inside tech companies figure out how and when to react. One of those thinkers inside Oracle is Juan Loaiza, the company’s executive vice president of mission-critical database technologies, who spoke to a gathering of database experts at Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco on September 18. “It’s such an interesting time to be in data management,” he said, with...

“Just one more thing,” Oracle Chairman and CTO Larry Ellison said, as he completed his keynote address at Oracle OpenWorld September 16. After detailing a raft of innovations for the company’s Generation 2 Cloud Infrastructure—complete with trademark brash challenges to industry rivals—Ellison, with a nod to his friend and former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, ended with a kicker: Starting immediately, Oracle would offer a free version of its revolutionary autonomous database for...

As autonomous databases become part of large database estates, monitor and manage them with Oracle Enterprise Manager. By Jeff Erickson July/August 2019 At a recent Customer Advisory Board meeting on the Oracle headquarters campus, product managers listened to power users of Oracle Enterprise Manager as they shared their complex use cases and reacted to product roadmaps for Oracle’s flagship IT monitoring and management tool. One thing those product managers heard loud and clear...

A new dedicated service and the latest developer tools let more go autonomous. By Jeff Erickson July/August 2019 Even for people eager to use Oracle Autonomous Database’s self-driving, self-repairing, and self-securing capabilities, the question always comes down to this: Is it right for my workload? So Oracle has expanded the types of autonomous database services it offers to cover more use cases and at the same time provide more developer tool choices for building apps using...