A Special Q&A from the Collaborate 11 Virtualization Presentation

Q&A from Collaborate 11 Presentation: Your Questions Answered

IT Convergence’s Gustavo González delivered the hot topic presentation entitled “Oracle E-Business Suite Environments running on Oracle VM and Oracle Enterprise Linux” at the Collaborate 11 event recently. Many questions came up during the Q&A session following the presentation and a copy was requested by attendees.

Q&A

1. How much is the Oracle VM Software?

Oracle VM can be freely downloaded, embedded, and distributed without breaking the terms of the licensing agreement. This does not refer to crippled or demo versions of the software. This includes the full Oracle VM Server and Oracle VM Manager. Oracle is the only major virtualization vendor that has a no-cost, non-crippled management console for virtualization.
Oracle does not charge for Oracle VM, and support contracts are optional. This means that Oracle is unique in the market, as it provides the only enterprise-grade Linux distribution and virtualization platform that can be used to create virtual machines that are not encumbered by restrictive IP licensing term.

1. What is virtualization exactly?

At its simplest level, virtualization is a technology that fakes out hardware, making an operating system think that it is running on a standardized hardware configuration. The software that handles this abstraction layer is called a hypervisor.

An operating system runs inside of a virtual machine, which is just a container managed by the hypervisor. The hypervisor manages and distributes the processor, memory and I/O resources of the physical server between multiple running virtual machines, which in reality reduces the amount of actual physical servers.

2. What benefits will I get from this?

• Minimized downtime and impact on performance of the applications.
• Reduced hardware maintenance and monitoring costs.
• Decreasing of the recurring licensing and costs (TCO).

3. Why Virtualize?

• Maintenance Cost: cut the cost of maintaining hardware
• Physical space: decrease the space needed in the data center by reducing the number of boxes
• Power consumption: reduce power consumption in the data center
• Elasticity: ability to increase or decrease the virtual servers (or Virtual Machines) based on business needs

Oracle E-Business Suite Reporting Tools Webcast

IT Convergence will be holding its next Webcast, titled “Ace the Oracle E-Business Reporting Test” on Wednesday January 12th at 8:00 am Pacific11:00 am Eastern.

This webcast is aimed at previewing ways in which Oracle E-Business Suite users transform complex, tedious data into user-friendly and understandable information. Attendees will also get an idea on of how to choose the right reporting tool.

Specifically, ”Ace the Oracle E-Business Reporting Test” will focus on:

  • an outline of the reporting tools available to Oracle users, ie: BI Publisher, Discoverer, Noetix and Oracle Business Intelligence.
  • which reporting tools contain the elements needed to meet your business needs
  • provide an overview understanding of how each reporting tool works
  • ensuring scalability with respect to future upgrades

IT Convergence’s expert on Business Intelligence and E-Business Suite, Gustavo Gonzalez Figueroa, who is the Global Information Systems Director at IT Convergence and Tom McGrath, web developer at ITC will be presenting this Webcast.

The webcast is absolutely free of charge and is open to the general public. The only requirements are:

  • An understanding of one’s current reporting capabilities within E-Business Suite
  • An understanding on one’s future reporting requirements

The webcast will be held on the 12th of January at 8am Pacific-11am Eastern

What are you waiting for, reserve your spot now. Take advantage and click here to register for “Ace the Oracle E-Business Reporting Test”. You have nothing to lose, but you’ll gain some ´business intelligence.’

 

Improve your Oracle Skills and Knowledge

After working in the Oracle space for12 years and in 8 countries, I still need training for a slew of technologies for either myself or my staff.

By training, I mean the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and competencies as a result of the teaching of vocational or practical skills and knowledge that relate to specific useful competencies. 

As I came across this definition it made me reflect of the methods in which we used to train and how we employ these methods to develop the best teams. The initial concept we used was one that revolved around the idea of an “episode.” In this way of thinking, training is periodical: you acquire knowledge and update it once those concepts are put in to practice and thoroughly understood.

However, the point in between “training episodes” can be blurry and does not often get addressed by standard training methods. This is where exploration of new learning methods and collaboration with larger networks becomes valuable.

At IT Convergence, we have several education offerings that are the results of this exploration into new learning methods; all to help you experience the power of great Oracle solutions. One example is our free webcasts that we offer with the Oracle Applications User Group (OAUG) as part of their Vendor Product Awareness Series.

Another example is our public workshops that are also a result of partnerships with the OAUG and International Oracle Users Group (IOUG). These are instructor-led workshops on a number of Oracle technologies (Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle Database, Business Intelligence, Support tools – Oracle UPK Oracle Tutor) offered in over 10 different locations across the US. Each topic is defined with the users’ groups to provide solutions based on needs of highest importance within companies.

We’re currently in the process of creating Virtual Live Workshops (VLW). This will extend our reach and allow attendees to participate in our classes from anywhere with a computer and internet access.

If you and your staff need a special topic that is not discussed or sufficiently covered in our workshops, we also provide on-site education solutions. Our experts can prepare courses based on your company’s needs using our effective training methods.

We are passionate about workplace learning and increasing performance with better Oracle solutions. As the leader of our education initiatives, I’m happy to work with you and share our passion. I look forward to seeing you at our Oracle Applications Workshops.

In the mean time I invite you to stay in touch, you can leave a comment here, followIT Convergence’s Twitter feed and/or the Twitter feed we have set up especially for the Oracle Applications Workshops.

 

Reflections on Oracle OpenWorld 2010

And finally its time to go back home after a wonderful week at Oracle Open World. We spent 5 days surrounded by the latest Oracle technology. It was a show of much more than software, as Larry Elison (Oracle CEO) mentioned almost a hundred times at his keynote: Hardware + Software.

For me, being at OOW is always a mix between being part of an organization that provides Oracle services and taking the time to meet clients, prospects and also being an Oracle client to understand and plan the strat

egy of a global company.

The Oracle World Convergence on Muscone Center 

As usual, it is also time to meet friends from Argentina and catch up on the status of the market in Latin America. We can also meet the people that we talk to everyday on the phone.

This year, Oracle not only stopped the traffic on Howard street with the

“Howard Tent”, Oracle stopped two other streets with atent for JavaOne, a tent that was packed full with features from Oracle Technology Network. We played in Legoland and chatted with some tech friends. 

Larry’s Head is in the Clouds 

Sunday’s keynote was about “Cloud computing” and presenting the new “Exalogic” machine (acloud in a box). Afterwards, there was a presentation of a new operating system and the release of the new Fusion Application.

In that first presentation Larry was clear that Oracle agrees with Amazon on the cloud definition but not with Salesforce. And that led to a discussion that was refuted by Mark Benioff (Salesforce CEO and founder) during his Wednesday presentation.

Thoughts on Fusion

Regarding Fusion, it’s a very interesting approach sos we as clients and ITC as an organization will be able to keep the plans as defined. There’s no need to migrate our entire footprint to Fusion yet.

There are some important tips that we will be working on now both as an organization that provides Oracle Services and as an Oracle End User. Here they are: 1) upgrade and keep updated on the latest release of our product investments, 2) adopt Oracle Fusion Middleware for the value it can provide us today and as a foundation for Oracle Fusion Applications in the future, 3) develop skill sets for standards-based technologies, 4) maintain our current Oracle Applications and take advantage of the new releases Oracle will continue to offer, 5) extend the value of our portfolio with Oracle Fusion Applications module, and finally 6) embrace the Oracle Fusion Applications suite.


Taking Our Own Medicine, Oracle R12 and Oracle VM

After co-presenting our “Planning for Oracle E-Business Suite 12”with James Utz and Karen Kerames on Sunday to a very crowded room, we spent around 45 minutes answering questions about our expertise on R12.

Then it was time to enjoy the Oracle ACE dinner for the first time. Dinner was on a Cruise where we met all the Oracle ACE and ACE Directors from around the world, exchanging experiences while navigating on the bay area. Thanks Marcelo Ochoa for supporting my application and being such a great host during the cruise. 

Monday was a very busy day. As part of our alliance with Oracle as clients, we will become a global Oracle reference on virtualization using Oracle VM, Oracle Enterprise Linux and Linux Unbreakable. I met several journalists and analysts and got ready for the session “Mission Possible: Oracle E-Business Suite 12 Upgrade on 3 Continents in 6 Months.” It was an awesome session, with lots of people and many questions. I really enjoyed it.


15 Min of Fame

On Tuesday, it was time for a video shoot, and Oracle’s PR (thanks Olivia) making sure that I was comfortable (and I was…). The video shooting was done on both English and Spanish and you’ll be able to watch it at Oracle.com pretty soon.

On Tuesday, IT Convergence invited several clients and prospects to an Executive dinner which was really good. It was a beautiful evening in Sausalito inone of the top restaurants of the area which boasts outstanding service. Patrick Krause (ITC President) gave a brief speech on the latest news about IT Convergence such as the fact that the company will be opening an office in India, extending operations in Brazil and continuing our focus on providing training and public classes around United States and Latin America.

On Wednesday, I spent some time at the IT Convergence booth talking to the people from all over the world that were visiting the exhibition. I learnt that 110 countries were represented at Oracle Open World and it sounds about right to me.

Larry and Mark Duel over the Meaning of “Cloud”

On Wednesday morning I attended a Salesforce’s presentation. It was really interesting to see how Mark Benioff (a former Oracle employee) was attacking (he started his speech with “I came in peace”) the definition of Elisson on the Cloud in the box. He invited Michael Dell onto the stage, who was very careful with his words. That session was about the presentation of their new “Chatter” tool, which looks like Facebook (but for business, I’m not so sure).

Anyways, after attending that speech I couldn’t wait for Larry’s reply. As anticipated, he replied on his Wednesday keynote address, telling Benioff that Salesforce.com is running on 1500 servers, which can be replaced by a few boxes of exalogic, in order to create a true cloud. Fair enough, it is business, and I hope that Oracle can finally sell Salesforce.com these “cloud boxes” and end the discussion. (Note, for a discussion on Salesforce.com, Oracle CRM, and CRM options that Oracle E-Business Suite users have, you can register to attend our October 20th Webcast.Click here to register.)

Treausre Island

At 1pm, it was time for the session where I had been invited by Oracle to show our successful implementation of Oracle VM, Oracle Enterprise Linux and Linux unbreakable. After several phone calls and email exchanges I met John, Max and Zeynep.

The presentation covered all the angles of a database migration, and application tier, to different operating systems for virtualization. It also addressed the new tools that Oracle is providing to support this, concluding with IT Convergence’s success story.

“The appreciation event” in the evening was huge. With more than 15,000 people (not sure how many) and many bands and lots of food and drink, it was the perfect wrap up for an amazing show. 

Black Eyed Peas, Berlin and many others got the people jumping and dancing until 1am! It was just great!

Its a Wrap with Oracle Project Analytics and Oracle EBS

Thursday was the last session.

Patrick and I, together with Rao from Oracle presented “Oracle Project Analytics for Oracle E-Business Suite”. Many people were interested in our implementation process and in how we were able to get the most from Oracle BI Enterprise Edition and Projects Analytics in our E-Business Suite implementation.
Rao presented the roadmap of Project analytics and how this will be integrated with Fusion application. 

It was a great show. Thanks Oracle for such an incredible week and we all look forward to Oracle Open World 2011.

For more information, please check out IT Convergence’s Oracle OpenWorld 2010 Resource page. The white paper backing up Gustavo’s “Mission Possible” presentation is available for download, and other Oracle OpenWorld Power Point Presentations will soon be uploaded for your convenience. Click here to visit.