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• Oracle Service Registry 11gR1 Support for Oracle Fusion Middleware/SOA Suite 11g PatchSet 2

  - by Dave Berry

  As you might be aware, a few days back we released Patchset 2 (PS2) for several products in the Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g Release 1 stack including WebLogic Server and SOA Suite. Though there was no patchset released for Oracle Service Registry (OSR) 11g, being an integral part of Fusion Middleware & SOA, OSR 11g R1 ( 11.1.1.2 ) is fully certified with this release. Below is some recommended reading before installing OSR 11g with the new PS2 : OSR 11g R1 & SOA Suite 11g PS2 in a Shared WebLogic Domain If you intend to deploy OSR 11g in the same domain as the SOA Suite 11g, the primary recommendation is to install OSR 11g in its own Managed Server within the same Weblogic Domain as the SOA Suite, as the following diagram depicts : An important pre-requisite for this setup is to apply Patch 9499508, after installation. It basically replaces a registry library - wasp.jar - in the registry application deployed on your server, so as to enable co-deployment of OSR 11g & SOA Suite 11g in the same WLS Domain. The patch fixes a java.lang.LinkageError: loader constraint violation that appears in your OSR system log and is now available for download. The second, equally important, pre-requisite is to modify the setDomainEnv.sh/.cmd file for your WebLogic Domain to conditionally set the CLASSPATH so that the oracle.soa.fabric.jar library is not included in it for the Managed Server(s) hosting OSR 11g. Both these pre-requisites and other OSR 11g Topology Best Practices are covered in detail in the new Knowledge Base article Oracle Service Registry 11g Topology : Best Practices. Architecting an OSR 11g High Availability Setup Typically you would want to create a High Availability (HA) OSR 11g setup, especially on your production system. The following illustrates the recommended topology. The article, Hands-on Guide to Creating an Oracle Service Registry 11g High-Availability Setup on Oracle WebLogic Server 11g on OTN provides step-by-step instructions for creating such an active-active HA setup of multiple OSR 11g nodes with a Load Balancer in an Oracle WebLogic Server cluster environment. Additional Info The OSR Home Page on OTN is the hub for OSR and is regularly updated with latest information, articles, white papers etc. For further reading, this FAQ answers some common questions on OSR. The OSR Certification Matrix lists the Application Servers, Databases, Artifact Storage Tools, Web Browsers, IDEs, etc... that OSR 11g is certified against. If you hit any problems during OSR 11g installation, design time or runtime, the first place to look into is the logs. To find more details about which logs to check when & where, take a look at Where to find Oracle Service Registry Logs? Finally, if you have any questions or problems, there are various ways to reach us - on the SOA Governance forum on OTN, on the Community Forums or by contacting Oracle Support. Yogesh Sontakke and Dave Berry

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• SOA &amp; E2.0 Partner Community Forum XIII registration is open

  - by Jürgen Kress

  INVITATION TO THE ORACLE SOA AND E2.0 PARTNER COMMUNITY FORUM Do you want to learn about how to sell the value of Fusion Middleware by combining SOA and E2.0 Solutions? We would like to invite you to become updated and trained at our SOA and E2.0 Partner Community Forum March on 15th and 16th 2011 in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Keynote: Andrew Sutherland and Andrew Gilboy The Oracle SOA and E2.0 Partner Community Forum is a wonderful opportunity to: learn how to sell the value of Fusion Middleware bij combining SOA and E2.0 solutions meet with Oracle SOA and E2.0 Product management exchange knowledge learn from successful SOA, BPM, WebCenter and UCM implementations understand Oracle's Fusion Applications Strategy network within the Oracle SOA Partner Community and the Oracle E2.0 Partner Community During this highly informative event you can learn about partner success stories, participate in an array of break out sessions, exchange information with other partners and enjoy a vibrant panel discussion. Additionally to the SOA and E2.0 Partner Community Forum, you can participate in technical hands on workshops on March 17th and 18th. The goal of these workshops is to prepare you for customer implementations. Places are limited, so don't delay and register now by clicking here. Registration takes a few minutes and is free of charge, except in case of cancellation or no show (cancellation fee € 150). For more information, please visit our website. Best regards Jürgen Kress & Hans Blaas SOA & E2.0 Partner Adoption EMEA Agenda March 15th 2011 Welcome & Introduction Keynote Oracle Middleware Strategy and information on Application Grid and Exalogic Andrew Sutherland, SVP Middleware Sales EMEA, Oracle Keynote Managing Online Customer, Partner and Employee Engagement with Oracle E2.0 Solutions Andrew Gilboy, VP E2.0 Sales EMEA, Oracle Partner SOA/BPM Reference Case Partner WebCenter/UCM Reference Case SOA Suite PS3 David Shaffer, VP Product Management, Oracle Why Specialization is important for Partners Nick Kritikos, Hans Blaas & Jürgen Kress, Alliances & Channels, Oracle   Agenda March 16th 2011 Welcome & Introduction Day II Breakout round 1 - SOA Suite 11g PS3 & OSB - Importance of ADF & JDeveloper - SOA Security IDM - WebCenter PS3, Whats new - E2.0 Sales Plays Breakout round 2 - WebCenter PS3, Whats new - Application Management Enterprise manager and Amberpoint - ADF/WebCenter 11g integration with BPM Suite 11g - Importance of ADF & JDeveloper - JCAPS & OC4J migration opportunities for service business Breakout round 3 - BPM 11g: Whats new - Universal Content management 11g - SOA Security Management - E2.0 Surrounding Products: ATG, Documaker, Primavera - Middleware Industry Value Propositions & Sales Play Fusion Application SOA & E2.0 Summary & Closing For registration and additional information, please visit our website. For more information on SOA Specialization and the SOA Partner Community please feel free to register at www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required) Blog Twitter LinkedIn Mix Forum Wiki Website Technorati Tags: SOA Community,SOA,SOA Partner Community Forum,SOA Community Forum,OPN,Jürgen Kress

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• Oracle Retail Point-of-Service with Mobile Point-of-Service, Release 13.4.1

  - by Oracle Retail Documentation Team

  Oracle Retail Mobile Point-of-Service was previously released as a standalone product. Oracle Retail Mobile Point-of-Service is now a supported extension of Oracle Retail Point-of-Service, Release 13.4.1. Oracle Retail Mobile Point-of-Service provides support for using a mobile device to perform tasks such as scanning items, applying price adjustments, tendering, and looking up item information. Integration with Oracle Retail Store Inventory Management (SIM) If Oracle Retail Mobile Point-of-Service is implemented with Oracle Retail Store Inventory Management (SIM), the following Oracle Retail Store Inventory Management functionality is supported: Inventory lookup at the current store Inventory lookup at buddy stores Validation of serial numbers Technical Overview The Oracle Retail Mobile Point-of-Service server application runs in a domain on Oracle WebLogic. The server supports the mobile devices in the store. On each mobile device, the Mobile POS application is downloaded and then installed. Highlighted End User Documentation Updates and List of Documents  Oracle Retail Point-of-Service with Mobile Point-of-Service Release NotesA high-level overview is included about the release's functional, technical, and documentation enhancements. In addition, a section has been written that addresses Product Support considerations.   Oracle Retail Mobile Point-of-Service Java API ReferenceJava API documentation for Oracle Retail Mobile Point-of-Service is included as part of the Oracle Retail Mobile Point-of-Service Release 13.4.1 documentation set. Oracle Retail Point-of-Service with Mobile Point-of-Service Installation Guide - Volume 1, Oracle StackA new chapter is included with information on installing the Mobile Point-of-Service server and setting up the Mobile POS application. The installer screens for installing the server are included in a new appendix. Oracle Retail Point-of-Service with Mobile Point-of-Service User GuideA new chapter describes the functionality available on a mobile device and how to use Oracle Retail Mobile Point-of-Service on a mobile device. Oracle Retail POS Suite with Mobile Point-of-Service Configuration GuideThe Configuration Guide is updated to indicate which parameters are used for Oracle Retail Mobile Point-of-Service. Oracle Retail POS Suite with Mobile Point-of-Service Implementation Guide - Volume 5, Mobile Point-of-ServiceThis new Implementation Guide volume contains information for extending and customizing both the Mobile POS application for the mobile device and the Oracle Retail Mobile Point-of-Service server. Oracle Retail POS Suite with Mobile Point-of-Service Licensing InformationThe Licensing Information document is updated with the list of third-party open-source software used by Oracle Retail Mobile Point-of-Service. Oracle Retail POS Suite with Mobile Point-of-Service Security GuideThe Security Guide is updated with information on security for mobile devices. Oracle Retail Enhancements Summary (My Oracle Support Doc ID 1088183.1)This enterprise level document captures the major changes for all the products that are part of releases 13.2, 13.3, and 13.4. The functional, integration, and technical enhancements in the Release Notes for each product are listed in this document.

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• Vodacom Call Center Management on the NetBeans Platform

  - by Geertjan

  If you live in South Africa, you know about Vodacom. Vodacom is one of the dominant mobile communication companies in South Africa, and beyond, providing voice, messaging, data, and similar mobile services. Inside Vodacom there's an application named Helios, which is a call centre application that had its inception in 2009 and consists of two parts. Firstly, a web-based front-end that allows a call centre agent to service subscribers using a Google-like search on a knowledge base structured as a collection of FAQs. The web-based front-end uses plain-old HTML + CSS + a good helping of JQuery and JQueryUI. This is delivered via JSR-168 portlets running on a cluster of IBM Portal 6 servers. In turn, the portlets communicate via RMI with several back-end EJB's containing the business logic. These EJB's are deployed on a cluster of Weblogic Application Servers, version 10.3.6. The second part is a NetBeans Platform application used for maintaining and constructing the knowledge base, i.e., the back-end of the web-based front-end. Helios is also used for a number of other maintenance functions, such as access permissions, user maintenance, and news bulletins. Below, in the web-based front-end, call centre agents can enter search terms and are presented with a number of FAQs from the knowledge base. Upon selecting a FAQ article, the agent is presented with the article text, the process to guide the subscriber, system checks that display information specific to the subscriber, and links to related applications and articles: Below, you can see that applications are searchable and can be accessed using the same web-based front-end as shown above. And, as can be seen below, knowledge base FAQs are maintained using the Helios Maintenance Application, which is the Vodacom application built on the NetBeans Platform: Several thousand call centre agent user accounts are administered using the Helios Maintenance Application. Below the main FAQ page is shown, together with the About dialog: Vodacom is happy with the back-end NetBeans Platform application. However, the front-end stack runs on quite old technology. Ideally Vodacom would like to migrate the portlets to Oracle Weblogic Portal or Oracle WebCenter, but this hasn't been accomplished yet. Migrating makes sense as the rest of the application server environment consists entirely of Oracle products.

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• Don&rsquo;t Forget! In-Memory Databases are Hot

  - by andrewbrust

  If you’re left scratching your head over SAP’s intention to acquire Sybase for almost $6 million, you’re not alone.  Despite Sybase’s 1990s reign as the supreme database standard in certain sectors (including Wall Street), the company’s flagship product has certainly fallen from grace.  Why would SAP pay a greater than 50% premium over Sybase’s closing price on the day of the announcement just to acquire a relational database which is firmly stuck in maintenance mode? Well there’s more to Sybase than the relational database product.  Take, for example, its mobile application platform.  It hit Gartner’s “Leaders’ Quadrant” in January of last year, and SAP needs a good mobile play.  Beyond the platform itself, Sybase has a slew of mobile services; click this link to look them over. There’s a second major asset that Sybase has though, and I wonder if it figured prominently into SAP’s bid: Sybase IQ.  Sybase IQ is a columnar database.  Columnar databases place values from a given database column contiguously, unlike conventional relational databases, which store all of a row’s data in close proximity.  Storing column values together works well in aggregation reporting scenarios, because the figures to be aggregated can be scanned in one efficient step.  It also makes for high rates of compression because values from a single column tend to be close to each other in magnitude and may contain long sequences of repeating values.  Highly compressible databases use much less disk storage and can be largely or wholly loaded into memory, resulting in lighting fast query performance.  For an ERP company like SAP, with its own legacy BI platform (SAP BW) and the entire range of Business Objects and Crystal Reports BI products (which it acquired in 2007) query performance is extremely important. And it’s a competitive necessity too.  QlikTech has built an entire company on a columnar, in-memory BI product (QlikView).  So too has startup company Vertica.  IBM’s TM1 product has been doing in-memory OLAP for years.  And guess who else has the in-memory religion?  Microsoft does, in the form of its new PowerPivot product.  I expect the technology in PowerPivot to become strategic to the full-blown SQL Server Analysis Services product and the entire Microsoft BI stack.  I sure don’t blame SAP for jumping on the in-memory bandwagon, if indeed the Sybase acquisition is, at least in part, motivated by that. It will be interesting to watch and see what SAP does with Sybase’s product line-up (assuming the acquisition closes), including the core database, the mobile platform, IQ, and even tools like PowerBuilder.  It is also fascinating to watch columnar’s encroachment on relational.  Perhaps this acquisition will be columnar’s tipping point and people will no longer see it as a fad.  Are you listening Larry Ellison?

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• Learn about MySQL with the Authentic MySQL for Beginners course

  - by Antoinette O'Sullivan

  Learn about the MySQL Server and other MySQL products by taking the authentic MySQL for Beginners course. This course covers all the basics from MySQL download and installation, to relational database concepts and database design. This course is your first step to becoming a MySQL administrator. You can take this course through one of the following delivery types: Training-on-Demand: Start the class from your desk, at your base and within 24 hrs of registering. Read Ben Krug on Day 3 of his experience taking the MySQL for Beginners course Training-on-Demand option. Live-Virtual Class: Attend this live class from your own office - no travel required. Choose from a selection of events on the schedule to suit different timezones. Delivery languages include English and German. In-Class event: Attend this class in an education center. Events already on the schedule include:  Location  Date  Delivery Language  Mechelen, Belgium  14 January 2013  English  London, England  5 March 2013  English  Hamburg, Germany  25 March 2013  German  Munich, Germany  3 June 2013  German  Budapest, Hungary  5 February 2013  Hungary  Milan, Italy  11 February 2013  Italian  Rome, Italy  4 March 2013  Italian  Riga, Latvia  18 February 2013  Latvian  Amsterdam, Netherlands  21 May 2013  Dutch  Nieuwegein, Netherlands  18 February 2013  Dutch  Warsaw, Poland  18 February 2013  Polish  Lisbon, Portugal  25 March 2013  European Portugese  Porto, Portugal  25 March 2013  European Portugese  Barcelona, Spain  11 February 2013  Spanish  Madrid, Spain  22 April 2013  Spanish  Nairobi, Kenya  14 January 2013  English  Capetown, South Africa  22 July 2013  English  Pretoria, South Africa  22 April 2013  English  Petaling Jaya, Malaysia  28 January 2013  English  Ottawa, Canada  25 March 2013  English  Toronto, Canada  25 March 2013  English  Montreal, Canada 25 March 2013   English Mexico City, Mexico  14 January 2013   Spanish  San Pedro Garza Garcia, Mexico  5 February 2013  Spanish  Sao Paolo, Brazil  29 January 2013  Brazilian Portugese For more information on this or other courses on the authentic MySQL Curriculum, go to http://oracle.com/education/mysql. Note, many organizations deploy both Oracle Database and MySQL side by side to serve different needs, and as a database professional you can find training courses on both topics at Oracle University! Check out the upcoming Oracle Database training courses and MySQL training courses. Even if you're only managing Oracle Databases at this point of time, getting familiar with MySQL will broaden your career path with growing job demand.

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• BUILD 2013 - Microsoft Set to Unveil It&rsquo;s Reinvention

  - by D'Arcy Lussier

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/dlussier/archive/2013/06/24/153211.aspxSome thoughts as we head into BUILD this week… This week in San Francisco Microsoft will be hosting the BUILD conference. They’ll be talking up Windows 8.1 (Windows Blue), more Azure, some Windows Phone, XBox, Office 365… actually, they told us on the original BUILD announcement site what we’d be seeing:           While looking at this, consider a recent article from The Verge that talks about the speculation of a huge shake up at Microsoft . From the article: All Things D quotes one insider as saying they're "titanic" changes, noting they might be attached to Ballmer's legacy at the company. "It’s the first time in a long time that it feels like that there will be some major shifts, including some departures," says the alleged insider. Considering Ballmer let Sinofsky go right after the Windows 8 launch, the idea of Microsoft cutting loose some executives doesn’t seem to be big news. But the next piece of the article frames things more interestingly: Ballmer is reportedly considering a new structure that would create four separate divisions: enterprise business, hardware, applications and services, and an operating systems group. This statement got me thinking…what would this new structure look like? Below is one possibility: At a recent (this year or last year, I can’t recall which) Microsoft shareholder’s meeting, Ballmer made the statement that Microsoft is now a products and services company. At the time I don’t think I really let that statement sink in. Partially because I really liked the Microsoft of my professional youth – the one that was a software and platform company. In Canada, Microsoft has been pushing three platform areas: Lync, Azure, and SQL Server. I would expect those to change moving forward as Microsoft continues to look for Partners that will help them increase their Services revenue through solutions that incorporate/are based on Azure, Office 365, Lync, and Dynamics. I also wonder if we’re not seeing a culling of partners through changes to the Microsoft Partner Program. In addition to the changing certification requirements that align more to Microsoft’s goals (i.e. There is no desktop development based MCSD, only Windows 8 Store Apps), competencies that partners can qualify for are being merged, requirements changed, and licenses provided reduced. Ballmer warned as much at the last WPC though that they were looking for partners who were “all in” with Microsoft, and these programs seem to support that sentiment. Heading into BUILD this week, I’ll be looking to answer one question – what does it mean to be a Microsoft developer here in the 2010’s? What is the future of the Microsoft development platform? Sure, Visual Studio is still alive and well and Microsoft realizes that there’s a huge install base of .NET developers actively working on solutions. But they’ve ratcheted down the messaging around their development stack and instead focussed on promoting development for their platforms and services. Last year at BUILD with the release of Windows 8, Microsoft just breached the walls of its cocoon. After this BUILD and the organizational change announcements in July, we’ll see what Microsoft looks like fully emerged from its metamorphosis.

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• A Few Words from Oracle’s Channel Chief

  - by Meghan Fritz-Oracle

  As Oracle enters a new fiscal year, I want to take a moment and reflect on my time at Oracle thus far. The technology industry is currently at an inflection point trying to figure out where growth will come from. When you look at Oracle’s portfolio of products, it's a complete stack from applications to disc, offering differentiation in the marketplace. I was initially drawn to Oracle’s leadership, strategy, and world-class technology. Since joining the Oracle team in October 2013, I’ve had the privilege of traveling around the globe visiting our partners and customers, and wanted to share several common themes that came up during these meetings. Cloud: Many partners are trying to figure out how to build a business around the cloud. Oracle partners can currently resell or refer our cloud services. We saw over 300 percent growth from cloud resale last quarter. Engineered Systems: Hardware and software integrated together to simplify IT allows our joint customers to focus on the innovation they need to compete in a complex marketplace. We're seeing great success in a several areas, with more partners saying, “Let’s start with Oracle on Oracle.” The Internet of Things: This is the next big opportunity for device manufacturers and ISV‘s to capture market share in what is projected to be a mulit-trillion-dollar opportunity, according to Gartner.  Competition: We've got a tremendous middleware platform and a tremendous database install base. We’re not just a database company; we are a complete provider. So looking ahead, what are my priorities for fiscal 2015? Oracle PartnerNetwork has some very exciting plans on the horizon. There’s a lot more leadership and announcements to unfold, especially at this year’s Global Partner Kickoff taking place on June 25 + 26 depending on your region and time zone. I along with several other Oracle executives will be shedding light on Oracle’s strategy for the upcoming year, the latest opportunities within the OPN Specialized Program and sales strategies that will help you to continue to grow and profit with Oracle. Stay tuned for registration information next week.We also have Oracle OpenWorld and JavaOne to look forward to. These conferences are taking place in San Francisco from September 28 – October 2. We’ll have a variety of partner-specific activities for you at OPN Central @ OpenWorld including the OPN keynote, the famed AfterDark networking reception, access to the OPN Lounge and more.In the meantime, I hope that everyone has a great end to fiscal 2014.Best regards,Rich Geraffo Senior Vice President, Worldwide Alliances and Channels

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• AxCMS.net 10 with Microsoft Silverlight 4 and Microsoft Visual Studio 2010

  - by Axinom

  Axinom, European WCM vendor, today announced the next version of its WCM solution AxCMS.net 10, which streamlines the processes involved in creating, managing and distributing corporate content on the internet. The new solution helps reducing ongoing costs for managing and distributing to large audiences, while at the same time drastically reducing time-to-market and one-time setup costs. http://www.AxCMS.net Axinom’s WCM portfolio, based on the Microsoft .NET Framework 4, Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and Microsoft Silverlight 4, allows enterprises to increase process efficiency, reduce operating costs and more effectively manage delivery of rich media assets on the Web and mobile devices. Axinom solutions are widely used by major European online brands in IT, telco, retail, media and entertainment industries such as Siemens, American Express, Microsoft Corp., ZDF, Pro7Sat1 Media, and Deutsche Post. Brand New User Interface built with Silverlight 4By using Silverlight 4, Axinom’s team created a new user interface for AxCMS.net 10 that is optimized for improved usability and speed. WYSIWYG mode, integrated image editor, extended list views, and detail views of objects allow a substantial acceleration of typical editor tasks. Axinom’s team worked with Silverlight Rough Cut Editor for video management and Silverlight Analytics Framework for extended reporting to complete the wide range of capabilities included in the new release. “Axinom’s release of AxCMS.net 10 enables developers to take advantage of the latest features in Silverlight 4,” said Brian Goldfarb, director of the developer platform group at Microsoft Corp. “Microsoft is excited about the opportunity this creates for Web developers to streamline the creating, managing and distributing of online corporate content using AxCMS.net 10 and Silverlight.” Rapid Web Development with Visual Studio 2010AxCMS.net 10 is extended by additional products that enable developers to get productive quickly and help solve typical customer scenarios. AxCMS.net template projects come with documented source code that help kick-start projects and learn best practices in all aspects of Web application development. AxCMS.net overcomes many hard-to-solve technical obstacles in an out-of-the-box manner by providing a set of ready-to-use vertical solutions such as corporate Web site, Web shop, Web campaign management, email marketing, multi-channel distribution, management of rich Internet applications, and Web business intelligence. Extended Multi-Site ManagementAxCMS.net has been supporting the management of an unlimited number of Web sites for a long time. The new version 10 of AxCMS.net will further improve multi-site management and provide features to editors and developers that will simplify and accelerate multi-site and multi-language management. Extended publication workflow will take into account additional dependencies of dynamic objects, pages, and documents. “The customer requests evolved from static html pages to dynamic Web applications content with the emergence of rich media assets seamlessly combined across many channels including Web, mobile and IPTV. With the.NET Framework 4 and Silverlight 4, we’re on the fast track to making the three screen strategy a reality for our customers,” said Damir Tomicic, CEO of Axinom Group. “Our customers enjoy substantial competitive advantages of using latest Microsoft technologies. We have a long-standing, relationship with Microsoft and are committed to continued development using Microsoft tools and technologies to deliver innovative Web solutions in the future.”  

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• BIWA Wednesday TechCast Series - Opposition to Data Warehouse Initiatives

  - by jenny.gelhausen

  BIWA Wednesday TechCast Series - 19th Event! Opposition to Data Warehouse Initiatives Please join us for this webcast on Wednesday, March 24, 12 noon Eastern or check your local area's time Webcast is open to clients, prospects and partners. No matter how good your technology and technical skills, organizational issues can derail a data warehousing or BI project. Therefore BIWA presents a vital topic that crosses product boundaries: organizational resistance to data warehouse initiatives - how to recognize it and what to do about it. Many a DW/BI professional has been surprised by organizational resistance to DW/BI initiatives. Yet real organizational imperatives may be behind this apparently irrational behavior. Based on in-depth interviews with IT professionals, industry consultants, and power users, our speaker Bruce Jenks will present his research findings about what drives organizational resistance to data warehouse initiatives. The talk will cover specific behaviors that can signal organizational resistance to a data warehouse program and what organizations have done to address such resistance. Presenter: Bruce Jenks of Dun and Bradstreet Bruce Jenks has over 20 years experience in data warehousing and business intelligence, much of it as a consultant to large organizations spanning the US. Bruce's data warehousing clients have included firms such as Sprint, Gallo Wines, Southern California Edison, The Gap, and Safeway. He started his data warehousing career at Metaphor Computers, a pioneering DW/BI firm from which a number of industry luminaries sprang including Ralph Kimball (author of The Data Warehouse Toolkit ). Bruce continued his data warehousing career at HP, Stanford University and other firms. Bruce is currently completing his doctorate in business administration at Golden Gate University, and today's material arises from his doctoral research. He is also a principal consultant for Dun and Bradstreet. Audio Dial-In: 866 682 4770 Audio Meeting ID: 1683901 Audio Meeting Passcode: 334451 Web Conference: Please register at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/807185273 After you register you will be provided with a link to the TechCast. Invitation to Speakers: All BIWA members and Oracle professionals (experts, end users, managers, DBAs, developers, data analysts, ISVs, partners, etc.) may submit abstracts for 45 minute technical webcasts to our Oracle BIWA (IOUG SIG) Community. Submit your BIWA TechCast abstract today! BIWA is a worldwide forum with over 2000 members who are business intelligence, warehousing and analytics professionals. BIWA presents information, experiences and best practices in successfully deploying Oracle Database-centric BI, Data Warehousing, and Analytics products, features and Options--the Oracle Database "BIWA" platform. Attendance Information & Replays at the BIWA website: oraclebiwa.org var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); try { var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-13185312-1"); pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {}

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• Best of "The Moth" 2010

  - by Daniel Moth

  It is the time again (like in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009) to look back at my blog for the past year and identify areas of interest that seem to be more prominent than others. After doing so, representative posts follow in my top 5 list (in random order). 1. This was the year where I had to move for the first time since 2004 my blog engine (blogger.com –> dasBlog), host provider (zen –> godaddy), web server technology and OS (apache on Linux –> IIS on Windows Server). My goal was not to break any permalinks or the look and feel of this website. A series of posts covered how I achieved that goal, culminating in a tool for others to use if they wanted to do the same: Tool to convert blogger.com content to dasBlog. Going forward I aim to be sharing more small code utilities like that one… 2. At work I am known for being fairly responsive on email, and more importantly never dropping email balls on the floor. This is due to my email processing system, which I shared here: Processing Email in Outlook. I will be sharing more tips with regards to making the best of the Office products. 3. There is no doubt in my mind that this is the year people will remember as the one where Microsoft finally fights back in the mobile space. Even though the new platform means my Windows Mobile book sales will dwindle :-), I am ecstatic about Windows Phone 7 both as a consumer and as a developer. On the release day, to get you started I shared the top 10 Windows Phone 7 developer resources. I will be sharing my tips from my experience in writing code for and consuming this new platform… 4. For my HPC developer friends using Visual Studio, I shared Slides and code for MPI Cluster Debugger and also gave you all the links you need for getting started with Dryad and DryadLINQ from MSR. Expect more from me on cluster development in the coming year… 5. Still in the HPC space, but actually also in the game and even mainstream development, the big disruption and opportunity comes in the form of GPGPU and, on the Microsoft platform, (currently) DirectCompute. Expect more from me on gpgpu development in the coming year… Subscribe via the link on the left to stay tuned for 2011… I wish you a very Happy New Year (with whatever definition of happiness works for you)! Comments about this post welcome at the original blog.

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• Vodacom Call Center Management on the NetBeans Platform

  - by Geertjan

  If you live in South Africa, you know about Vodacom. Vodacom is one of the dominant mobile communication companies in South Africa, and beyond, providing voice, messaging, data, and similar mobile services. Inside Vodacom there's an application named Helios, which is a call centre application that had its inception in 2009 and consists of two parts. Firstly, a web-based front-end that allows a call centre agent to service subscribers using a Google-like search on a knowledge base structured as a collection of FAQs. The web-based front-end uses plain-old HTML + CSS + a good helping of JQuery and JQueryUI. This is delivered via JSR-168 portlets running on a cluster of IBM Portal 6 servers. In turn, the portlets communicate via RMI with several back-end EJB's containing the business logic. These EJB's are deployed on a cluster of Weblogic Application Servers, version 10.3.6. The second part is a NetBeans Platform application used for maintaining and constructing the knowledge base, i.e., the back-end of the web-based front-end. Helios is also used for a number of other maintenance functions, such as access permissions, user maintenance, and news bulletins. Below, in the web-based front-end, call centre agents can enter search terms and are presented with a number of FAQs from the knowledge base. Upon selecting a FAQ article, the agent is presented with the article text, the process to guide the subscriber, system checks that display information specific to the subscriber, and links to related applications and articles: Below, you can see that applications are searchable and can be accessed using the same web-based front-end as shown above. And, as can be seen below, knowledge base FAQs are maintained using the Helios Maintenance Application, which is the Vodacom application built on the NetBeans Platform: Several thousand call centre agent user accounts are administered using the Helios Maintenance Application. Below the main FAQ page is shown, together with the About dialog: Vodacom is happy with the back-end NetBeans Platform application. However, the front-end stack runs on quite old technology. Ideally Vodacom would like to migrate the portlets to Oracle Weblogic Portal or Oracle WebCenter, but this hasn't been accomplished yet. Migrating makes sense as the rest of the application server environment consists entirely of Oracle products.

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• JRockit R28/JRockit Mission Control 4.0 is out!

  - by Marcus Hirt

  The next major release of JRockit is finally out! Here are some highlights: Includes the all new JRockit Flight Recorder – supersedes the old JRockit Runtime Analyser. The new flight recorder is inspired by the “black box” in airplanes. It uses a highly efficient recording engine and thread local buffers to capture data about the runtime and the application running in the JVM. It can be configured to always be on, so that whenever anything “interesting” happens, data can be dumped for some time back. Think of it as your own personal profiling time machine. Automatic shortest path calculation in Memleak – no longer any need for running around in circles when trying to find your way back to a thread root from an instance. Memleak can now show class loader related information and split graphs on a per class loader basis. More easily configured JMX agent – default port for both RMI Registry and RMI Server can be configured, and is by default the same, allowing easier configuration of firewalls. Up to 64 GB (was 4GB) compressed references. Per thread allocation profiling in the Management Console. Native Memory Tracking – it is now possible to track native memory allocations with very high resolution. The information can either be accessed using JRCMD, or the dedicated Native Memory Tracking experimental plug-in for the Management Console (alas only available for the upcoming 4.0.1 release). JRockit can now produce heap dumps in HPROF format. Cooperative suspension – JRockit is no longer using system signals for stopping threads, which could lead to hangs if signals were lost or blocked (for example bad NFS shares). Now threads check periodically to see if they are suspended. VPAT/Section 508 compliant JRMC – greatly improved keyboard navigation and screen reader support. See New and Noteworthy for more information. JRockit Mission Control 4.0.0 can be downloaded from here: http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/jrockit/index.html <shameless ad> There is even a book to go with JRMC 4.0.0/JRockit R28! http://www.packtpub.com/oracle-jrockit-the-definitive-guide/book/ </shameless ad>

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• Customization: It’s Wanted in Enterprise Tech Platforms Too

  - by Mike Stiles

  Did you know that every customer service person does their job the exact same way in every business organization?  And did you know that every business organization cares about the exact same metrics? I hope not, because both those things couldn’t be farther from the truth. And if there are different needs and approaches in different enterprises, it stands to reason technology platforms must become increasingly customizable. Oracle Social Cloud sees that coming and is doing something about it, at least in terms of social media management. Today we introduce Social Station, a customizable user experience workspace within the Oracle Social Relationship Management (SRM) platform. We think a lot about customer-centricity and customer experience around here, and we know our own customers are ready to start moving forward in being able to set up their work environments in the ways that work best for them. That kind of thing increases productivity, helps deliver on social objectives faster, and generally just makes life more pleasant. A recent IDG Enterprise report says that enterprises currently investing in more consumerized, easy-to-use technologies experience a 56% increase in employee productivity and a 46% increase in customer satisfaction. Imagine that. When you make it easier and more pleasant for employees to help customers, more customers get helped and everyone ends up happier. So what does this Social Station do and what does it mean, exactly? It’s an innovative move to take some pretty high-end tech (take a bow developers) and simplify it, making things more intuitive: Drag and drop lets you easily build out and personalize your social workspace with different modules. The new Custom Analytics module can mix and match over 120 metrics with thousands of customizable reporting options. You can check constantly refreshed updates and keep a real-time eye on the numbers you’re trying to move. One-click sharing and annotation in the Custom Analytics module improves sharing and collaboration across teams, departments and executives. Multi-view layout helps you leverage social insights by letting you monitor conversations by network, stream, metric, graph type, date range, and relative time period. The Enhanced Calendar is a better visual representation of content, posts, networks and views, letting you easily toggle between functions and views. The Oracle Social Station sets us up to always be developing & launching additional social modules for you, covering areas like content curation, influencer engagement, and command center creation. Oracle Social Cloud Group VP Meg Bear says, “Consumers today have high expectations of their technology application capabilities and usability, and those expectations don’t stop when they enter their workplaces.” In other words, internal enterprise technology platforms must reflect the personalization and customization being called for in consumer products and marketing. “One size fits all” is becoming an endangered concept. @mikestiles @oraclesocial

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• Fidelity Investments Life Insurance Executive Weighs in on Policy Administration Modernization

  - by helen.pitts(at)oracle.com

  James Klauer, vice president of Client Services Technology at Fidelity Investment Life Insurance, weighs in on the rationale and challenges associated with policy administration system replacement in this month's digital issue of Insurance Networking News.    In "The Policy Administration Replacement Quandary"  Klauer shared the primary business benefit that can be realized by adopting a modern policy administration system--a timely topic given that recent industry analyst surveys indicate policy administration replacement and modernization will continue to be a top priority for insurers this year.    "Modern policy administration systems are more flexible than systems of the past," Klauer says in the article. " This has allowed us to shorten our delivery time for new products and product changes.  We have also had a greater ability to integrate with other systems and to deliver process efficiencies."   Klauer goes on to advise that insurers ensure they have a solid understanding of the requirements when replacing their legacy policy administration system. "If you can afford the time, take the opportunity to re-engineer your business processes.  We were able to drastically change our death processes, introducing automation and error-proofing." Click here to read more of Klauer's insights and recommendations for best practices in the publication's "Ask & Answered" column.   You also can learn more the benefits of an adaptive, rules-driven approach to policy administration and how to mitigate risks associated with system replacement by attending the free Oracle Insurance Virtual Summit:  Fueling the Adaptive Insurance Enterprise, 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. EST, Wednesday, January 26.      Insurance Networking News and Oracle Insurance have teamed up to bring you this first-of-its-kind event. This year's theme, "Fueling the Adaptive Insurance Enterprise," will focus on bringing you information about exciting new technology concepts, which can help your company react more quickly to new market opportunities and, ultimately, grow the business.    Visit virtual booths and chat online with Oracle product specialists, network with other insurers, learn about exciting new product announcements, win prizes, and much more--all without leaving your office.  Be sure and attend the on-demand session, "Adapt, Transform and Grow: Accelerate Speed to Market with Adaptive Insurance Policy Administration," hosted by Kate Fowler, product strategy director for Oracle Insurance Policy Administration for Life and Annuity.   Register Now!   Helen Pitts is senior product marketing manager for Oracle Insurance's life and annuities solutions.

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• Finalists for the Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure

  - by ScottGu

  Today, I am pleased to announce the ten finalists for the Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure powered by TechStars. These startups are about to launch into a three-month program where they will develop new products and businesses using Windows Azure. The response to the program has been fantastic - we received nearly 600 applications from entrepreneurs in 69 countries around the world, spanning a host of industries including retail, travel, entertainment, banking, real estate and more.  There were so many innovative ideas and amazing teams that it really made the selection process hard.  We finally landed on 10 finalists, based on their experience, qualifications, and innovative business ideas built on the cloud. This fall’s Windows Azure class includes: Advertory – Berlin, Germany. Advertory helps local businesses increase revenue and build customer loyalty. Appetas – Seattle, WA. Appetas' mission is to make restaurants look as beautiful online as they do on the plate! BagsUp – Sydney, Australia. Find great places from people you trust. Embarke – San Diego, CA. Embarke allows developers and companies the ability to integrate with any human communication channel (Facebook, Email, Text Message, Twitter) without having to learn the specifics, write code, or spend time on any of them. Fanzo – Seattle, WA. Fanzo puts sports fans in the spotlight. Find other fans, show off your fanswagger and get rewarded for your passion. MetricsHub – Bellevue, WA. A service providing cloud monitoring with incident detection and prebuilt workflows for remedying common problems. Mobilligy – Bellevue, WA. Mobilligy revolutionizes how people pay their bills by bringing convenient, secure, and instant bill payment support to mobile devices. Realty Mogul – Los Angeles, CA. Realty Mogul is a crowdfunding platform for real estate where accredited investors pool capital and invest in properties that are acquired, managed and eventually resold by professional private real estate companies and their management teams. Staq – San Francisco, CA. Back-end as a service for APIs. Socedo – Bellevue, WA. A simple and effective web application for lead generation and relationship management on Twitter. Each startup will be hosted in Seattle and mentored by entrepreneurs and venture capitalists as well as leaders from Windows Azure and other Microsoft organizations. The teams will spend the first month ideating and refining their business concepts with input and advice from their mentors as well as Microsoft customers, followed by two months of design and development. They will present their results to investors and Microsoft partners at an event in mid-January. We are really looking forward to seeing how their businesses evolve.  These teams have demonstrated incredible energy, passion, and innovative capabilities – and they are ready to show the world what’s possible with Windows Azure. Thanks, Scott P.S. And if you are new to Twitter you can also optionally follow me: @scottgu

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• Skechers Leverages Oracle Applications, Business Intelligence and On Demand Offerings to Drive Long-Term Growth

  - by user801960

  This month Oracle Retail in the USA announced that Skechers - a world leading lifestyle footwear retailer - would be adopting several Oracle Retail products as part of their global growth strategy and to maximise business efficiency.  While based primarily in the USA, Skechers is a respected retailer across the world and has been an Oracle customer since 1997.  The key information about the announcement is below.  To find out more about Skechers visit their website: http://www.skechers.com/  Skechers U.S.A. Inc., an award-winning global leader in the lifestyle footwear industry, has upgraded and expanded its Oracle® Applications investment, implemented Oracle Database and moved to Oracle On Demand, Oracle’s premier cloud service to support rapid growth across its retail and wholesale channels. The new business information systems are part of a larger initiative for the billion-dollar-plus footwear company to fuel growth, reduce total cost of ownership and enable the business to respond faster to market opportunities. With more than 3,000 styles of shoes to design, develop and market, Skechers upgraded to Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise Financial Management and PeopleSoft Supply Chain Management to increase operational efficiencies and improve controls by establishing an integrated, industry-specific platform. An Oracle customer since 1997, Skechers implemented PeopleSoft Enterprise Real Estate Management to meet the rapid growth of its retail stores worldwide. The company is the first customer to go live on the Real Estate Management module and worked closely with Oracle to provide development insight. Skechers also implemented Oracle Fusion Governance, Risk, and Compliance applications. This deployment enabled the company to leverage its existing corporate governance and compliance efforts throughout the global enterprise and more effectively manage the audit processes across multiple business units, processes and systems while reducing audit costs. Next, Skechers leveraged Oracle Financial Analytics, a pre-built Oracle Business Intelligence Application and PeopleSoft Enterprise Project Costing and PeopleSoft Enterprise Contracts to develop a custom Royalty Management dashboard, providing managers with better financial visibility to the company’s licensing contracts. The company switched to Oracle Database and moved database hosting and management to Oracle On Demand to reduce maintenance, implementation and system administration costs. As a result, Skechers is also achieving a better response time and is delivering a higher level of 24x7 support. OSI Consulting, a Platinum partner in Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN), provided implementation and integration services to Skechers.   To view the full announcement please click here

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• Ad-hoc taxonomy: owning the chess set doesn't mean you decide how the little horsey moves

  - by Roger Hart

  There was one of those little laugh-or-cry moments recently when I heard an anecdote about content strategy failings at a major online retailer. The story goes a bit like this: successful company in a highly commoditized marketplace succeeds on price and largely ignores its content team. Being relatively entrepreneurial, the founders are still knocking around, and occasionally like to "take an interest". One day, they decree that clothing sold on the site can no longer be described as "unisex", because this sounds old fashioned. Sad now. Let me just reiterate for the folks at the back: large retailer, commoditized market place, differentiating on price. That's inherently unstable. Sooner or later, they're going to need one or both of competitive differentiation and significant optimization. I can't speak for the latter, since I'm hypothesizing off a raft of rumour, but one of the simpler paths to the former is to become - or rather acknowledge that they are - a content business. Regardless, they need highly-searchable terminology. Even in the face of tooth and claw resistance to noticing the fundamental position content occupies in driving sales (and SEO) on the web, there's a clear information problem here. Dilettante taxonomy is a disaster. Ok, so this is a small example, but that kind of makes it a good one. Unisex probably is the best way of describing clothing designed to suit either men or women interchangeably. It certainly takes less time to type (and read). It's established terminology, and as a single word, it's significantly better for web readability than a phrasal workaround. Something like "fits men or women" is short, by could fall foul of clause-level discard in web scanning. It's not an adjective, so for intuitive reading it's never going to be near the start of a title or description. It would also clutter up search results, and impose cognitive load in list scanning. Sorry kids, it's just worse. Even if "unisex" were an archaism (which it isn't), the only thing that would weigh against its being more usable and concise terminology would be evidence that this archaism were hurting conversions. Good luck with that. We once - briefly - called one of our products a "Can of worms". It was a bundle in a bug-tracking suite, and we thought it sounded terribly cool. Guess how well that sold. We have information and content professionals for a reason: to make sure that whatever we put in front of users is optimised to meet user and business goals. If that thinking doesn't inform style guides, taxonomy, messaging, title structure, and so forth, you might as well be finger painting.

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• Changing Focus on my Blog

  - by D'Arcy Lussier

  I try to limit these types of blog posts – the ones where I communicate some change as if I have a loyal subscriber base that will be somehow affected. Still, I think its of worth if for nothing else than to document for myself an acknowledgement that my career is evolving. For the last who knows how long, I’ve had this as my banner: It’s funny how technology focuses change over time. 3.5 – 4 years ago I was wanting to immerse myself in BizTalk. Then I shifted, focussing on Silverlight. I even started a short-lived Silverlight user group here in Winnipeg that had, IMO, one of the *best* UG logos ever (do a Google search for the old school Winnipeg Jets logo if you don’t catch the reference)… And even how I identified myself – as a Developer – isn’t really accurate anymore as I’ve shifted more into an architect/analyst role at Online Business Systems as well as getting much more involved in business development. So I’m switching the focus of this blog a bit. Nothing too great, but you’ll find my posts aren’t necessarily tied to a technology or platform. Instead I’ll be focussing on current passions and interests. Solution Architecture Before a line of code is written, a solution is envisioned. The process of performing solution analysis and architecture is an intriguing process that encompasses negotiation and interpersonal skills as much as technical knowledge. Business & Entrepreneurship Creating things, building things, and working with others – business is fascinating and exciting! Entrepreneurship, and intrapreneurship, are growing trends that I’ve been exploring over the last few years through my conference (www.prairiedevcon.com) and within Online. Microsoft At Online one of my roles is “Microsoft Practice Lead” and my entire career has been built around the Microsoft stack of technologies. That focus won’t change here on my blog, and there’s tonnes of exciting new products and technologies coming out of Redmond. Adoption This is a very personal subject that’s extremely close to my heart. I’m not talking about technology adoption, I’m talking about human adoption. Almost three years ago we adopted our first daughter, Sadie, and two years ago we adopted our second daughter, Skylar; an amazing new chapter in my life as I became a “parent”. Adoption is very much misunderstood, and many people have questions about it. Hopefully I can shed some light into our experiences and provide some guidance for those that are looking into it. So come along with me as I start chronicling the next phase of my career and life.

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• April 2010 Critical Patch Update Released

  - by eric.maurice

  Hi, this is Eric Maurice. Today Oracle released the April 2010 Critical Patch Update (CPUApr2010),the first one to include security fixes for Oracle Solaris. Today's Critical Patch Update (CPU) provides 47 new security fixes across the following product families: Oracle Database Server, Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle Collaboration Suite, Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise, Oracle Life Sciences, Retail, and Communications Industry Suites, and Oracle Solaris. 28 of these 47 new vulnerabilities are remotely exploitable without authentication, but the criticality of the affected components and the severity of these vulnerabilities vary greatly. Customers should, as usual, refer to the Risk Matrices in the CPU Advisory to assess the relevance of these fixes for their environment (and the urgency with which to apply the fixes). 7 of the 47 new vulnerabilities affect various versions of Oracle Database Server. None of these 7 vulnerabilities are remotely exploitable without authentication. Furthermore, none of these fixes are applicable to client-only deployments. The most severe CVSS Base Score for the Database Server vulnerabilities is 7.1. As a reminder, information about Oracle's use of the CVSS 2.0 standard can be found in Note 394487.1 (My Oracle Support subscription required). Note that this Critical Patch Update includes fixes for vulnerabilities that were publicly disclosed by David Litchfield at the BlackHat DC Conference in early February (CVE-2010-0866 and CVE-2010-0867). 5 of the 47 new vulnerabilities affect various components of the Oracle Fusion Middleware product family. The highest CVSS Base Score for these vulnerabilities is 7.5. Note that the patches for Oracle WebLogic Server are cumulative and this Critical Patch Update therefore also includes a fix for a vulnerability (CVE-2010-0073) that was the subject of a Security Alert issued by Oracle on February 4, 2010. Customers, who have not applied the previously-released patch, should apply today's Critical Patch Update as soon as possible. As stated at the beginning of this blog, it is also noteworthy to highlight that this Critical Patch Update provides 16 new fixes for the Sun product line. With the recent close of the Sun acquisition both security organizations have worked diligently to align Sun's previous security practices with Oracle's. Java users know that Oracle released a Critical Patch Update for Java SE and Java For Business earlier this month (in accordance with the Java patching schedule previously published by Sun Microsystems). Please note that for the first time, the Java advisories included CVSS Scores to help assess the severity of the new vulnerabilities fixed with the advisory. The rapid inclusion of the Solaris product lines in the Critical Patch Update and the extension of Oracle Software Security Assurance to Sun technologies are evidence of the flexibility of Oracle's security assurance programs. These should also result in tangible security benefits for the users of the Oracle hardware and software stack (such as a predictable patching schedule for all Oracle products).

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• Microsoft Technical Computing

  - by Daniel Moth

  In the past I have described the team I belong to here at Microsoft (Parallel Computing Platform) in terms of contributing to Visual Studio and related products, e.g. .NET Framework. To be more precise, our team is part of the Technical Computing group, which is still part of the Developer Division. This was officially announced externally earlier this month in an exec email (from Bob Muglia, the president of STB, to which DevDiv belongs). Here is an extract: "… As we build the Technical Computing initiative, we will invest in three core areas: 1. Technical computing to the cloud: Microsoft will play a leading role in bringing technical computing power to scientists, engineers and analysts through the cloud. Existing high- performance computing users will benefit from the ability to augment their on-premises systems with cloud resources that enable ‘just-in-time’ processing. This platform will help ensure processing resources are available whenever they are needed—reliably, consistently and quickly. 2. Simplify parallel development: Today, computers are shipping with more processing power than ever, including multiple cores, but most modern software only uses a small amount of the available processing power. Parallel programs are extremely difficult to write, test and trouble shoot. However, a consistent model for parallel programming can help more developers unlock the tremendous power in today’s modern computers and enable a new generation of technical computing. We are delivering new tools to automate and simplify writing software through parallel processing from the desktop… to the cluster… to the cloud. 3. Develop powerful new technical computing tools and applications: We know scientists, engineers and analysts are pushing common tools (i.e., spreadsheets and databases) to the limits with complex, data-intensive models. They need easy access to more computing power and simplified tools to increase the speed of their work. We are building a platform to do this. Our development efforts will yield new, easy-to-use tools and applications that automate data acquisition, modeling, simulation, visualization, workflow and collaboration. This will allow them to spend more time on their work and less time wrestling with complicated technology. …" Our Parallel Computing Platform team is directly responsible for item #2, and we work very closely with the teams delivering items #1 and #3. At the same time as the exec email, our marketing team unveiled a website with interviews that I invite you to check out: Modeling the World. Comments about this post welcome at the original blog.

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• Defining Social Media Terms

  - by David Dorf

  As I talk about social in the context of retail, I sometimes get tripped up on different terms. I know what I mean, but the audience may have something else in mind. So I decided to see if I could find some well accepted definitions for common terms. While there are definitions on the Internet, I'm not sure they are well accepted. After reviewing several, here's what I came up with: Social Network: a structure of individuals and groups connected together by commonality. That seems pretty straightforward. A group of friends, co-workers, music fans, etc. The key here is that they have something in common that connects them. Social Media: Internet channels that support the collaborative publishing of information by and for social networks. The key here is to differentiate between traditional one-way media, and conversational social media. When its social its two-way, allowing both the publishing and consuming of information. Examples are blogs, wikis, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Social Marketing: the use of social media for marketing, public relations, and customer service. Wikipedia actually includes "selling" here but I think that's separate from marketing, as you'll see further down below. Most people look at social media as entertainment, but the marketing angle adds business value. This is where retailers discover and engage customers to build a relationship. Social Merchandising: the integration of social media and product discovery. Whereas marketing is focused more on brand image, customer engagement, and promotions, merchandising is more directly trying to convert browsers into purchases. This includes deciding what customers want, often by asking the social network, and deciding how to position products to the social network. Social Selling: the incorporation of e-commerce into social media. While on a social media site, social selling enables the purchasing of goods/services in the user's context, without leaving the social media channel. If a user clicks on an advertisement and is taken to an e-commerce site, then that's really just web advertising and not social selling. Well, do these terms and definitions make sense? Let me know what you think.

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• Spotlight on a career path: Paul, Business Development Consultant

  - by Maria Sandu

  I came to work for Oracle in November 2012 as a Customer Intelligence Representative and since then I was promoted to a Business Development Consultant, for Commercial Industries in the UK, based in Dublin. My background was primarily in Logistics, working for such companies as Indaver Ireland, Wincanton and P&O. I spent 10 years working in this industry and gained experience in negotiating with customers and suppliers in order to meet the needs of both, monitoring the quality and quantity of goods as well as the efficiency and organisation of the movement and storage of products. I decided to move from my logistics career in 2009 to study Information Technology in D.I.T. This was a challenge for me to move my career path; however the lectures at the college helped me significantly with the ability to understand how IT can have an effect on how businesses operate. Following on from college I came to work for Oracle. This also presented challenges but the training I received and the encouragement from management helped me understand that the same business rules apply no matter what background you come from. I have also learnt that using my past experience in working with customers and suppliers in Logistics has helped me understand how to meet customer’s needs. Oracle has offered me excellent training such as Sandler Sales Techniques and John Costigan. I continue to get all the training that I need to develop my career. If you’re interested in joining the Business Development Group visit http://bit.ly/oracledirectcareers or follow our CareersatOracle Facebook Community! /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}

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• Book review: Microsoft System Center Enterprise Suite Unleashed

  - by BuckWoody

  I know, I know – what’s a database guy doing reading a book on System Center? Well, I need it from time to time. System Center is actually a collection of about 7 different products that you can use to manage and monitor your software and hardware, from drive space through Microsoft Office, UNIX systems, and yes, SQL Server. It’s that last part I care about the most, and so I’ve dealt with Data Protection Manager and System Center Operations Manager (I call it SCOM) in SQL Server. But I wasn’t familiar with the rest of the suite nor was I as familiar as I needed to be with the “Essentials” release – a separate product that groups together the main features of System Center into a single offering for smaller organizations. These companies usually run with a smaller IT shop, so they sometimes opt for this product to help them monitor everything, including SQL Server. So I picked up “Microsoft System Center Enterprise Suite Unleashed” by Chris Amaris and a cast of others. I don’t normally like to get a technical book by multiple authors – I just find that most of the time it’s quite jarring to switch from author to author, but I think this group did pretty well here.  The first chapter on introducing System Center has helped me talk with others about what the product does, and which pieces fit well together with SQL Server. The writing is well done, and I didn’t find a jump from author to author as I went along. The information is sequential, meaning that they lead you from install to configuration and then use. It’s very much a concepts-and-how-to book, and a big one at that – over 950 pages of learning! It was a pretty quick read, though, since I skipped the installation parts and there are lots of screenshots. While I’m not sure you’d be an expert on the product when you finish reading this book, but I would say you’re more than halfway there. I would say it suits someone that learns through examples the best, since they have a lot of step-by-step examples I do recommend that you take a look if you have to interact with this product, or even if you are a smaller shop and you’re the primary IT resource. The last few chapters deal with System Center Essentials, and honestly it was the best part of the book for me. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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• ODUG lands DotNetNuke guru Nik Kalyani as a speaker

  - by Brian Scarbeau

  If you are in the Orlando, FL area during the first week of May then you should head over to the Orlando DotNetNuke user group meeting. Nik Kalyani will be the speaker and you will learn a great deal from him. DotNetNuke Module Development with the MVP Pattern This session focuses on introducing attendees to the Model-View-Presenter pattern, support for which was recently introduced in the DotNetNuke Core. We'll start with a quick overview of the pattern, compare it to MVC, and then dive right into code. We will start with fundamentals and then develop a full-featured module using this pattern. In order to do justice to the pattern, we will use ASP.NET WebForms controls minimally and implement most of the UI using jQuery plug-ins. Finally, to increase audience participation (both present at the meeting and remote), we will use a hackathon-style model and allow anybody, anywhere to follow along with the presentation and code their own MVP-based solution that they can share online during or after the session. A URL with full instructions for the hackathon will be posted online a few days prior to the meeting. About Our Speaker Nik Kalyani is Co-founder and Strategic Advisor for DotNetNuke Corp., the company that manages the DotNetNuke Open Source project. Kalyani is also Founder and CEO of HyperCrunch. He is a technology entrepreneur with over 18 years of experience in the software industry. He is irrationally exuberant about technology, especially if it has anything to do with the Internet. HyperCrunch is his latest startup business that builds on his knowledge and experience from prior startups, two of them venture-funded. Kalyani is a creative tinkerer perpetually interested in looking around the corner and figuring out new and interesting ways to make the world a better place. An experienced web developer, he finds the business strategy and marketing aspects of the software business more exciting than writing code. When he does create software, his primary expertise is in creating products with compelling user experiences. Kalyani is most proficient with Microsoft technologies, but has no religious fanaticism about them. Kalyani has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Western Michigan University. He is a frequent speaker at technology conferences and user group meetings. He lives in Mountain View, California with his wife and daughters. He blogs at http://www.kalyani.com and is @techbubble on Twitter.

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