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• The Importance of a Security Assessment - by Michael Terra, Oracle

  - by Darin Pendergraft

  Today's Blog was written by Michael Terra, who was the Subject Matter Expert for the recently announced Oracle Online Security Assessment. You can take the Online Assessment here: Take the Online Assessment Over the past decade, IT Security has become a recognized and respected Business discipline.  Several factors have contributed to IT Security becoming a core business and organizational enabler including, but not limited to, increased external threats and increased regulatory pressure. Security is also viewed as a key enabler for strategic corporate activities such as mergers and acquisitions.Now, the challenge for senior security professionals is to develop an ongoing dialogue within their organizations about the importance of information security and how it can impact their organization's strategic objectives/mission. The importance of conducting regular “Security Assessments” across the IT and physical infrastructure has become increasingly important. Security standards and frameworks, such as the international standard ISO 27001, are increasingly being adopted by organizations and their business partners as proof of their security posture and “Security Assessments” are a great way to ensure a continued alignment to these frameworks.Oracle offers a number of different security assessment covering a broad range of technologies. Some of these are short engagements conducted for free with our strategic customers and partners. Others are longer term paid engagements delivered by Oracle Consulting Services or one of our partners. The goal of a security assessment, (also known as a security audit or security review), is to ensure that necessary security controls are integrated into the design and implementation of a project, application or technology.  A properly completed security assessment should provide documentation outlining any security gaps that exist in an infrastructure and the associated risks for those gaps. With that knowledge, an organization can choose to either mitigate, transfer, avoid or accept the risk. One example of an Oracle offering is a Security Readiness Assessment:The Oracle Security Readiness Assessment is a practical security architecture review focused on aligning an organization’s enterprise security architecture to their business principals and strategic objectives. The service will establish a multi-phase security architecture roadmap focused on supporting new and existing business initiatives.Offering OverviewThe Security Readiness Assessment will: Define an organization’s current security posture and provide a roadmap to a desired future state architecture by mapping  security solutions to business goals Incorporate commonly accepted security architecture concepts to streamline an organization’s security vision from strategy to implementation Define the people, process and technology implications of the desired future state architecture The objective is to deliver cohesive, best practice security architectures spanning multiple domains that are unique and specific to the context of your organization. Offering DetailsThe Oracle Security Readiness Assessment is a multi-stage process with a dedicated Oracle Security team supporting your organization.  During the course of this free engagement, the team will focus on the following: Review your current business operating model and supporting IT security structures and processes Partner with your organization to establish a future state security architecture leveraging Oracle’s reference architectures, capability maps, and best practices Provide guidance and recommendations on governance practices for the rollout and adoption of your future state security architecture Create an initial business case for the adoption of the future state security architecture If you are interested in finding out more, ask your Sales Consultant or Account Manager for details.

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• SQL SERVER – FT_IFTS_SCHEDULER_IDLE_WAIT – Full Text – Wait Type – Day 13 of 28

  - by pinaldave

  In the last few days during this series, I got many question about this Wait type. It would be great if you read my original related wait stats query in the first post because I have filtered it out in WHERE clause. However, I still get questions about this being one of the most wait types they encounter. The truth is, this is a background task processing and it really does not matter and it should be filtered out. There are many new Wait types related to Full Text Search that are introduced in SQL Server 2008. If you run the following query, you will be able to find them in the list. Currently there is not enough information for all of them available on BOL or any other place. But don’t worry; I will write an in-depth article when I learn more about them. SELECT * FROM sys.dm_os_wait_stats WHERE wait_type LIKE 'FT_%' The result set will contain following rows. FT_RESTART_CRAWL FT_METADATA_MUTEX FT_IFTSHC_MUTEX FT_IFTSISM_MUTEX FT_IFTS_RWLOCK FT_COMPROWSET_RWLOCK FT_MASTER_MERGE FT_IFTS_SCHEDULER_IDLE_WAIT We have understood so far that there is not much information available. But the problem is when you have this Wait type, what should you do?  The answer is to filter them out for the moment (i.e, do not pay attention on them) and focus on other pressing issues in wait stats or performance tuning. Here are two of my informal suggestions, which are totally independent from wait stats: Turn off the Full Text Search service in your system if you are  not necessarily using it on your server. Learn proper Full Text Search methodology. You can get Michael Coles’ book: Pro Full-Text Search in SQL Server 2008. Now I invite you to speak out your suggestions or any input regarding Full Text-related best practices and wait stats issue. Please leave a comment. Note: The information presented here is from my experience and there is no way that I claim it to be accurate. I suggest reading Book OnLine for further clarification. All the discussions of Wait Stats in this blog are generic and vary from system to system. It is recommended that you test this on a development server before implementing it to a production server. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Wait Stats, SQL Wait Types, T SQL, Technology

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• Diving into OpenStack Network Architecture - Part 1

  - by Ronen Kofman

  v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} rkofman Normal rkofman 83 3045 2014-05-23T21:11:00Z 2014-05-27T06:58:00Z 3 1883 10739 Oracle Corporation 89 25 12597 12.00 140 Clean Clean false false false false EN-US X-NONE HE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* 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-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-bidi-language:AR-SA;} Before we begin OpenStack networking has very powerful capabilities but at the same time it is quite complicated. In this blog series we will review an existing OpenStack setup using the Oracle OpenStack Tech Preview and explain the different network components through use cases and examples. The goal is to show how the different pieces come together and provide a bigger picture view of the network architecture in OpenStack. This can be very helpful to users making their first steps in OpenStack or anyone wishes to understand how networking works in this environment.  We will go through the basics first and build the examples as we go. According to the recent Icehouse user survey and the one before it, Neutron with Open vSwitch plug-in is the most widely used network setup both in production and in POCs (in terms of number of customers) and so in this blog series we will analyze this specific OpenStack networking setup. As we know there are many options to setup OpenStack networking and while Neturon + Open vSwitch is the most popular setup there is no claim that it is either best or the most efficient option. Neutron + Open vSwitch is an example, one which provides a good starting point for anyone interested in understanding OpenStack networking. Even if you are using different kind of network setup such as different Neutron plug-in or even not using Neutron at all this will still be a good starting point to understand the network architecture in OpenStack. The setup we are using for the examples is the one used in the Oracle OpenStack Tech Preview. Installing it is simple and it would be helpful to have it as reference. In this setup we use eth2 on all servers for VM network, all VM traffic will be flowing through this interface.The Oracle OpenStack Tech Preview is using VLANs for L2 isolation to provide tenant and network isolation. The following diagram shows how we have configured our deployment: This first post is a bit long and will focus on some basic concepts in OpenStack networking. The components we will be discussing are Open vSwitch, network namespaces, Linux bridge and veth pairs. Note that this is not meant to be a comprehensive review of these components, it is meant to describe the component as much as needed to understand OpenStack network architecture. All the components described here can be further explored using other resources. Open vSwitch (OVS) In the Oracle OpenStack Tech Preview OVS is used to connect virtual machines to the physical port (in our case eth2) as shown in the deployment diagram. OVS contains bridges and ports, the OVS bridges are different from the Linux bridge (controlled by the brctl command) which are also used in this setup. To get started let’s view the OVS structure, use the following command: # ovs-vsctl show 7ec51567-ab42-49e8-906d-b854309c9edf     Bridge br-int         Port br-int             Interface br-int type: internal         Port "int-br-eth2"             Interface "int-br-eth2"     Bridge "br-eth2"         Port "br-eth2"             Interface "br-eth2" type: internal         Port "eth2"             Interface "eth2"         Port "phy-br-eth2"             Interface "phy-br-eth2" ovs_version: "1.11.0" We see a standard post deployment OVS on a compute node with two bridges and several ports hanging off of each of them. The example above is a compute node without any VMs, we can see that the physical port eth2 is connected to a bridge called “br-eth2”. We also see two ports "int-br-eth2" and "phy-br-eth2" which are actually a veth pair and form virtual wire between the two bridges, veth pairs are discussed later in this post. When a virtual machine is created a port is created on one the br-int bridge and this port is eventually connected to the virtual machine (we will discuss the exact connectivity later in the series). Here is how OVS looks after a VM was launched: # ovs-vsctl show efd98c87-dc62-422d-8f73-a68c2a14e73d     Bridge br-int         Port "int-br-eth2"             Interface "int-br-eth2"         Port br-int             Interface br-int type: internal         Port "qvocb64ea96-9f" tag: 1             Interface "qvocb64ea96-9f"     Bridge "br-eth2"         Port "phy-br-eth2"             Interface "phy-br-eth2"         Port "br-eth2"             Interface "br-eth2" type: internal         Port "eth2"             Interface "eth2" ovs_version: "1.11.0" Bridge "br-int" now has a new port "qvocb64ea96-9f" which connects to the VM and tagged with VLAN 1. Every VM which will be launched will add a port on the “br-int” bridge for every network interface the VM has. Another useful command on OVS is dump-flows for example: # ovs-ofctl dump-flows br-int NXST_FLOW reply (xid=0x4): cookie=0x0, duration=735.544s, table=0, n_packets=70, n_bytes=9976, idle_age=17, priority=3,in_port=1,dl_vlan=1000 actions=mod_vlan_vid:1,NORMAL cookie=0x0, duration=76679.786s, table=0, n_packets=0, n_bytes=0, idle_age=65534, hard_age=65534, priority=2,in_port=1 actions=drop cookie=0x0, duration=76681.36s, table=0, n_packets=68, n_bytes=7950, idle_age=17, hard_age=65534, priority=1 actions=NORMAL As we see the port which is connected to the VM has the VLAN tag 1. However the port on the VM network (eth2) will be using tag 1000. OVS is modifying the vlan as the packet flow from the VM to the physical interface. In OpenStack the Open vSwitch agent takes care of programming the flows in Open vSwitch so the users do not have to deal with this at all. If you wish to learn more about how to program the Open vSwitch you can read more about it at http://openvswitch.org looking at the documentation describing the ovs-ofctl command. Network Namespaces (netns) Network namespaces is a very cool Linux feature can be used for many purposes and is heavily used in OpenStack networking. Network namespaces are isolated containers which can hold a network configuration and is not seen from outside of the namespace. A network namespace can be used to encapsulate specific network functionality or provide a network service in isolation as well as simply help to organize a complicated network setup. Using the Oracle OpenStack Tech Preview we are using the latest Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel R3 (UEK3), this kernel provides a complete support for netns. Let's see how namespaces work through couple of examples to control network namespaces we use the ip netns command: Defining a new namespace: # ip netns add my-ns # ip netns list my-ns As mentioned the namespace is an isolated container, we can perform all the normal actions in the namespace context using the exec command for example running the ifconfig command: # ip netns exec my-ns ifconfig -a lo        Link encap:Local Loopback           LOOPBACK  MTU:16436 Metric:1           RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0           TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0           RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b) We can run every command in the namespace context, this is especially useful for debug using tcpdump command, we can ping or ssh or define iptables all within the namespace. Connecting the namespace to the outside world: There are various ways to connect into a namespaces and between namespaces we will focus on how this is done in OpenStack. OpenStack uses a combination of Open vSwitch and network namespaces. OVS defines the interfaces and then we can add those interfaces to namespace. So first let's add a bridge to OVS: # ovs-vsctl add-br my-bridge Now let's add a port on the OVS and make it internal: # ovs-vsctl add-port my-bridge my-port # ovs-vsctl set Interface my-port type=internal And let's connect it into the namespace: # ip link set my-port netns my-ns Looking inside the namespace: # ip netns exec my-ns ifconfig -a lo        Link encap:Local Loopback           LOOPBACK  MTU:65536 Metric:1           RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0           TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0           RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b) my-port   Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 22:04:45:E2:85:21           BROADCAST  MTU:1500 Metric:1           RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0           TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0           RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b) Now we can add more ports to the OVS bridge and connect it to other namespaces or other device like physical interfaces. Neutron is using network namespaces to implement network services such as DCHP, routing, gateway, firewall, load balance and more. In the next post we will go into this in further details. Linux Bridge and veth pairs Linux bridge is used to connect the port from OVS to the VM. Every port goes from the OVS bridge to a Linux bridge and from there to the VM. The reason for using regular Linux bridges is for security groups’ enforcement. Security groups are implemented using iptables and iptables can only be applied to Linux bridges and not to OVS bridges. Veth pairs are used extensively throughout the network setup in OpenStack and are also a good tool to debug a network problem. Veth pairs are simply a virtual wire and so veths always come in pairs. Typically one side of the veth pair will connect to a bridge and the other side to another bridge or simply left as a usable interface. In this example we will create some veth pairs, connect them to bridges and test connectivity. This example is using regular Linux server and not an OpenStack node: Creating a veth pair, note that we define names for both ends: # ip link add veth0 type veth peer name veth1 # ifconfig -a . . veth0     Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 5E:2C:E6:03:D0:17           BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500 Metric:1           RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0           TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000           RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b) veth1     Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr E6:B6:E2:6D:42:B8           BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500 Metric:1           RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0           TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000           RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b) . . To make the example more meaningful this we will create the following setup: veth0 => veth1 => br-eth3 => eth3 ======> eth2 on another Linux server br-eth3 – a regular Linux bridge which will be connected to veth1 and eth3 eth3 – a physical interface with no IP on it, connected to a private network eth2 – a physical interface on the remote Linux box connected to the private network and configured with the IP of 50.50.50.1 Once we create the setup we will ping 50.50.50.1 (the remote IP) through veth0 to test that the connection is up: # brctl addbr br-eth3 # brctl addif br-eth3 eth3 # brctl addif br-eth3 veth1 # brctl show bridge name     bridge id               STP enabled     interfaces br-eth3         8000.00505682e7f6       no              eth3                                                         veth1 # ifconfig veth0 50.50.50.50 # ping -I veth0 50.50.50.51 PING 50.50.50.51 (50.50.50.51) from 50.50.50.50 veth0: 56(84) bytes of data. 64 bytes from 50.50.50.51: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.454 ms 64 bytes from 50.50.50.51: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.298 ms When the naming is not as obvious as the previous example and we don't know who are the paired veth interfaces we can use the ethtool command to figure this out. The ethtool command returns an index we can look up using ip link command, for example: # ethtool -S veth1 NIC statistics: peer_ifindex: 12 # ip link . . 12: veth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP qlen 1000 Summary That’s all for now, we quickly reviewed OVS, network namespaces, Linux bridges and veth pairs. These components are heavily used in the OpenStack network architecture we are exploring and understanding them well will be very useful when reviewing the different use cases. In the next post we will look at how the OpenStack network is laid out connecting the virtual machines to each other and to the external world. @RonenKofman

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• Unstructured Data - The future of Data Administration

  Some have claimed that there is a problem with the way data is currently managed using the relational paradigm do to the rise of unstructured data in modern business. PCMag.com defines unstructured data as data that does not reside in a fixed location. They further explain that unstructured data refers to data in a free text form that is not bound to any specific structure. With the rise of unstructured data in the form of emails, spread sheets, images and documents the critics have a right to argue that the relational paradigm is not as effective as the object oriented data paradigm in managing this type of data. The relational paradigm relies heavily on structure and relationships in and between items of data. This type of paradigm works best in a relation database management system like Microsoft SQL, MySQL, and Oracle because data is forced to conform to a structure in the form of tables and relations can be derived from the existence of one or more tables. These critics also claim that database administrators have not kept up with reality because their primary focus in regards to data administration deals with structured data and the relational paradigm. The relational paradigm was developed in the 1970’s as a way to improve data management when compared to standard flat files. Little has changed since then, and modern database administrators need to know more than just how to handle structured data. That is why critics claim that today’s data professionals do not have the proper skills in order to store and maintain data for modern systems when compared to the skills of system designers, programmers , software engineers, and data designers  due to the industry trend of object oriented design and development. I think that they are wrong. I do not disagree that the industry is moving toward an object oriented approach to development with the potential to use more of an object oriented approach to data.   However, I think that it is business itself that is limiting database administrators from changing how data is stored because of the potential costs, and impact that might occur by altering any part of stored data. Furthermore, database administrators like all technology workers constantly are trying to improve their technical skills in order to excel in their job, so I think that accusing data professional is not just when the root cause of the lack of innovation is controlled by business, and it is business that will suffer for their inability to keep up with technology. One way for database professionals to better prepare for the future of database management is start working with data in the form of objects and so that they can extract data from the objects so that the stored information within objects can be used in relation to the data stored in a using the relational paradigm. Furthermore, I think the use of pattern matching will increase with the increased use of unstructured data because object can be selected, filtered and altered based on the existence of a pattern found within an object.

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• SIM to OIM Migration: A How-to Guide to Avoid Costly Mistakes (SDG Corporation)

  - by Darin Pendergraft

  In the fall of 2012, Oracle launched a major upgrade to its IDM portfolio: the 11gR2 release.  11gR2 had four major focus areas: More simplified and customizable user experience Support for cloud, mobile, and social applications Extreme scalability Clear upgrade path For SUN migration customers, it is critical to develop and execute a clearly defined plan prior to beginning this process.  The plan should include initiation and discovery, assessment and analysis, future state architecture, review and collaboration, and gap analysis.  To help better understand your upgrade choices, SDG, an Oracle partner has developed a series of three whitepapers focused on SUN Identity Manager (SIM) to Oracle Identity Manager (OIM) migration. In the second of this series on SUN Identity Manager (SIM) to Oracle Identity Manager (OIM) migration, Santosh Kumar Singh from SDG  discusses the proper steps that should be taken during the planning-to-post implementation phases to ensure a smooth transition from SIM to OIM. Read the whitepaper for Part 2: Download Part 2 from SDGC.com In the last of this series of white papers, Santosh will talk about Identity and Access Management best practices and how these need to be considered when going through with an OIM migration. If you have not taken the opportunity, please read the first in this series which discusses the Migration Approach, Methodology, and Tools for you to consider when planning a migration from SIM to OIM. Read the white paper for part 1: Download Part 1 from SDGC.com About the Author: Santosh Kumar Singh Identity and Access Management (IAM) Practice Leader Santosh, in his capacity as SDG Identity and Access Management (IAM) Practice Leader, has direct senior management responsibility for the firm's strategy, planning, competency building, and engagement deliverance for this Practice. He brings over 12+ years of extensive IT, business, and project management and delivery experience, primarily within enterprise directory, single sign-on (SSO) application, and federated identity services, provisioning solutions, role and password management, and security audit and enterprise blueprint. Santosh possesses strong architecture and implementation expertise in all areas within these technologies and has repeatedly lead teams in successfully deploying complex technical solutions. About SDG: SDG Corporation empowers forward thinking companies to strategize their future, realize their vision, and minimize their IT risk. SDG distinguishes itself by offering flexible business models to fit their clients’ needs; faster time-to-market with its pre-built solutions and frameworks; a broad-based foundation of domain experts, and deep program management expertise. (www.sdgc.com)

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• Facebook Sponsored Results: Is It Getting Results?

  - by Mike Stiles

  Social marketers who like to focus on the paid aspect of the paid/earned hybrid Facebook represents may want to keep themselves aware of how the network’s new Sponsored Results ad product is performing. The ads, which appear when a user conducts a search from the Facebook search bar, have only been around a week or so. But the first statistics coming out of them are not bad. Marketer Nanigans says click-through rates on the Sponsored Results have been nearly 23 times better than regular Facebook ads. Some click-through rates have even gone over 3%. Just to give you some perspective, a TechCrunch article points out that’s the same kind of click-through rates that were being enjoyed during the go-go dot com boom of the 90’s. The average across the Internet in its entirety is now somewhere around .3% on a good day, so a 3% number should be enough to raise an eyebrow. Plus the cost-per-click price is turning up 78% lower than regular Facebook ads, so that should raise the other eyebrow. Marketers have gotten pretty used to being able to buy ads against certain keywords. Most any digital property worth its salt that sells ads offers this, and so does Facebook with its Sponsored Results product. But the unique prize Facebook brings to the table is the ability to also buy based on demographic and interest information gleaned from Facebook user profiles. With almost 950 million logging in, this is exactly the kind of leveraging of those users conventional wisdom says is necessary for Facebook to deliver on its amazing potential. So how does the Facebook user fit into this? Notorious for finding out exactly where sponsored marketing messages are appearing and training their eyeballs to avoid those areas, will the Facebook user reject these Sponsored Results? Well, Facebook may have found an area in addition to the News Feed where paid elements can’t be avoided and will be tolerated. If users want to read their News Feed, and they do, they’re going to see sponsored posts. Likewise, if they want to search for friends or Pages, and they do, they’re going to see Sponsored Results. The paid results are clearly marked as such. As long as their organic search results are not tainted or compromised, they will continue using search. But something more is going on. The early click-through rate numbers say not only do users not mind seeing these Sponsored Results, they’re finding them relevant enough to click on. And once they click, they seem to be liking what they find, with a reported 14% higher install rate than Marketplace Ads. It’s early, and obviously the jury is still out. But this is a new social paid marketing opportunity that’s well worth keeping an eye on, and that may wind up hitting the trifecta of being effective for the platform, the consumer, and the marketer.

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• Agile isn’t always Agile

  - by BuckWoody

  I want to make a disclaimer before I dive into this topic – At Microsoft we use all kinds of development methodologies, and I’ve worked in lots of other shops using lots of methodologies. This is one of those “religious” topics like which programming language or database is best, and is bound to generate some heat. But this isn’t pointed towards one particular event or company. But I really don’t like Agile. In particular, I really don’t like Scrum. Let me explain. Agile is a methodology for developing software that emphasizes adapting to change more so than the traditional “waterfall” method of developing software. Within Agile is a process called a “scrum” meeting. The pitch goes that in this quick, stand-up meeting the people involved in the development project (which should include the DBA, but very often doesn’t) go around the room stating what they are working on, when that will be finished and what is keeping them from getting finished (“blockers”, these are called). Sounds all very non-threatening – we’re just “enabling” the developers to work more efficiently. And that’s what we all want, isn’t it? Except it doesn’t work. In my experience (and yours might be VERY different) this just turns into a micro-management environment, where devs have to defend their daily work. Of all the work environments I hate the most, micro-management environments are THE worst. I don’t like workign in them, and I don’t like creating them. The other issue I have with Scrum is that it makes your whole team task-focused. Everyone wants to make sure that they are not the “long pole” in the meeting (meaning that they aren’t the one that gets all the attention) so they only focus on safe, quick tasks. And although you have all of the boxes checked, the project does not go well at all – even when it does finish. Before you comment (and please do comment) I fully realize that Agile <> Scrum. But in my experience, it sometimes turns into that. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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• SOA’s People Problem by Bob Rhubart

  - by JuergenKress

  Are reluctant passengers slowing down your SOA train? Based on my conversations with various experts in service-oriented architecture (SOA), the consensus is that SOA tools and technology have achieved a high level of maturity. Some even use the term industrialization to describe the current state of SOA. Given that scenario, one might assume that SOA has been wildly successful for every organization that has adopted its principles. Obviously SOA could not have achieved its current level of maturity and industrialization without having reached a tipping point in the volume of success stories to drive continued adoption. But some organizations continue to struggle with SOA. The problem, according to some experts, has little to do with tools or technologies. “One of the greatest challenges to implementing SOA has nothing to do with the intrinsic complexity behind a SOA technology platform,” says Oracle ACE Luis Augusto Weir, senior Oracle solution director at HCL AXON. “The real difficulty lies in dealing with people and processes from different parts of the business and aligning them to deliver enterprisewide solutions.” What can an organization do to meet that challenge? “Staff the right people,” says Weir. “For example, the role of a SOA architect should be as much about integrating people as it is about integrating systems. Dealing with people from different departments, backgrounds, and agendas is a huge challenge. The SOA architect role requires someone that not only has a sound architectural and technological background but also has charisma and human skills, and can communicate equally well to the business and technical teams.” The SOA architect’s communication skills are instrumental in establishing service orientation as the guiding principle across the organization. “A consistent architecture comprising both business services and IT services can comprehensively redefine the role of IT at the process level,” says Danilo Schmiedel, solution architect at Opitz Consulting. That helps to shift the focus from siloes to services and get SOA on track. To that end, Oracle ACE Director Lonneke Dikmans, a managing partner at Vennster, stresses the importance of replacing individual, uncoordinated projects with a focused program that promotes communication, cooperation, and service reuse. “Having support among lead developers and architects helps, as does having sponsors that see the business case and understand the strategic value,” she says. Read the complete article here. SOA & BPM Partner Community For regular information on Oracle SOA Suite become a member in the SOA & BPM Partner Community for registration please visit www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required) If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center. Blog Twitter LinkedIn Facebook Wiki Technorati Tags: Bob Rhubard,OTN,Lonneke Dikmans,SOA Community,Oracle SOA,Oracle BPM,Community,OPN,Jürgen Kress

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• CRMIT Solution´s CRM++ Asterisk Telephony Connector Achieves Oracle Validated Integration with Oracle Sales Cloud

  - by Richard Lefebvre

  To achieve Oracle Validated Integration, Oracle partners are required to meet a stringent set of requirements that are based on the needs and priorities of the customers. Based on a Telephony Application Programming Interface (TAPI) framework the CRM++ Asterisk Telephony Connector integrates the Asterisk telephony solutions with Oracle® Sales Cloud. "The CRM++ Asterisk Telephony Connector for Oracle® Sales Cloud showcases CRMIT Solutions focus and commitment to extend the Customer Experience (CX) expertise to our existing and potential customers," said Vinod Reddy, Founder & CEO, CRMIT Solutions. "Oracle® Validated Integration applies a rigorous technical review and test process," said Kevin O’Brien, senior director, ISV and SaaS Strategy, Oracle®. "Achieving Oracle® Validated Integration through Oracle® PartnerNetwork gives our customers confidence that the CRM++ Asterisk Telephony Connector for Oracle® Sales Cloud has been validated and that the products work together as designed. This helps reduce deployment risk and improves the user experience for our joint customers." CRM++ is a suite of native Customer Experience solutions for Oracle® CRM On Demand, Oracle® Sales Cloud and Oracle® RightNow Cloud Service. With over 3000+ users the CRM++ framework helps extend the Customer Experience (CX) and the power of Customer Relations Management features including Email WorkBench, Self Service Portal, Mobile CRM, Social CRM and Computer Telephony Integration.. About CRMIT Solutions CRMIT Solutions is a pioneer in delivering SaaS-based customer experience (CX) consulting and solutions. With more than 200 certified customer relationship management (CRM) consultants and more than 175 successful CRM deployments globally, CRMIT Solutions offers a range of CRM++ applications for accelerated deployments including various rapid implementation and migration utilities for Oracle® Sales Cloud, Oracle® CRM On Demand, Oracle® Eloqua, Oracle® Social Relationship Management and Oracle® RightNow Cloud Service. About Oracle Validated Integration Oracle Validated Integration, available through the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN), gives customers confidence that the integration of complementary partner software products with Oracle Applications and specific Oracle Fusion Middleware solutions have been validated, and the products work together as designed. This can help customers reduce risk, improve system implementation cycles, and provide for smoother upgrades and simpler maintenance. Oracle Validated Integration applies a rigorous technical process to review partner integrations. Partners who have successfully completed the program are authorized to use the “Oracle Validated Integration” logo. For more information, please visit Oracle.com at http://www.oracle.com/us/partnerships/solutions/index.html.

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• Qml and QfileSystemModel interaction problem

  - by user136432

  I'm having some problem in realizing an interaction between QML and C++ to obtain a very basic file browser that is shown within a ListView. I tried to use as model for my data the QT class QFileSystemModel, but it did't work as I expected, probably I didn't fully understand the QT class documentation about the use of this model or the example I found on the internet. Here is the code that I am using: File main.cpp #include <QModelIndex> #include <QFileSystemModel> #include <QQmlContext> #include <QApplication> #include "qtquick2applicationviewer.h" int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { QApplication app(argc, argv); QFileSystemModel* model = new QFileSystemModel; model->setRootPath("C:/"); model->setFilter(QDir::Files | QDir::AllDirs); QtQuick2ApplicationViewer viewer; // Make QFileSystemModel* available for QML use. viewer.rootContext()->setContextProperty("myFileModel", model); viewer.setMainQmlFile(QStringLiteral("qml/ProvaQML/main.qml")); viewer.showExpanded(); return app.exec(); } File main.qml Rectangle { id: main width: 800 height: 600 ListView { id: view property string root_path: "C:/Users" x: 40 y: 20 width: parent.width - (2*x) height: parent.height - (2*y) VisualDataModel { id: myVisualModel model: myFileModel // Get the model QFileSystemModel exposed from C++ delegate { Rectangle { width: 210; height: 20; radius: 5; border.width: 2; border.color: "orange"; color: "yellow"; Text { text: fileName; x: parent.x + 10; } MouseArea { anchors.fill: parent onDoubleClicked: { myVisualModel.rootIndex = myVisualModel.modelIndex(index) } } } } } highlight: Rectangle { color: "lightsteelblue"; radius: 5 } focus: true } } The first problem with this code is that first elements that I can see within my list are my PC logical drives even if I set a specific path. Then when I first double click on drive "C:\" it shows the list of files and directories on that path, but when I double click on a directory a second time the screen flickers for one moment and then it shows again the PC logical drives. Can anyone tell me how should I use the QFileSystemModel class with a ListView QML object? Thanks in advance! Carlo

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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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• Nginx and PHP Fundamentals

  - by Elton Stoneman

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/EltonStoneman/archive/2013/08/01/nginx-and-php-fundamentals.aspxHot on the heels of my .NET caching course, I’ve had my first “fundamentals” course released on Pluralsight: Nginx and PHP Fundamentals. It’s a practical look at two of the biggest technologies on the web – Nginx, which is the fastest growing HTTP server around (currently hosting 100+ million sites), and PHP, which powers more websites than any other server-side framework (currently 240+ million sites). The two technologies work well together, both are open-source and cross-platform and both are lightweight and easy to get started with - you just need to download and unzip the runtimes, and with a text editor you can create and host dynamic websites. I’ve used PHP as a second (sometimes third) language since 2005 when I was brought cold into an established codebase to help improve performance, and Nginx to host tier 2 apps for the last couple of years. As with any training course, you learn new things as you produce it, and it was good to focus on a different stack from my commercial .NET world. In the course I start with a website in two parts – one which is just static content, and one which processes a user registration form using ASP.NET MVC, both running in IIS. Over four modules I migrate the app to Nginx and PHP: Hosting Static Content in Nginx – how to deploy and configure Nginx for a basic website; PHP Part 1: Basic Web Forms – installing PHP and an IDE, and building a simple form with server-side validation; PHP Part 2: Packages and Integration – using PECL and Composer for packages to connect to Azure, AWS, Mongo and reCAPTCHA; Hosting PHP in Nginx – configuring Nginx to host our PHP site. Along the way I run some performance stats with JMeter, and the headlines are that Nginx running on Linux outperforms IIS on Windows for static content,by 800 requests per second over 1000 concurrent requests; and Linux+Ngnix+PHP outperforms Windows+IIS+ASP.NET MVC by 700 request per second with the same load. Of course, the headline stats don’t tell the whole story, and when you add OpCode caching for PHP and the ASP.NET Output Cache, the results are very different. As Web architecture moves away from heavy server-side processing, to Single Page Apps with client-side frameworks like AngularJS and Knockout, I think there’s an increasing need for high-performance, low-cost server technologies, and the combination of Nginx and PHP makes a compelling case.

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• Innovation, Adaptability and Agility Emerge As Common Themes at ACORD LOMA Insurance Forum

  - by [email protected]

  Helen Pitts, senior product marketing manager for Oracle Insurance is blogging from the show floor of the ACORD LOMA Insurance Forum this week. Sessions at the ACORD LOMA Insurance Forum this week highlighted the need for insurance companies to think creatively and be innovative with their technology in order to adapt to continuously shifting market dynamics and drive business efficiency and agility.  LOMA President & CEO Robert Kerzner kicked off the day on Tuesday, citing how the recent downtown and recovery has impacted the insurance industry and the ways that companies are doing business.  He encouraged carriers to look for new ways to deliver solutions and offer a better service experience for consumers.  ACORD President & CEO Gregory Maciag reinforced Kerzner's remarks, noting how the industry's approach to technology and development of industry standards has evolved over the association's 40-year history and cited how the continued rise of mobile computing will change the way many carriers are doing business today and in the future. Drawing from his own experiences, popular keynote speaker and Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak continued this theme, delving into ways that insurers can unite business with technology.  "iWoz" encouraged insurers to foster an entrepreneurial mindset in a corporate environment to create a culture of creativity and innovation.  He noted that true innovation in business comes from those who have a passion for what they do.  Innovation was also a common theme in several sessions throughout the day with topics ranging from modernization of core systems, automated underwriting, distribution management, CRM and customer communications management.  It was evident that insurers have begun to move past the "old school" processes and systems that constrain agility, implementing new process models and modern technology to become nimble and more adaptive to the market.   Oracle Insurance executives shared a few examples of how insurers are achieving innovation during our Platinum Sponsor session, "Adaptive System Transformation:  Making Agility More Than a Buzzword." Oracle Insurance Senior Vice President and General Manager Don Russo was joined by Chuck Johnston, vice president, global strategy and alliances, and Srini Venkatasantham, vice president of product strategy.  The three shared how Oracle's adaptive solutions for insurance, with a focus on how the key pillars of an adaptive systems - configurable applications, accessible information, extensible content and flexible process - have helped insurers respond rapidly, perform effectively and win more business. Insurers looking to innovate their business with adaptive insurance solutions including policy administration, business intelligence, enterprise document automation, rating and underwriting, claims, CRM and more stopped by the Oracle Insurance booth on the exhibit floor.  It was a premiere destination for many participating in the exhibit hall tours conducted throughout the day. Finally, red was definitely the color of the evening at the Oracle Insurance "Red Hot" customer celebration at the House of Blues. The event provided a great opportunity for our customers to come together and network with the Oracle Insurance team and their peers in the industry.  We look forward to visiting more with of our customers and making new connections today. Helen Pitts is senior product marketing manager for Oracle Insurance. 

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• Oracle collaborates with leading IT vendors on Cloud Management Standards

  - by Anand Akela

  During the last couple of days, two key specifications for cloud management standards have been announced. Oracle collaborated with leading technology vendors from the IT industry on both of these cloud management specifications. One of the specifications focuses "Infrastructure as a Service" ( IaaS )  cloud service model , while the other specification announced today focuses on "Platform as a Service" ( PaaS ) cloud service model. Please see The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing to learn more about IaaS and PaaS . Earlier today Oracle , CloudBees, Cloudsoft, Huawei, Rackspace, Red Hat, and Software AG   announced the Cloud Application Management for Platforms (CAMP) specification that will be submitted to Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) for development of an industry standard, in an effort to help ensure interoperability for deploying and managing applications across cloud environments.  Typical PaaS architecture - Source : CAMP specification The CAMP specification defines the artifacts and APIs that need to be offered by a PaaS cloud to manage the building, running, administration, monitoring and patching of applications in the cloud. Its purpose is to enable interoperability among self-service interfaces to PaaS clouds by defining artifacts and formats that can be used with any conforming cloud and enable independent vendors to create tools and services that interact with any conforming cloud using the defined interfaces. Cloud vendors can use these interfaces to develop new PaaS offerings that will interact with independently developed tools and components. In a separate cloud standards announcement yesterday, the Distributed Management Task Force ( DMTF ), the organization bringing the IT industry together to collaborate on systems management standards development, validation, promotion and adoption, released the new Cloud Infrastructure Management Interface (CIMI) specification. Oracle collaborated with various technology vendors and industry organizations on this specification. CIMI standardizes interactions between cloud environments to achieve interoperable cloud infrastructure management between service providers and their consumers and developers, enabling users to manage their cloud infrastructure use easily and without complexity. DMTF developed CIMI as a self-service interface for infrastructure clouds ( IaaS focus ) , allowing users to dynamically provision, configure and administer their cloud usage with a high-level interface that greatly simplifies cloud systems management. Mark Carlson, Principal Cloud Strategist at Oracle provides more details about CAMP  and CIMI his blog . Stay Connected: Twitter |  Face book |  You Tube |  Linked in |  Newsletter

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• How to (un)dock IBM Thinkpad X41 from X4 Dock(ing station) successfully?

  - by nutty about natty

  I'd like to start using my docking station again; however, it still doesn't work as it should, see the following bug descriptions (with special focus on Thinkpad X41 & the X4 Dock). Given that it still doesn't work (effective April 2012), my hope is fading that it will start working all of a sudden with Precise Pangolin at the end of the month. This issue is VERY important to me and I would be MOST grateful to anyone being able to sieve through the following links (some of which are actually quite recent) and translate their meaning into reliable and concrete simple (?) steps. I've read briefly about hal and udev, and can imagine that they are somewhat related to this, see links below. I don't want to fire at random. I don't want to tinker around with bash scripts if avoidable... Problem description (more or less ;-) Pressing the undock button on a "ThinkPad X4 Dock" with a ThinkPad X40 does not cause any udev events. And the lights on the dock never change to indicate it is safe to undock. and IBM Thinkpad X41 & docking station no joy :-( ... when pressing the blue undock button on the docking station: - The screen goes blank (with backlight remaining on), - with some SSD/HDD activity; - ctrl alt del causes a shut down after ... seconds, indicating that the system itself hasn't "crashed" but is still (somewhat ?) responsive. and With recent distributions, docking and undocking should function out of the box. You can monitor this by running # udevadm monitor and when you dock or press the undock button you should see a flurry of events. There are some issues though: No event on undock. - In some cases you may not get any events on undock. This is due to the ACPI dock drivers only registering the first logical Dock port they encounter and in some rare cases there may be more then one, such as on a ThinkPad X40 with ThinkPad X4 Dock. Patches are available, and are merged in 2.6.34. Now, if patches are available and merged into 2.6.34 - why isn't (un)docking simply working / fully supported in the latest version of Natty (which to my humble understanding has surpassed kernel version 2.6.34 a while ago)? More relevant links: ThinkPad X41 Docking Station issues and [HOWTO] Run scripts for laptop lid open/close and dock/undock events and finally Symptoms corrected by the latest BIOS Update - ThinkPad X41 - (Fix) USB devices connected to UltraBase X4 or ThinkPad X4 Dock may not be recognized in Boot Menu by pressing F12 during POST. Thanks!!

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• Week 21: FY10 in the Rear View Mirror

  - by sandra.haan

  FY10 is coming to a close and before we dive into FY11 we thought we would take a walk down memory lane and reminisce on some of our favorite Oracle PartnerNetwork activities. June 2009 brought One Red Network to partners offering access to the same virtual kickoff environment used by Oracle employees. It was a new way to deliver valuable content to key stakeholders (and without the 100+ degree temperatures). Speaking of hot, Oracle also announced in June new licensing options for our ISV partners. This model enables an even broader community of ISVs to build, deploy and manage SaaS applications on the same platform. While some people took the summer off, the OPN Program team was working away to deliver a brand new partner program - Oracle PartnerNetwork Specialized - at Oracle OpenWorld in October. Specialized. Recognized. Preferred. If you haven't gotten the message yet, we may need an emergency crew to pull you out from that rock you've been hiding under. But seriously, the announcement at the OPN Forum drew a big crowd and our FY11 event is shaping up to be just as exciting. OPN Specialized was announced in October and opened our doors for enrollment in December 2009. To mark our grand opening we held our first ever social webcast allowing partners from around the world to interact with us live throughout the day. We had a lot of great conversations and really enjoyed the chance to speak with so many of you. After a short holiday break we were back at it - just a small announcement - Oracle's acquisition of Sun. In case you missed it, here is a short field report from Ted Bereswill, SVP North America Alliances & Channels on the partner events to support the announcement: And while we're announcing things - did we mention that both Ted Bereswill and Judson Althoff were named Channel Chiefs by CRN? Not only do we have a couple of Channel Chiefs, but Oracle also won the Partner Program 5 Star Programs Award and took top honors at the CRN Channel Champion Awards for Financial Factors/Financial Performance in the category of Data and Information Management and the and Xchange Solution Provider event in March 2010. We actually caught up with Judson at this event for a quick recap of our participation: But awards aside, let's not forget our main focus in FY10 and that is Specialization. In April we announced that we had over 35 Specializations available for partners and a plan to deliver even more in FY11. We are just days away from the end of FY10 but hope you enjoyed our walk down memory lane. We are already planning lots of activity for our partners in FY11 starting with our Partner Kickoff event on June 29th. Join us to hear the vision and strategy for FY11 and interact with regional A&C leaders. We look forward to talking with you then. The OPN Communications Team

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• Language Club – Battle of the Dynamic Languages

  - by Ben Griswold

  After dedicating the last eight weeks to learning Ruby, it’s time to move onto another language.  I really dig Ruby.  I really enjoy its dynamism and expressiveness and always-openness and it’s been the highlight of our coding club for me so far. But that’s just my take on the language.  I know a lot of coders who’s stomachs turn with the mere thought of Ruby.  They say it’s Ruby’s openness which has them feeling uneasy.  I’d say “write a bunch of tests and get over it,” but I figure there must be more to it than always open classes and possible method collisions. Yes, there’s something else to it alright. The folks who didn’t fall head over heals for Ruby are already in love with Python.  You might remember that Python was the first language we tackled in our coding club.  My time with Python was okay but it didn’t feel as natural to me as Ruby.  But let’s say we started with Ruby and then moved onto Python.  Would I see Python in a different light right now.  Might I even prefer Python over Ruby?  I suppose it’s possible but it’s pretty tough to test that theory – unless we visit Python for a second time. That’s right. The language club is going to focus on Python again and in my attempt to learn Python – yet again – in the open, I’ll be posting my solutions here just as I did for Ruby.  We don’t always have second chances so I going about this relearning with two primary goals in mind:  First, I’m going to use IronPython and the IronPython tools which provide a Python code editor, a file-based project system, and an interactive Python interpreter, all inside Visual Studio 2010.  As a note, the IronPython tools are now part of the main IronPython installer which is Version 2.7 Alpha 1 (not the latest stable version, 2.6.1) and I’d be crazy not to use them.  Second, I’d like to make sure I’m still learning Python without a complete MS skew so I’m going to run my code through Eclipse using the PyDev plugin as well.  Heck, I might use IDLE too. I already have this setup on my machine so it’s no big deal. Okay, that’s it for now.  I worked on the first ten Euler problems last night and the solutions will be posted shortly. Wish me luck.

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• 3 Day Level 400 SQL Tuning Workshop 15 March in London, early bird and referral offer

  - by sqlworkshops

  I want to inform you that we have organized the "3 Day Level 400 Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2005 Performance Monitoring & Tuning Hands-on Workshop" in London, United Kingdom during March 15-17, 2011.This is a truly level 400 hands-on workshop and you can find the Agenda, Prerequisite, Goal of the Workshop and Registration information at www.sqlworkshops.com/ruk. Charges are GBP 1800 (VAT excl.). Early bird discount of GBP 125 until 18 February. We are also introducing a new referral plan. If you refer someone who participates in the workshop you will receive an Amazon gift voucher for GBP 125.Feedback from one of the participants who attended our November London workshop:Andrew, Senior SQL Server DBA from UBS, UK, www.ubs.com, November 26, 2010:Rating: In a scale of 1 to 5 please rate each item below (1=Poor & 5=Excellent) Overall I was satisfied with the workshop 5 Instructor maintained the focus of the course 5 Mix of theory and practice was appropriate 5 Instructor answered the questions asked 5 The training facility met the requirement 5 How confident are you with SQL Server 2008 performance tuning 5 Additional comments from Andrew: The course was expertly delivered and backed up with practical examples. At the end of the course I felt my knowledge of SQL Server had been greatly enhanced and was eager to share with my colleagues. I felt there was one prerequisite missing from the course description, an open mind since the course changed some of my core product beliefs. For Additional workshop feedbacks refer to: www.sqlworkshops.com/feedbacks.I will be delivering the Level 300-400 1 Day Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Performance Monitoring and Tuning Seminar at Istanbul and Ankara, Turkey during March. This event is organized by Microsoft Turkey, let me know if you are in Turkey and would like to attend.During September 2010 I delivered this Level 300-400 1 Day Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Performance Monitoring and Tuning Seminar in Zurich, Switzerland organized by Microsoft Switzerland and the feedback was 4.85 out of 5, there were about 100 participants. During November 2010 when I delivered seminar in Lisbon, Portugal organized by Microsoft Portugal, the feedback was 8.30 out of 9, there were 130 participants.Our Mission: Empower customers to fully realize the Performance potential of Microsoft SQL Server without increasing the total cost of ownership (TCO) and achieve high customer satisfaction in every consulting engagement and workshop delivery.Our Business Plan: Provide useful content in webcasts, articles and seminars to get visibility for consulting engagements and workshop delivery opportunity. Help us by forwarding this email to your SQL Server friends and colleagues.Looking forwardR Meyyappan & Team @ www.SQLWorkshops.comLinkedIn: http://at.linkedin.com/in/rmeyyappan

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• Taking AIIM at Social

  - by Christie Flanagan

  Today we are pleased to have a guest post from Christian Finn (@cfinn).  Christian is Senior Director of Product Management for Oracle WebCenter and heads up the WebCenter evangelist team.Last week I had the privilege of speaking at AIIM’s new conference in San Francisco.  AIIM, for those of you not familiar with it, is a global community of information professionals and got its start with ECM and imaging long ago. With 65,000+ members, AIIM has now set about broadening its scope to focus more on the intersection between systems of record (think traditional ECM) and systems of engagement (think social solutions).  So AIIM’s conference is a natural place to be for WebCenter types like me, who have a foot in both of those worlds.AIIM used to have their name on a very large tradeshow, but have changed direction now to run a small, intimate conference.  The lineup of keynotes was terrific, including David Pogue of The New York Times, Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody, and Ted Schadler, author of Empowered among many thought-provoking and engaging speakers. (Note: Ted will soon be featured in our Social Business webcast series. Stay tuned.)John Mancini and his team at AIIM did a fabulous job running the event and the engagement from the 450 attendees was sustained over the two and a half days.  Our proudest moment was having three finalists up for AIIM awards including: San Joaquin County, CA, for a justice case management system using WebCenter Content and Oracle BPM; Medtronic and Fishbowl Solutions for their innovative iPad solutions on WebCenter Content, and the government of Louisville, Kentucky/Jefferson County for their accounts payable solution using WebCenter Content’s Image & Process Management.  The highlight of the awards night was San Joaquin winning the small organization award against some tough competition.In addition to the conversations sparked at the show, AIIM promoted the whitepapers their industry task forces have produced on the impact and opportunities created by systems of engagement and systems of record. The task forces were led by: Geoffrey Moore, the renowned high tech marketing guru and author of Crossing The Chasm; and Andrew McAfee, who coined the term and wrote the book, Enterprise 2.0. (Note: Andy will also be featured soon on the Social Business webcast series.)  These free papers make short, excellent reading and you can download them on the AIIM website: Moore highlights the changes to Enterprise IT that the social revolution will engender, and McAfee covers where and how organizations are finding value in using social techniques to foster innovation, to scale Q&A across the organization, and to connect sales and marketing for greater efficiency and effectiveness. Moore’s whitepaper is here and McAfee’s whitepapers are available here. For the benefit of those who did not get a chance to attend the AIIM conference, I’ll be posting the topics of my AIIM presentation, “Three Principles for Fixing Your Broken Organization,” here on the WebCenter blog over the rest of this week and next in a series of posts.  

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• Windows Azure Use Case: Infrastructure Limits

  - by BuckWoody

  This is one in a series of posts on when and where to use a distributed architecture design in your organization's computing needs. You can find the main post here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckwoody/archive/2011/01/18/windows-azure-and-sql-azure-use-cases.aspx  Description: Physical hardware components take up room, use electricity, create heat and therefore need cooling, and require wiring and special storage units. all of these requirements cost money to rent at a data-center or to build out at a local facility. In some cases, this can be a catalyst for evaluating options to remove this infrastructure requirement entirely by moving to a distributed computing environment. Implementation: There are three main options for moving to a distributed computing environment. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) The first option is simply to virtualize the current hardware and move the VM’s to a provider. You can do this with Microsoft’s Hyper-V product or other software, build the systems and host them locally on fewer physical machines. This is a good option for canned-applications (where you have to type setup.exe) but not as useful for custom applications, as you still have to license and patch those servers, and there are hard limits on the VM sizes. Software as a Service (SaaS) If there is already software available that does what you need, it may make sense to simply purchase not only the software license but the use of it on the vendor’s servers. Microsoft’s Exchange Online is an example of simply using an offering from a vendor on their servers. If you do not need a great deal of customization, have no interest in owning or extending the source code, and need to implement a solution quickly, this is a good choice. Platform as a Service (PaaS) If you do need to write software for your environment, your next choice is a Platform as a Service such as Windows Azure. In this case you no longer manager physical or even virtual servers. You start at the code and data level of control and responsibility, and your focus is more on the design and maintenance of the application itself. In this case you own the source code and can extend or change it as you see fit. An interesting side-benefit to using Windows Azure as a PaaS is that the Application Fabric component allows a hybrid approach, which gives you a basis to allow on-premise applications to leverage distributed computing paradigms. No one solution fits every situation. It’s common to see organizations pick a mixture of on-premise, IaaS, SaaS and PaaS components. In fact, that’s a great advantage to this form of computing - choice. References: 5 Enterprise steps for adopting a Platform as a Service: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/davidmcg/archive/2010/12/02/5-enterprise-steps-for-adopting-a-platform-as-a-service.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0  Application Patterns for the Cloud: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/kashif/archive/2010/08/07/application-patterns-for-the-cloud.aspx

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• Three Principles to Fix Your Broken Organization

  - by Michael Snow

  Everyone's organization is broken in some capacity. For some this is painfully visible both inside and outside their organization. For others, there are cracks noticed by only the keenest trained eyes used to looking for problems in the midst of perfection. We all know that there is often incredible hope in the despair of chaos and recognition of your problems is the first step on the road to recovery. Let us help you in your path to recovery. Join our very own, Christian Finn,  this Thursday (11/15), as he guides you through three important principles you can take back to the office to start the mending process. (Above Image Credits: the BEST site on the web to make fun of our organizations and ourselves: http://www.despair.com/ ) His three principles are NOT "TeamWork", "Ignorance" and "Tradition", but - before jumping lower on this blog post to click and register for the upcoming webcast - I thought it would be a good opportunity to give you a little taste of what we have to offer beyond the array of our fabulous On-Demand webcasts from our Social Business Thought Leader Webcast Series featuring Christian as the host. Instead, here's a snippet from our marketing team friends across the pond in Europe, where they hosted a Social Business Forum recently and featured Christian in a segment.  Simple. Powerful. Proven. Face it, your organization is broken. Customers are not the focus they should be. Processes are running amok. Your intranet is a ghost town. And colleagues wonder why it’s easier to get things done on the Web than at work. What’s the solution?Join us for this Webcast. Christian Finn will talk about three simple, powerful, and proven principles for improving your organization through collaboration. Each principle will be illustrated by real-world examples. Discover: How to dramatically improve workplace collaboration Why improved employee engagement creates better business results What’s the value of a fully engaged customer Time to Fix What’s Broken Register now for this Webcast—the tenth in the Oracle Social Business Thought Leaders Series. Register Now Thurs., Nov. 15, 2012 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET Presented by: Christian Finn Senior Director, Product Management, Oracle Copyright © 2012, Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Contact Us | Legal Notices and Terms of Use | Privacy Statement

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• Oracle WebCenter: The Best of the Best

  - by kellsey.ruppel(at)oracle.com

  You may remember that the key goals of the new release of WebCenter are providing a Modern User Experience, unparalleled Application Integration, converging all the best of the existing portal platforms into WebCenter and delivering a Common User Experience Architecture.  Last week, we provided an overview of Oracle WebCenter, and this week, we'll focus on Convergence and how the new release of Oracle WebCenter is the Best of the Best..Our development team has been working very hard to bring all the best capabilities from each of the existing portal products into one modern user experience platform that provides a robust foundation for moving customers into the future.  Each of the development teams still maintain their existing products to support the current customers,  but they've been tasked with converging their unique best of breed features into the new WebCenter release so that it will meet the broadest set of use cases possible. For example, we've taken the fastest and most scalable portlet engine in the industry with Oracle WebLogic Portal, integrated it within WebCenter, and improved performance further, to deliver even more performance for our customers.  In addition, we've focused on extending the reach of all the different user experience resources so that customers can deliver robust capabilities into their existing portals, applications, composite applications, dashboards, mobile applications, really any channel that requires information.  And finally, we've combined a whole set of community and multi-site capabilities leveraging the pioneering capabilities of Plumtree portal directly into the new WebCenter release.  While at the same time we've built and delivered the new WebCenter release, we've also provided new feature releases of all the existing products.  In this way, customers can continue to gain value out of their existing investments while at the same time have the smoothest path to upgrading to the new WebCenter release. With the new WebCenter release, we are delivering a converged platform to address all portal requirements that have been delivered by different point products in our portal portfolio in the past. Additionally, this release delivers the most modern user experience that goes well beyond the experience the other portal products provided. This is because the new WebCenter release has been built from the ground up with modern technologies around rich clients, SOA, and customizations compared with other portal products whose architecture has been adapted to add capabilities like AJAX, personalization, and social computing.The new WebCenter release addresses the broadest set of use cases using single product set and single architecture spanning extranet sites to social communities. It helps customers manage, maintain and develop one technology set, but leverage it throughout their organization whether it's embedded in an application or a new destination for improved customer and employee productivity. Additionally, the new release of WebCenter leverages the best and most performant features of all the existing portfolio products to deliver the fastest and most scalable portal platform.  Most importantly, it supports the broadest development models spanning from J2EE/Java to HTML/REST to .NET.Keep checking back this week as we provide additional resources and information on how the new release of Oracle WebCenter is the Best of the Best - converging all the best capabilities from each of the existing portal products into one modern user experience platform.

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• The 2012 Gartner-FEI CFO Technology Survey -- Reviewed by Jeff Henley, Oracle Chairman

  - by Di Seghposs

  Jeff Henley and Oracle Business Analytics VP Rich Clayton break down the findings of the 2012 Gartner-FEI CFO Technology Survey.  The survey produced by Gartner gathers CFOs perceptions about technology, trends and planned improvements to operations.  Financial executives and IT professionals can use these findings to align spending and organizational priorities and understand how technology should support corporate performance.    Listen to the webcast with Jeff Henley and Rich Clayton - Watch Now » Download the full report for all the details -   Read the Report »        Key Findings ·        Despite slow economic growth, CFOs expect conservative, steady IT spending. ·        The CFOs role in IT investment has increased again in 2012. ·        The 45% of IT leaders that report to the CFO are more than report to any other executive, and represent an increase of 3%. ·        Business analytics needs technology improvement. ·        CFOs are focused on business analytics and business applications more than on technology. ·        Information, social, cloud and mobile technology trends are on CFOs' radar. ·        Focusing on corporate performance management (CPM) projects, 63% of CFOs plan to upgrade business intelligence (BI), analytics and performance management in 2012. ·        Despite advancements in strategy management technologies, CFOs still focus on lagging key performance indicators (KPIs) only. ·        A pace-layered strategy for applications is needed (92% of CFOs believe IT doesn't provide transformation/differentiation). ·        New applications in financial governance rank high on improving compliance and efficiency.

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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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• Willy Rotstein on Analytics and Social Media in Retail

  - by sarah.taylor(at)oracle.com

  Recently I came across a presentation from Dan Zarrella on "The Science of Retweets. (http://www.slideshare.net/HubSpot/the-science-of-retweets-with-dan-zarrella). It is an insightful, fact-based analysis of how tweets propagate and what makes them successful. The analysis is of course very interesting for those of us interested Tweeting. However, what really caught my attention is how well it illustrates, form a very different angle, some of the issues I am discussing with retailers these days. In particular the opportunities that e-commerce and social media open to those retailers with the appetite and vision to tackle the associated analytical challenges. And these challenges are of course not straightforward.   In his presentation Dan introduces the concept of Observability, I haven't had the opportunity to discuss with Dan his specific definition for the term. However, in practical retail terms, I would say that it means that through social media (and other web channels such as search) we can analyze and track processes by measuring Indicators that were not measurable before. The focus is in identifying patterns across a large number of consumers rather than what a particular individual "Likes".   The potential impact for retailers is huge. It opens the opportunity to monitor changes in consumer preference  and plan the business accordingly. And you can do this almost "real time" rather than through infrequent surveys that provide a "rear view" picture of your consumer behaviour. For instance, you could envision identifying when a particular set of fashion styles are breaking out from the pack, and commit a re-buy. Or you could monitor when the preference for a specific mobile device has declined and hence markdowns should be considered; or how demand for a specific ready-made food typically flows across regions and manage the inventory accordingly. Search, blogging, website and store data may need to be considered in identifying these trends. The data volumes involved are huge (check Andrea Morgan's recent post on "Big Data" in retail) but so are the benefits. As Andrea says, for the first time we can start getting insight into "Why" the business is performing in a certain way rather than just reporting on what is happening. And it is not just about the data volumes. Tackling the challenge also calls for integrated planning systems that can bring data and insight into the context of the Decision Making process Buyers, Merchandisers and Supply Chain managers are following. I strongly believe that only when data and process come together you can move from the anecdotal to systematically improving business performance.   I would love to hear your opinions on these trends and where you think Retail is heading to exploit these topics - please email me: [email protected]

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