Oracle is developing and maintaining SaaS and on-premises applications and a tech tool kit to make other vendors weep.
The last quarter saw one of the best and most invigorating Oracle CloudWorld conferences in years. Old timers like myself still debate on whether San Francisco or Vegas is a better location; I’m old fashioned and so is my wallet when it comes to $19 for a can of beer. However, the feel was different at this year’s CloudWorld.
It’s a big investment for customers to travel to Las Vegas and the location alone doesn’t sit well with management who have to pre-approve a potentially $6k trip when so many more mediums of education and engagement now exist. The investment IS worth it, though. There is some great quality content to take back to the office and implement, be that from a technical point of view or simply how to “work better”.
It’s very easy to attend a conference and drive in the middle of the road, attend sessions that tick the ERP/HCM/SCM and Tech boxes – but there is so much more value to be uncovered at CloudWorld. Take for example the Global Industry Unit offerings (recently known as GBU), a favorite being the depth and breadth of specialist coverage for Financial Services. I sat down with Mark Atherton (Global Head of Oracle Financial Services Analytical Applications) and speaking with him it became clear to me that other ERP vendors stick in the middle lane when it comes to true value add in areas such as core banking. Similar areas worth looking at are construction and retail, very popular specific core solutions used by millions daily but often overlooked.
Data Security in the Cloud
Oracle meant serious business this year. Yes there was plenty of party atmosphere at the evening celebration event, but there was one very clear message: that of security of your data. I lost count of how many Oracle presenters had prior careers with the CIA or FBI. One impressive presentation hosted by Agnieszka Bruyère (VP EMEA Public Sector and Defence) focussed on the investment Oracle have made in securing data centers for use in government. Meanwhile, Rob Duhart (SVP, Cloud Security), and ex-US government security leader, manages a team of nearly 800 with the remit of maintaining walls around what you need protecting the most. But keeping the lights on is only half of the story, with the future threat and the potential of “unregulated external GenAI” keeping Rob and his team on 24/7 alert.
Another underlooked complimentary suite from Oracle is Analytics. Visitors of the Wonderwall Analytics area at CloudWorld got to hear about two noteworthy developments:
People Leader Workbench and Supply Chain Command Center: Two new intelligent applications have been added. The People Leader Workbench aims to assist HR and finance teams in aligning talent strategies with business goals. Some serious value add here allowing for strategic people control and planning alongside the already well established Strategic Workforce Management.
The Supply Chain Command Center helps organizations respond to dynamic supply chain conditions with intelligent recommendations. Also of particular interest is the Developer Assistant with Generative AI, a new AI-powered Developer Assistant introduced to streamline the configuration of Oracle Fusion Data Intelligence services. It guides developers through adding third-party data sources and configuring analytics setups, leveraging generative AI to simplify these processes.
Multicloud Partnerships. If you haven’t already heard, Oracle announced a significant expansion of its multicloud strategy, highlighting new partnerships with AWS, Google, and Microsoft. The partnership with AWS includes Oracle Exadata Database Service running on AWS and new seamless data movement capabilities. This underscores Oracle’s commitment to making multicloud solutions more integrated and efficient for its customers. After all, it wasn’t that long ago when Larry Ellison infamously stated: “The computer industry is the only industry that is more fashion-driven than women’s fashion. Maybe I’m an idiot, but I have no idea what anyone is talking about. What is it? It’s complete gibberish. It’s insane. When is this idiocy going to stop?”
Let’s be clear, Larry is no idiot. He was right; the cloud has been overhyped in general terms where it’s just software stored on someone else’s computer. However the purest skill of Oracle is developing and maintaining SaaS and On-Premises applications and a tech tool kit to make other vendors weep.
The Oracle roadmap is clear; where once competitive, the future is multi-cloud. Larry discussed the importance of multicloud interoperability, emphasizing that the future of cloud computing lies in better integration between different cloud providers. He highlighted Oracle’s efforts to create interconnected cloud environments that allow customers to leverage the best services from multiple providers.
The outlook for Oracle as a vendor, its ecosystem, customer success is very strong; the messages are clear and understood. Transformation is a journey and Oracle is there for you.
