Two large new releases by the Oracle Corporation that I’ve written about the last few days, Oracle Application Express 4.0 and Oracle BPM Suite 11g, got me thinking. The one focused at delivering Web 2.0 interfaces in an extremely short amount of time, the other on combining static business processes with Enterprise 2.0 capabilities. What will happen when we combine the two?

Oracle Application Express came a long way from simply developing Database applications. APEX version 4.0 gives us a wide variety of additional feature in order to really combine the fast delivery of applications within a Service Oriented Architecture, SOA. Building an APEX application on top of web services isn’t new (we’ve done it before), but with APEX 4.0 it just gets simpler. REST assured.

This means that the days that APEX will only run on data that’s inside the database are really over. Of course, this is still (and will be) the main implementation of the tool. But we don’t have to anymore. Web services will give us the possibility to combine data from different sources and finally give end users a real interface on their business.

Looking at the power of Oracle’s BPM Suite 11g, we can also model these web services according to the business process that it will support. The combination of the two would mean that we can give end users a personalized web interface on their own business processes. The BPM Suite (read: BPEL and OSB) will provide the APEX application with relevant data and authorization on that data.

Think about it: a universal interface for the business, changed and developed in short iterations, that provide access to data based on the role of the user. Managers that get insight from the progress of certain processes while, in the same application, the sales manager uses data from his sales management application and CRM. Think about it.

Combining the two Oracle product will give us a much appreciated combination of complete application integration, modeled business processes and interactive and intuitive web interfaces. What other large possibilities would you see?

Yesterday was a great day: Oracle Application Express 4.0 got released. But not a great night. At least, if you measure nights in amount of sleep. The new Oracle software is so impressive and extensive I wanted to play with it all night. And why?

Because I fell in love with it all over again. Some of the new features in the new release of Oracle Application Express are so well formed they really are a lot of fun to play with. The developers’ interface is very well rewritten and gives the developer a lot more ‘sense’ to what he is doing. This makes developing in APEX even more fun than it already does. I’m really looking forward to be doing my first extensive development project in Application Express to get a feel of what this Team Development is really about.

The new templates in Oracle Application Express are the bomb. They offer much more capabilities to the end user than it did before and, in combination with Dynamic Actions, we really can develop something that has the end user in it’s main focus. User Experience entered the world of Oracle Application Express big time.

Looking at the new software I really do believe that Oracle Application Express got a whole new focus. Where in the first years the main focus was on Access migration and simple departmental database applications, we finally evolved to a full grown Rapid Web 2.0 Development Platform.

Where is the main focus shift in Oracle Application Express 4.0 according to you? And are you as much in love with it as I am?

Since some years the Rapid Application Development platform of Oracle, Oracle Application Express, has gained more and more fans around the globe. I like it, and so do many others. Since today the new main release is available on the Oracle Technology Network for download.

Mike Hichwa, vice president of Software Development at Oracle, calls it the most significant release yet as it adds more features than before and it pushes the platform far further than previous releases. And it does. APEX 4.0 really kicks the functionality and therefore business value to the next level.

Web 2.0 is the main focus on this release. Offering various improvements for both developer as well as business users. Dynamic actions are the real deal. Offering end users great desktop-like functionality without the hassle of developing complex JavaScript and AJAX. This means that we can deliver more functionality to the end user within a shorter amount of time.

Where the 2008 3.1 release of Oracle Application Express offered the great new functionality of Interactive Reports to us, creating a way where end users could consolidate and order information themselves, End User Computing takes a quantum leap in APEX 4.0 with the new ‘Websheets’ functionality. Websheets offer end users a web environment where they can adjust, create and read data within a group of people, with no development needed.

End users now can really become part of the development process themselves. More examples will come to you in the next couple of days. If you haven’t already: download APEX 4.0 from the Oracle Technology Network now.

Today Oracle will release it’s next generation in Business Process Management, the BPM Suite 11g. One of the things that stand out, at least in buzz words, is the fact that it supports something called ‘Social BPM’. So what is this and what will it do for the business?

In one of the Oracle BPM WebCasts, Dan Tortorici and Peggy Chen, respectively responsible for BPM and Enterprise 2.0 Product Marketing, tell us where the bridge is to be found between Enterprise Collaboration and Process Modeling. The new approach shows us how to create an Agile framework to facilitate fast changes within the organization while effectively combining formal workflows with informal collaboration.

In traditional application environments, we think in ‘silos’: separated departmental systems that contain specific information. Business Process Management and SOA approaches to architecture helps us to combine those data and effectively create a flow that supports business processes that depend on multiple silos. Using this approach we can steer on the process, instead of information and data. When we take a deeper look inside these processes, we learn that there is one more element missing: ad-hoc changes to the process, human interaction.

In the ‘classic’ approach to BPM human interaction is merely a task, what the people do behind the buttons is merely described as an action, not a process. And this is where collaboration and user interaction comes in. Using the possibilities of the Oracle WebCenter Suite, Social BPM focusses on combining business processes and user interaction.

Working from a user centric design model, Social BPM offers the possibilities for the end-user to create, monitor and participate in business processes, al within the WebLogic Collaboration Suite. This new element in the Enterprise 2.0 philosophy adds an enormous, in my opinion, breakthrough: we stop using information statically but combine the dynamic of user interaction with the structure of Business Process Modeling.

The User Experience is now total: we have insight in our dashboard on the complete process, which participants we have, what information needs to be combined and where our process is headed. This gives us, possibly, the ultimate user interface on business applications. All data needed to effectively proceed in the business can be combined with the process, which can be modeled within the same user interface.

Today at 19.00 CET is the official launch of the Oracle BPM Suite 11g.

Last years’ acquisition of Sun Microsystems by the Oracle Corporation created lot’s of new opportunities for both Oracle and it’s Partners. There was, obviously, a lot to do about the MySQL Database, Java and other Sun technologies like the Solaris operating system. But there also is this great, small virtual machine inside the acquisition, VirtualBox.

As I’ve written yesterday, Oracle released a new version of VirtualBox into the wild yesterday. Offering some new features that makes the tool a lot more professional and mature. These new features, and the complete offering of Oracle technology could create some great new opportunities for the Oracle corporation and Oracle Partners.

One of the tough thing with Oracle technologies is that the fast majority of it can be complex to install, implement and configure. For demoing purposes, this can be demanding on the workforce and overhead involving these kinds of actions in most sales projects demanded today. Oracle’s VirtualBox could simply change that, and more.

The new version of VirtualBox offers support for the OVF standard for virtual machine images and configurations. This means that a single machine, once created, can be installed in multiple virtual machines. Oracle could offer images for it’s mostly used technologies online, and in that way offer a non-install, quick setup, way to deploy, demo and develop on Oracle Software.

Think about it. You want to know more on how a particular piece of software could change your business and all you need to do to check it out is simply download an image and run it. Things could become so much more simpler. At this moment there’s one OVF image available on the OTN network, one for the Hands-on-Labs on Database and Java development. It’s an image running Oracle Enterprise Linux, Database 11gr2, TimesTen In-Memory Database, XMLDB, SQLdeveloper, Application Express, Jdeveloper and lots more. But there could be more specific and leaner machines available.

Besides demoing and developing, what would other great opportunities be from offering VirtualBox and virtual images for the Oracle Corp and it’s Partners?

Somewhere in 2006 I started using VirtualBox for desktop virtualization. There where a few reasons for that choice back then. Although the software wasn’t the perfect companion, it was actually the only freely available virtualization software available for my operating system of choice (at that moment in time Mandriva Linux). But it was also actually just what I needed. Not able to afford high-end hardware and expensive software the small footprint of VirtualBox was great.

Through the years I’ve seen some changes in VirtualBox, all making it more and more a ‘mature’ part of automation and more like the competition out there. In the beginning days of my Mac OS X experience (which is still going on) I started using WMware’s Fusion, but soon switched back to VirtualBox. The user interface has always been clear and simple, the way I like things and I could simply do enough with it.

For businesses, VirtualBox just might be the answer they where looking for. A simple and widely supported virtual machine that now offers a lot of functionality that you might expect from a modern virtualization system. All main host OS’s are supported, and a wide variety of guest systems are added in each version.

The new version of VirtualBox, 3.2 which is the first full Oracle labelled version, is developed with a main focus on three areas: performance, power and platforms. This means that the performance of the system will improve, there’s more added power to serve those heavy machines we want and there are more supported platforms available (including an experiment on hosting OS X machines).

Some of the important new features can be found in the new storage I/O, Remote Video Acceleration, Multiple Virtual Monitors, a Virtual SAS Controller, Online Snapshot Merging (!) and the hosted OS X environment.

I’m really looking forward to some of the business implementations of VirtualBox. Is it still in use mainly in customer environment, running desktop software? Or can you provide me with an example where real servers are being hosted using VirtualBox? And how can the new features help organizations in the VM world?

Update: on june 2nd Oracle released the maintanance version of VirtualBox 3.2: release 3.2.2 adresses some main bugs and adds more stability. Good to see how fast this is going.

Update 2: On june 7th another version was made: 3.2.4. Several minor bugs and regressions where fixed.

Alright, APEX has been marketed as the Access killer. This, of course, is not entirely true. When we take a look at some real live implications of Oracle’s Application Express, it is put into action for developing new applications, within an Oracle environment. Not for killing Access within an organization. APEX can be put into action when we take a look at other applications that are developed outside of the grasp of the IT department. But then we need to take more into account than just the technology.

Some organizations have a large problem: they have some departments that develop their own applications. In the beginning not even such a bad thing, but there’s no control over them from the IT department, a lot of different technologies and there are people within an organization that have the sole knowledge of the application. (Imagine them go and stop working, there goes your support). But killing those apps isn’t simple, because they got there for a reason in the first place…

The apps are there because the people responsible for them have the knowledge that, when they would ask the IT department for functionality, they would have to wait months, have enormous costs, or simply wouldn’t get what they need. So they train ‘one of their own’ to do the job. A proliferation (is this the right word?) of applications is the outcome.

Now you see, just implementing APEX is not the solution to this problem, there’s a lot more to it. Oracle Application Express is a RAD tool, now we just need a RAD-able method for our project management. Or Agile. Technology in itself is rarely the solution to these kinds of organizational problems and challenges. The way an IT department works is the problem and no technology will be able to change that. APEX can facilitate this kind of change, but you still need to work on the approach to IT projects itself.

And when we have done this, a RAD tool like APEX in combination with an Agile approach and mindset, we can finally actually work together with the business on solutions and functionality they need, within a clear set of time and therefore developing the stuff they need. Only then there will be no more need for ‘self-help’ from non-IT departments in the application field.

This morning, after I woke up, I read an email from the Oracle ACE program. And read it again. I couldn’t completely grasp what was going on. Now, a few hours later, it looks as if I just got one of the largest compliments anyone in my (our?) line of business can receive: I am an Oracle ACE.

I really feel honoured, this is a great feeling and it shows me that I do the right things for the Oracle community. Louis-Guillaume Carrier-Bédard nominated me for the Oracle ACE award. (Thanks for this Louis-Guillaume!) He is one of the great people who sacrificed their spare time to review my book on Oracle Forms conversion to APEX.

The Oracle ACE Award is issued by the Oracle Corporation and the choice is made on ‘People who have made a significant contribution and activity in the Oracle technical community’.

Thanks! I’m honoured.

Last week I talked about it briefly: Oracle Unified Method, OUM. A way to, completely implement the Oracle Stack, with an Agile vision. The vision Oracle is talking about here is to support the successful implementation of every Oracle product, application, middleware and database. And this is where it gets extremely interesting.

The OUM is based upon the Unified Process. Nothing weird here, RUP (the rational method of UP) is probably the most used iterative implementation method around. Oracle has certainly his own implementation, but that mainly is to be found in the completeness of the method. Not only implementation, but also the other necessary parts of the Enterprise IT lifecycle. These are bound in the three focus areas around OUM: Envision, to ensure the enterprise level processes, Implement, to support the implementation of Oracle technology products and Manage, to support disciplined management of IT projects and programs.

Within these three focus areas, let’s talk Implementation. Oracle Unified Method is developed with some ‘goals’ in mind. These goals can best be described in the way that it’s a complete method framework, in one. A best of breeds situation that come from years of experience of implementing Oracle products by their own consulting force. I’m not the biggest fan of Oracle Consulting, but this seams to make a point.

Especially the combination of a proven approach to Agile projects (which definitely shows us that the method is enormous, but we should only use what we actually need), the technology knowledge inside the toolkit and method and the fact that development using OUM is business driven makes it a great way to implement custom software developed on the Oracle Stack.

OUM helps us to grasp the essence of an Oracle project, and delivers it in a few different ways to the team. Business Analysts, Designers, Developers, Project managers and Architects can all work with their own set of information with a clear method. This is the only framework I’ve seen that’s so complete and yet flexible.

The coming weeks I will show you how the framework actually works and where the real value is to be found. The question remains: how do we get control over the power of the Oracle stack without loosing in Agility?

People who really know me, realize that I don’t fall in love easily. Well, I do. But this time it’s different. Oracle released an impressively complete method to their Partners, called Oracle Unified Method.

There are a lot of methods in the world of Software Development, Project Management, Life Cycle Management and Enterprise Architecture. Most of them combine some ‘best-practices’ and are set up pretty general in order to make sense in a wide variety of projects. Those methods rarely combine different approaches to the Enterprise Information Technology Lifecycle. The Oracle Unified Method is a bit different, it combines Agile Principle and best-practices (on different subjects like Project Management, Life Cycle Management and Enterprise Architecture) with the real know-how on the complete Oracle Stack.

Organizations working with a wide variety of Oracle products, such as the SOA Suite, Database but also the complete Applications stack, really need the use of Oracle Unified Method (OUM) for their IT Strategy and IT Lifecycle. This framework offers a complete set of tools and practices that make managing a lot easier.

But it doesn’t end there. OUM is adaptive. And, as I see it, it can be changed and implemented in a wide variety of ways. It offers us the complete cycle in any Agile project and is based upon the Unified Process and DSDM (Dynamic Systems Development Method). In this way we can manage and steer our projects in a lean way. Just get the elements in the very complete OUM stack that you actually need. As the OUM is completely focused on business results and steers on agility it is said to be highly adaptive and manageable.

Soon, I will talk a little bit more on the exact ‘how’ Oracle Unified Method will help us deliver Agile Projects, based on the Oracle Stack.