Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Oracle 18c - Automated Self Driven Database - Future of DBA Jobs ?


Larry Ellison gives sleepless nights not only to Amazon  but also for Oracle DBAs.  Yes, there is a reason.  He declared that the upcoming Oracle database 18c version as an "Autonomous Database".

Here in this blog, we will discuss about the future of Oracle DBAs. Lets see.. whether this announcement would be a TREAT? or THREAT?

Before this, please have a look at my previous blog about Oracle 18c - Announcements by Larry Ellison. Below is the link. 

Whooping Announcements by Larry Ellison - Oracle 18c

What it means - Autonomous Database ?  And What are the Key Highlights of Oracle 18c ?     
  • Automated Cyber Security System
  • Autonomous Database
  • Self Driven - Eliminates Human labor and Human error
  • Fully Automated  Performance tuning
  • Automated Upgrade while running
  • Automated Patch while running
  • Zero Labor Cost for Database Maintenance and Management
  • Consumes less time 
  • Consumes less memory storage
  • 99.995% availability - 30 min max down time per year covering planned and unplanned downtime.
  • Guaranteed half the price of Amazon. Targets 80% cost cut. Much cheaper than Amazon.
  • Activated Data guard for recovery
  • 5x faster RAC
  • Autonomous at all levels - DWH, OLTP DB, Express, Private Cloud, Public Cloud, On premise
  • And more..


Oracle Vs Amazon :-

So, it is a big challenge for Amazon now to handle this big announcement from Oracle.  No doubt about it. 

Larry simply asked "When we have automated DB for half the price of Amazon which is not automated, what is your choice? to customers. Now Amazon customers will simply turn and ask the same question to Amazon Sales guys. 

Amazon already lashes out at Oracle Announcements commenting No facts, wild claims, and lots of bluster ". Eagerly waiting for Amazon's next step. 

Okay, that is pretty business stuffs.  The next million dollar question is the below one. 

What is the future of Oracle DBAs ? Automated Oracle DB is a TREAT or THREAT? 

Who can answer better than all others. Yes, Larry Ellison talked about the future of Oracle DBAs skill sets in the same announcements.  

Below are his views. I captured the same slide what Larry had presented ( Pl refer the below image )



Now :-

Till 12c, Oracle DBAs do a lot of day-to-day database monitoring and administration tasks,  Routine Patch updates, Taking Backups, Scheduling and Monitoring Jobs,  Manual Performance tuning etc.,  These skill sets will not be much required in Oracle 18c as they are automated now.

In Future :-

Then, what will be the much required skill set to adopt for Oracle DBAs.  He answered for the same. 

From 18c onwards, DBAs will be required much for the below tasks.. 

  •  Database Design
  •  Schema Design
  •  Data Migration
  •  Data Policies -  Authorization of who can view data or not 
  •  Data Analytics using Machine Learning
  •  Understanding Data Patterns


In Summary.. 

As quick as DBAs adopt to Machine Learning, Data Analytics, Data statistics, Data Patterns skill setS,  the latest announcement would be a TREAT for DBAs, else it would be a THREAT. 

In our next blog, we will discuss about what about the existing projects which is in Oracle 11i and 12c and how DBA roles will be slightly changing for existing projects and the upcoming new projects.

Stay Connected !
Sathish Chandran

Monday, October 2, 2017

Oracle 18c - Whoophing announcements by Larry Ellison




When there is an automated aircrafts..  When there is an automated cars like Tesla... Then, why cant we have an automated database ?  that too being an Oracle ?  

These questions from Larry Ellison - Chairman and CTO of  Oracle Corporation made him to declare a big announcement today - 2nd Oct, 2017 at Oracle Open World Conference held on San Francisco, USA. 

Yes, Oracle 18c is on the way very soon.   Here we will the snippets of Larry's big announcement today. 

Is it a war ?

Larry literally declares war against human work and also he targets his biggest counterpart Amazon in his announcements. 


Key Features :-

Solution for Security Threat :   “If you eliminate human labor, you eliminate human error. It’s embarrassing for me to admit it, Ellison said today. If their is no human intervention, we can avoid security threat from bad boys.

Automated Patch Update :-  Oracle 18c will immediately patch itself the moment a threat is detected, since it “does not need a human being to schedule downtime” for maintenance, Ellison highlighted this point very clearly. 

Nearly Zero downtime :-  18C needs less than 30 minutes a year of planned downtime. This is a big deal; no one else does it, Ellison targets Amazon here by declaring this is far better than Amazon.

  •   Gurantees 99.995% of system availablity
  •   Guaranteed 100x better availability than Amazon


Automated DBA :- The Oracle 18c does three major things automatically while running  a) Tuning   b)  Upgrade  and c) Patch Update. 

Cost Effective :- The Oracle 18c cuts major human labor cost, Maintenance cost and error fixing cost. This will be half the cost when compare to Amazon. Again Ellison digs Amazon here. 

Release Dates :-  Data warehouse :Autonomous databases for warehouses will be released by Dec 2017
OLTP :  The autonomous OLTP Oracle 18c will be released by June 2018. 
Cloud :  Autonomous No SQL Cloud Oracle 18c  will be released by CY 2018.


In Summary, Oracle eyes on 18c Release with the below amazing features. 

  a) Solution to human security threat
  b) Autonomous DBA
  c) Automated Patch, Upgrade and Tuning
  d) 99.995% availability
  e) Cost Effective
  f) Error less
  g) Faster Access


In our next blogs, we will talk about the below... 
  • Is this is treat  or  threat for Oracle working professionals ?
  • How to upgrade our skills to align with Oracle 18c ?
  • How 18c will hit existing projects and its cost?
  • And more..   Stay connected.


Regards,
Sathish Chandran