This year’s Oracle World was held from Sept. 7 to 11 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, California. The major highlight of this year’s Oracle World was the launch of the Oracle 10g platform. Oracle 10g is a platform of technologies that enable enterprise grid computing.

Oracle 10g enables rapid response to changing business priorities while greatly lowering risk. Oracle’s database is the first database that is designed for enterprise grid computing. Grid computing allows organizations to optimize the use of their resources by reallocating them to the applications that are running on peak loads. Think of it this way, companies run various applications. Some are run on a daily basis while others are run on a periodic basis, like payroll for example. A utility company would usually allocate a huge infrastructure that can support its billing systems. However, during the time that the billing system is not running, this

infrastructure could be idle. During this time, other applications can make use of the billing system’s infrastructure, thus enabling the company to maximize its resources and save on costs.

Grid computing can solve the problem of reallocating resources where it is most needed. Large pools of industry-standard modular storage and servers can be set up and additional capacity can be easily added or removed on demand. Hardware costs are reduced since organizations can use low-cost components. Resource utilization levels are increased since resources are shared across applications. Administration and management costs are also reduced since there is only one set of hardware and software to manage.

There were several executive keynotes during the conference including Michael Dell, Chairman & CEO of Dell, Inc., Scott McNealy, Chairman, President & CEO of Sun Microsystems, Inc., Craig R. Barrett, CEO of Intel, Carly Fiorina, Chairman & CEO of HP and of course, Larry Ellison, Chairman & CEO of Oracle Corporation.

The conference was formally opened by Oracle’s new Executive Vice President Charles Phillips. He articulated on the three things which make up Oracle’s definition of the grid: pooling resources; virtualization of every layer of the stack, where resources are managed as a single computer; and automatic load balancing based on policies. An example that Phillips cited was that of a large online retailer whose web site has high traffic while its data warehouse sits idle. After the peak season, the data warehouse gets busy analyzing the previous season’s sales while the web site sits nearly idle. Phillips offered a three-step

process to get ready for the grid: consolidate, standardize on low-cost components and automate everything.

Michael Dell focused on the benefits of the Oracle/Dell alliance to fuel the move towards grid computing. Although he was in crutches because of a horse-riding accident, he sounded very optimistic about his company’s business outlook. He said, "Oracle on Dell is becoming the standard in the data center, making it easier for customers to purchase, deploy, and get greater value from their database applications than they ever had in the past".

Scott McNealy’s message was focused on one thing: Simplify. Appearing on stage in sweaters, jeans and sneakers, he delivered a very upbeat keynote on the 2nd day of the conference. He also focused on the Oracle/Sun partnership and even showed a video of an Oracle/Sun event in May where he and Larry Ellison were onstage teasing each other about their age. He criticized the complexity of the computing industry by comparing it to building a custom airplane from 80 different suppliers. Together with

Sun engineer Tony Hillman, they demonstrated a Sun Fire Server with Linux bladesrunning Oracle Database 10g – a rack which McNealy described as"a full slab, as opposed to a rib". His keynote was also marked with his much-awaited top ten list a la David Letterman.

Craig Barrett’s presentation was not only informative but also very entertaining. His talk was entitled "Does IT Really Matter?" which is a response to an article recently published in the Harvard Business Review entitled "IT Doesn’t Matter". He started with a video of IT Survivor, which as the title suggests is like the Survivor TV show. He obviously takes the opposing view to the article and went on to show numerous real-world examples of how IT matters including the chief engineer of the team that built the Ford GT model number 3 which was built in 22 months. He even brought into the keynote hall a brand-new unit

of this new model. According to Barrett, companies who want to innovate and compete must consider three things when planning enterprise solutions: convergence of computing, communications and content; open standards so solutions can interact; and the price/performance of the solution.

Larry Ellison formally launched Oracle Database 10g and Oracle Application Server 10g. His keynote presentation started with a futuristic laser show. He then went on to trace what’s been happening in the computer industry over the last 40 years. He said that ever since IBM invented the 360 mainframe in 1964, there has been a quest to build bigger and bigger computers. He said that the Oracle enterprise grid is a smarter alternative to the 40-year-old "one big server". The Oracle grid runs all applications

with capacity on demand, at a lower cost and higher level of fault tolerance and reliability. He said that grid computing will eliminate Oracle’s enterprise grid creates the illusion of having “one big server” without the problems associated with the “one big server” infrastructure – limited capacity, high cost and a single point of failure.

Carly Fiorina’s keynote touched on the Oracle/HP partnership and said that HP is the wind that fuels Oracle’s sails. This is in reference to their partnership in the America’s Cup where HP computers were used to run the Oracle BMW boat during the race. She also showed through a video how HP is already implementing grid architecture in their data labs while other vendors are still talking about it. Being the last speaker, she was also able to take potshots against her competitors, particularly Michael Dell and Scott McNealy. She also announced that all HP products will be grid-enabled.

Two other Oracle executives, Chuck Rozwat and Ken Jacobs, focused on the new features of Oracle 10g. Ken Jacobs' keynote, originally scheduled at 2:30 p.m. on Sept. 10 was postponed due to a bomb threat at the Moscone Center. People lined up outside the keynote hall as early as 2:00 p.m. to hear from Dr. DBA himself. At 2:30, policemen were seen going down the escalators leading to the hall. A couple of minutes later, people who were inside the hall started coming out, including the crew, Oracle staff and the speaker himself! After they left, the center security requested all attendees to leave the building and come back at 4:00 p.m. At the street level, police cars were parked, a helicopter hovered above and sirens were wailing. I really found it exciting that I was right there in the middle of it all when all of these things were happening. I immediately sent an SMS message to my friends in Manila because I can’t get over the fact that I experienced a bomb scare in the heart of San Francisco when I came from a “terrorist” city.

It was business-as-usual for the rest of the conference after this incident. In fact, the appreciation party proceeded as scheduled with guest performers Kinky, Train and Violent Femmes. Delegates and exhibitors partied until midnight at Pier 48 right there by the bay. Food and drinks flowed and everyone had fun. It was amazing that people still managed to get up early the next day to attend the last day’s sessions.