#eavoices

A lot has been going on in the industry and at Oracle, and the pace is only getting faster! The Oracle Cloud Platform has evolved to a point that is so vastly different, deeper and differentiated (how’s that for alliteration) that someone, who has not been consistently watching, would be shocked to see how things look now. Like Rip Van Winkle waking up to a different world, you’d be surprised at what has changed and wonder how these changes passed you by. The problem is that the rate of change is now so fast that, if you are not carefully watching on a monthly basis, you could feel “Rip Van Winkled” after just a few short months. It can happen that fast!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recently, Oracle has announced some really amazing new capabilities such as the Autonomous Database, Blockchain, support for Robotic Process Automation, and the new Serverless platform–Fn (see this great blog for more information: here).

Here are just some of the capabilities that one should really have their eye on as sweeping architecture trends. Each of them hold tremendous promise to help you drive differentiation and innovation in your company or agency.

1. Artificial Intelligence/Machine learning
2. Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
3. Serverless computing
4. Microservices
5. Blockchain
6. *Unifying related cloud services into cloud platforms

The 6th point in that list is very important from a strategic standpoint. Oracle just released 2 major new services (DIPC and OIC). If you don’t have your Oracle Acronym Decoder Ring© available, those stand for the Data Integration Platform Cloud and the Oracle Integration Cloud, respectively. What is important about these service, at the highest level, is that they both take what were delivered as stand-alone cloud services, and combines them into 2 integrated platforms where you don’t spend time worrying about which tool to use, you simply start with what you want to do.

In the past, you would say “Oh, I need to build an integration to SalesForce, guess I’d better use ICS.” Likewise you might say, “I need to create a better, and automated, Employee on-boarding process, guess I should use PCS.” Or you might say “I need to create a real-time data replication link between my on-prem database and a Cloud instance for reporting, guess I need Golden Gate.” We have all been there, that is how we solved problems in the past.

f(x) = y; I need to do this (x), so I use that (y).

Now you change your focus drastically away from a tool-focus to a focus on creating business value. Because both new platforms (OIC and DIPC) abstract away many of the details (such as selecting and deploying a new Cloud Service), you get immediate results and value from your efforts. That means you have more time to do what needs to be done — but also start thinking of new ways to innovate on top of that. “What if instead of simply automating this process, we also enhanced the data reporting so business could get real-time reporting on Employee data across our geographically separate subsidiaries from a centralized ‘source of truth’!”

As an example, here are some of the things you can do with OIC:

• SaaS and On-Premises Integration: Quickly connect to 1000s of SaaS or on-premises Applications seamlessly through 50+ native app adapters or technology adapters. Support for Service Orchestration and rich integration patterns for real-time and batch processing.
• Process Automation: Bring agility to your business with an easy, visual, low-code platform that simplifies day to day tasks by getting employees, customers, and partners the services they need to work anywhere, anytime, and on any device. Support for Dynamic Case Management
• Visual Application Design: Rapidly create and host engaging business applications with a visual development environment right from the comfort of your browser.
• Integration Insight: The Service gives you the information you need — out of the box, with powerful dashboards that require no coding, configuration, or modification. Get up and running fast with a solution that delivers deep insight into your business.
• Stream Analytics: Stream processing for anomaly detection, reacting to Fast Data. Super-scalable with Apache Spark and Kafka.

This platform/capabilities approach is a huge step forward for Enterprise Architects who look, in ever increasing amounts, to technology to be in direct of support business needs and can’t afford to be “Rip Van Winkled” by these recent trends wondering, “how did I miss this one?!?!”

For more information, take a look at:

• OIC 
  • Here is a video on YouTube: Overview Video
• DIPC
• I have highlighted them from the https://cloud.oracle.com page; select the “Platform”
  • (API Platform highlighted because of my last article found here):

 

 

 

 

I am pleased to announce that the new Forrester Wave: Search Marketing Agencies, Q4 2017 report is now live! This report looked at the 12 most significant search marketing agencies in today’s market. This year’s Wave evaluation uncovered a …

I took a break from blogging, but am back. So, for anyone who was following me in the past with greatest hits like “TOGAF Study Help – iPhone to the Rescue (perhaps)” and “Pats SOA Governance Perscription“, I’m back. In my new role as Director of Business Development and Strategy, Oracle Cloud Platform – I still wear the hat of an Enterprise Architect all the time. That is to say, I help create and direct programs and strategy that are big-picture and cut across multiple domains and geographies. Sort of an Uber (not the car service company) Enterprise Architecture. So, with that re-introduction out of the way, today’s topic is:

API First – A Strategic Business Architecture!

First off – there are some great blogs on this topic, and this is certainly one of the best out there (by Guy Levin on DZone) that explains the “how” to implement API-First. The article emphasizes that this approach fosters a strong foundation for enabling faster development and that (critically) you need to get the API contract right before teams all jump in as start using a particular API:

What I have seen in my travels, talking with numerous different companies, managers and developers – is that they are beginning to see that API’s are the doorway to innovation in this Age of Digital Disruption happening right now. If you were asleep or even just blinked, you might have missed the tsunami sweeping the corporate/business landscape, much like The Great Wave off Kanagawa.

As mentioned in the article I referenced above, many large companies like Apple and Google are moving towards an API-centric strategy. When you look at your API’s from a business-standpoint you see that they unlock opportunities and potential that would not be there otherwise. Why? Because API’s are open, lightweight and easy to use – unlike any other integration approach of the past. Even SOA (in it’s typical form) requires heavy-weight WSDL and SOAP – none of which fly with Mobile Developers or modern Application/Microservices Developers. The other HUGE area of innovation is opening up your core competencies and value-chain to partners, but in a light weight fashion that eschews the complexity of EDI.

One of the best quotes I heard from someone I met in my travels recently is; “If it’s not an API, it doesn’t exist.” This really drives home the point that older integration/access approaches are suddenly getting left behind. I will never say that SOA does not have merit, but if you don’t have an API-First strategy in front of your SOA strategy, look out; you will get crushed by the tsunami of change before you have time to realize “what just happened?!?!”.

So, before you buy or build any new IT systems/applications, one of the first questions you need to ask is “How does this support our API-First strategy?” and “What new business opportunities can we leverage now that we have API’s that we could not before?” With that lens, you start to see that business strategy decisions become predicated on the degree to which you have established your API strategy! The two become inexorably linked.

Luckily, Oracle has you covered with the API Platform: 

Oracle API Platform

More on that in a future post.

For now, I will leave you with the notion that you should begin thinking about what you could do, that you couldn’t do before, if you had an API-Fist strategy in place. That is how you can make technology (API’s/REST, etc..) super relevant to the business! But, you need to do it right up-front or you will miss the opportunity to ride the tsunami of Digital Disruption.