SQL for Data Warehousing and Analytics

After this year’s OpenWorld I ran a 1-day workshop on analytical SQL for our Data Warehouse and Big Data Global Leaders  customers. This was part of the Global Leaders ‘Days with Development' programme. We had a pack room at the Oracle Conference Center and I was very lucky to have Stew Ashton, Technical Architect, BNP Paribas , Dr. Holger Friedrich, CTO at sumIT AG and Joerg Otto, Head of DB Engineering, IDS GmbH co-present with me and have them explain how they were using analytical SQL in their projects.  The workshop covered the following topics: Analytic SQL concepts and foundations Analytic functions for reporting Analytic functions for aggregation More advanced and new 12c features: Pattern Matching SQL Model clause For the workshop I created a comprehensive slide deck ( I will post the presentation shortly on our OTN home page ) which included code samples and explain plans to highlight the key benefits of using our analytical SQL features and...

This is the next part in my on-going series of posts on the topic of how to successfully manage sandboxes within an Oracle data warehouse environment. In  Part 1  I provided an overview of sandboxing (key characteristics, deployment models) and introduced the concept of a lifecycle called BOX’D ( B uild,  O bserve,  X -Charge and  D rop). In  Part 2  I briefly explored the key differences between data marts and sandboxes.  Part 3  explored the  B uild-phase of our lifecycle. Part 4  explored the O bserver-phase of our lifecycle so we have now arrived at the X -Charge part of our model. To manage the chargeback process for our sandbox environment we are going to use the new Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Management pack, for more information visit the EM home page on OTN . Why charge for your providing sandbox services? The simple answer is that placing a price or cost on a service ensures that the resources are used wisely. If ...

Follow us on The latest edition of our monthly data warehouse and big data magazine for Oracle customers and partners is now available. It brings together all the most important announcements and videos taken from our data warehouse and big data product management blogs, press releases, videos posted on Oracle Media Network and our Facebook pages. Click here to view the November Edition Please share this link http://flip.it/fKOUS with your colleagues and via your social media sites. This magazine is optimized for display on tablets and smartphones using the Flipboard App which is available from the Apple App store and Google Play store

This is the next part in my on-going series of posts on the topic of how to successfully manage sandboxes within an Oracle data warehouse environment. In Part 1 I provided an overview of sandboxing (key characteristics, deployment models) and introduced the concept of a lifecycle called BOX’D ( B uild, O bserver, X -Charge and D rop). In Part 2 I briefly explored the key differences between data marts and sandboxes. Part 3 explored the B uild-phase of our lifecycle. Now, in this post I am going to focus on the O bserve-phase. At this stage in the lifecycle we are concerned with managing our sandboxes. Most modern data warehouse environments will be running hundreds of data discovery projects so it is vital that the DBA can monitor and control the resources that each sandbox consumes by establishing rules to control the resources available to each project both in general terms and specifically for each project. In most cases, DBAs will setup a sandbox with dedicated resources. Howe...

Data Warehousing and Big Data were at the heart of this year’s OpenWorld conference being across in a number of keynotes and a huge number of general sessions. Our hands-on labs were all completely full as people got valuable hands-on time with our most important new features. The key areas at this year’s conference were: Big Data SQL - One Fast SQL Query for All Your Data Database In-Memory - Powering the Real-Time Enterprise Mutitenant - Plug your data warehousing Into the Cloud All these topics appeared in the main keynote sessions including live on-stage demonstrations of how each feature can be used to increased the performance and analytical capability of your data warehouse. If you want to revisit the most important sessions, or if simply missed this year’s conference and want to catch up on all the most important topics, then I have put together a book of the highlights from this year’s conference. The booklet is divided into the following sectio...

Since the term big data first appeared in our lexicon of IT and business technology it has been intrinsically linked to the no-SQL, or anything-but-SQL, movement. However, we are now seeing that SQL is experiencing a renaissance. The term “noSQL” has softened to a much more realistic approach - a "not-only-SQL" approach. And now there is an explosion of SQL-based implementations designed to support big data. Leveraging the Hadoop ecosystem, there is: Hive, Stinger, Impala, Shark, Presto and many more. Other NoSQL vendors such as Cassandra are also adopting flavors of SQL. Why is there a growing level of interest in the reemergence of SQL? Probably, a more pertinent question is: did SQL ever really go away? Proponents of SQL often cite the following explanations for the re-emergence of SQL for analysis: There are legions of developers who know SQL. Leveraging the SQL language allows those developers to be immediately productive. There are legions of tools and applications u...

There's so much to see and learn at Oracle OpenWorld because it provides more educational and networking opportunities than any other conference dedicated to Oracle business and technology users.  What to expect at OOW 2014 - We will be announcing a wide range of continuous data warehouse innovations in both hardware and software. Join Oracle experts as we dive deep into the latest generation of data warehouse innovations for analyzing enterprise data and diverse big data streams to derive real business value. You will also learn data warehouse best practices and hear from customers consolidating business analysis onto a common scalable platform. Hands-on labs are available for both beginners and experts giving you the chance to try some of these innovative data warehouse technologies first-hand. To help you get the most from this year’s event I have put together a comprehensive downloadable guide of all the data warehousing and big data activities at @OracleOpenWorld  2014. If y...

In one of my recent  blog post  I provided links to our OpenWorld data warehouse web app for smartphones and tablets. Now that the OOW team has released the hands-on lab schedule ( it is now live on the OpenWorld site) I have updated my smartphone and tablet apps to include the list of hands-on labs on a day-by-day basis (Monday Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday). The list of hands-on labs can still be viewed in subject area order (data warehousing and big data) within the app via the “ Switch to subject view ” link in the top left part of the screen. I have also added a location map which can be viewed by clicking on the linked-text, “ View location map ", which is in the top right part of the screen on each application. The location map that is available within both the tablet and smartphone apps is shown below: If you want to run these updated web apps on your smartphone and/or tablet then you can reuse the existing links that I published on my  last blog...

There so many exciting hands-on labs at this years OpenWorld conference and the schedule builder is now live so you can start booking your seat at these labs. To help you get organized and pick the most useful labs to attend I have published a new shared online calendar that contains all the most important data warehouse and big data hands-on labs at this year’s OpenWorld. The following links will allow you to add this shared calendar to your own calendar application: XML format is here:  https://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/eq7thlb4sb3valjageln5g48t0%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic .ICS format is here:  https://www.google.com/calendar/ical/eq7thlb4sb3valjageln5g48t0%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics HTML format is here:  https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=eq7thlb4sb3valjageln5g48t0%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/Los-Angeles Hope this helps you get organised for this year’s incredible conference. Any comments then let me k...

I have published a shared online calendar that contains all our data warehouse and big data sessions at this year’s OpenWorld. The following links will allow you to add this shared calendar to your own calendar application: XML format is here: https://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/mcivrscvnkl5egnrj789i46sek%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic .ICS format is here:  https://www.google.com/calendar/ical/mcivrscvnkl5egnrj789i46sek%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics HTML format is here: https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=mcivrscvnkl5egnrj789i46sek%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/Los_Angeles   As soon as the dates and times for the keynote sessions are published I will add these to the calendar so keep checking for updates. Hope this helps you get organised for this year’s incredible conference. Any comments then let me know and if I missed your data warehouse/big data session then let me know and I will add it to the calendar. Enjoy. ...

In my  last blog post  I provided links to our OpenWorld data warehouse web app for smartphones and tablets. Now that the OOW team has released the session schedule (it is now live on the OpenWorld site) I have updated my iPhone and iPad apps to include the list of sessions on a day-by-day basis (Sunday, Monday Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday). The list of sessions can still be viewed in subject area order (data warehousing, performance and scalability, analytics, unstructured data, industry models and big data) within the app via the “ Switch to subject view ” link in the top left part of the screen. I have also added a location map which can be viewed by clicking on the linked-text, “ View location map ", which is in the top right part of the screen on each application. The location map that is available within both the iPad and iPhone apps is shown below: If you want to run these updated web apps on your smartphone and/or tablet then you can reuse the exist...

Most of you probably know that each year I publish a data warehouse guide in iBook and PDF formats for OpenWorld which contains links to the latest data warehouse videos, a calendar for the most important sessions and labs and a section that provides profiles and relevant links for all the most important data warehouse presenters. For this year’s conference I have made all this information available in an HTML app that runs on most smartphones and tablets. The pictures below show the HTML app running on iPad and iPhone. This exciting new web app contains information about why you should attend OpenWorld - just in case you have not yet booked your ticket! - as well as the following information: Getting to know 12c - a series of video interviews with George Lumpkin, Vice President of Data Warehouse Product Management Your presenters - full biographies and links to social media sites for all the key data warehouse presenters Must sees sessions - list of all the most imp...

Data Warehousing Must-See Session Guide for Open World 2014 There’s so much to learn at this year’s Oracle OpenWorld - it provides more educational and networking opportunities than any other conference dedicated to Oracle business and technology users. To get the most from this year’s event I have prepared an initial guide which lists all the must important data warehousing and big data sessions. The first part of the guide provides links to videos and content from last year’s event so you can either re-live the highlights from last year or see what you missed by not being there! If you have an iPad or use OSX 10.9 then you will want to download the iBook version because this contains video highlights from last year’s database keynote session. The session guide is divided into the following chapters: Data Warehousing Performance and Scalability Database Analytics Industry Data Models and Data Integration Unstructured Data Big Data The last part of the boo...

Recently I started a series of blog posts covering the need for a private, secure and safe area for data discovery within the data warehouse ecosystem. The most common name for this type area is a “sandbox”. The demand for sandboxing is growing rapidly as many companies start exploring the new types of data streams linked to “big data”. In the first of my series of blog posts I started with an overview of the basic elements of sandboxes in the cloud . In the second post I looked at the differences between sandboxes vs. data marts .  As part of the first posts I put forward the idea of a sandbox lifecycle model, as shown below, and in this post I am going to explore the first stage of that lifecycle model: the BUILD stage: Many companies are actively working on lots of different big data led projects: customer sentiment analysis, clickstream analysis, product/service recommendations, real time event monitoring etc. Consequently there are lots of different project teams wan...

Follow us on   The latest edition of our monthly data warehouse and big data magazine for Oracle customers and partners is now available. The content for this magazine is taken from the various data warehouse and big data Oracle product management blogs, Oracle press releases, videos posted on Oracle Media Network and Oracle Facebook pages. Click here to view the May Edition Please share this link http://flip.it/fKOUS to our magazine with your customers and partners This magazine is optimized for display on tablets and smartphones using the Flipboard App which is available from the Apple App store and Google Play store