SQL for Data Warehousing and Analytics

Here it is….. THE ultimate, comprehensive review for big data warehousing for #OOW18. This review is for everyone who either missed this year’s conference or just wants to relive the amazing experience all over again ( but focusing on just the best bits obviously! ). So here you go, my complete view nicely packaged and available free of charge in a number of different formats…           Following on from this year’s OpenWorld I have now put together the ultimate, comprehensive review for big data warehousing content from #OOW18. This free review contains the following information: Key video highlights from the main executive keynotes Overview of the announcements for Autonomous Database - contains the links you need to learn even more about how the Autonomous Database can simplify and speed up your big data warehousing projects! Full list of Oracle Product Management and Development presenters, links to all their social media sites are included alon...

Here’s your absolutely Must-See agenda for Monday at OpenWorld 2018... It all starts today -   OpenWorld 2018.  Each day I will provide you with a list of must-see sessions and hands-on labs. This is going to be one of the biggest and most exciting OpenWorlds ever! Today is Day 1 so here here is my definitive list of Must-See sessions for the opening day. The list is packed full of really excellent speakers from Oracle product management talking about Autonomous Database and the Cloud. These sessions are what Oracle OpenWorld is all about: the chance to learn from the real technical experts. MONDAY'S MUST-SEE GUIDE     Don't worry if you are not able to join us in San Francisco for this year's conference because I will be providing a comprehensive review after the conference closes on Thursday. The review will include links to download the presentations for each of my Must-See sessions and links to any hands-on lab content as well. Have a great conference. If you ...

It’s  not long until the doors open at the Moscone Center in San Francisco for the biggest and most exciting tech conference in the calendar. Looking at the online content catalog it’s hard to know where to start because there are so many sessions and just not enough time! Which is here my Must-See Guide comes to the rescue. It lists all the most important data warehouse, big data, analytics, machine learning sessions and labs at #oow18 is now available as a comprehensive Day-by-Day version: My Day-by-Day guide for OpenWorld 2018 is available in both old-fashioned PDF format as a free download from here  and the more useful Apple Book format as a free download   from here   ( open this link in a browser and then click on the blue “View in iBooks” button below the cover-picture ). As usual, all feedback is welcome and if I have missed a session or a hands-on lab that you think should be included in this guide then send me a quick email with the details: keith.lak...

There are so many sessions at this year’s OpenWorld it’s hard to know where to start when trying to pick which sessions to attend! To help you get your personal calendar organized and totally focused on THE most important sessions here is my pick of the very best sessions and labs that you definitely won’t want to miss! Simply cut & paste the links below into your calendar app and then sit back and relax because all you need to do next is turn up at Moscone and enjoy the best tech conference ever :-) ...so if you have a calendar app on your computer then just use the iCal links to subscribe to my calendars. Your calendar app should allow you to color-code each calendar to make life easier and more colourful!   For data warehousing and cloud-focused sessions+labs use these links: iCal format: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/31pd442io213d7n1o44rstlqno%40group.calendar.google.com/private-5fc5e75a3b08e9ab2f2f0a3a16b839ef/basic.ics Web page:  https:...

Did you miss OpenWorld 2017? Then my latest book is definitely something you will want to download! If you went to OpenWorld this book is also for you because it covers all the most important big data warehousing messages and sessions during the five days of OpenWorld. Following on from OpenWorld 2017 I have put together a comprehensive review of all the big data warehousing content from OpenWorld 2017. This includes all the key sessions and announcements from this year's Oracle OpenWorld conference. This review contains the following information: Welcome - an overview of the contents. Let’s Go Autonomous - containing all you need to know about Oracle’s new, fully-managed Autonomous Data Warehouse Cloud . This was the biggest announcement at OpenWorld so this chapter contains videos, presentations and podcasts to get you up to speed on this completely new data warehouse cloud service. Keynotes - Relive OpenWorld 2017 by watching the most important highlights f...

  It’s here - at last! I have just pushed my usual must-see guide to the Apple iBooks Store.   The free big data warehousing Must-See guide for OpenWorld 2017 is now available for download from the Apple iBooks Store - click here , and yes it’s completely free . This comprehensive guide covers everything you need to know about this year’s Oracle OpenWorld conference so that when you arrive at Moscone Conference Center you are ready to get the most out of this amazing conference. The guide contains the following information: Page 8 - On-Demand Videos Page 17 - Justify Your trip Page 19 - Key Presenters Page 41 - Must See Sessions Page 90 - Useful Maps Chapter 1  - Introduction to the must-see guide. Chapter 2  - A guide to the key the highlights from last year’s conference so you can relive the experience or see what you missed. Catch the most important highlights from last year's OpenWorld conference with our on demand video service which covers all the ...

Image courtesy of pixabay.com In my previous post I reviewed some reasons why people seem reluctant to accept approximate results as being correct and useful. The general consensus is that approximate results are wrong which is very strange when you consider how often we interact with approximations as part of our everyday life. Most of the use cases in my first post on this topic covered situations where distinct counts were the primary goal - how many click throughs did an advert generate, how many unique sessions were recorded for a web site etc. The use cases that I outlined provided some very good reasons for using approximations of distinct counts. As we move forward into the era of Analytics-of-Things the use of approximations in queries will expand and this approach to processing data will become an accepted part of our analytical workflows. To support Analytics-of-Things, Database 12c Release 12.2 includes even more approximate functions. In this release we have added...

Hopefully, you have seen the comprehensive data warehouse guide for #oow16 in iBook and PDF formats 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 menu screens for the HTML app: This exciting new web app contains everything you need to know to get the most from this year's OpenWorld, including: Must sees sessions - list of all the most important data warehouse and big data sessions Must attend labs - list of all the most important data warehouse and big data labs Agenda - a day-by-day guide to #oow16 Your presenters - full biographies and links to social media sites for all the key data warehouse presenters Social media - feeds from o...

It’s almost time for OpenWorld. Only three weeks to go! With so much to see and learn at Oracle OpenWorld we are doing our best to make sure that everyone get the most from this year’s conference. Therefore, to help you get prepared and organized we have created a series of online calendars which list all the must-see data warehousing and big data sessions, labs and key events. Just look at the agenda below - we have packed this year’s schedule with the very best must-see sessions and must-attend labs by Oracle product managers and key customers. The above agenda is built using Google Calendar and is available for use with other calendar applications that allow you to subscribe to online calendars. To make the process as easy as possible we have created a range of calendars mapped to specific areas of interest such as: cloud, data warehousing, analytics, big data and unstructured data.  The following links can be used to access our OpenWorld calendars via your own calendar app...

It’s almost here - the 2016 BIWA conference at the Oracle Conference Center. The conference starts on January 26 with a welcome by the conference leaders at 8:30am. The BIWA summit is dedicated to providing all the very latest information and best practices for data warehousing, big data, spatial analytics and BI. This year the conference has expanded to include the most important query language on the planet: SQL. There will be a whole track dedicated to YesSQL! The full agenda is available here Unfortunately I won’t be able to attend this year’s conference but if I was going to be there, then this would be my list of must-attend  sessions and hands-on labs.   Tuesday January 26 What’s New with Spatial and Graph? Technologies to Better Understand Complex Relationships Time: 10:15 AM - 11:05 AM Spatial and Graph analysis is about understanding relationships. As applications and infrastructure evolve, as new technologies and platforms emerge, we find new ways to incorpo...

Next week I will be in Birmingham at the annual UKOUG Tech conference . I will be presenting on some of the new SQL features that we added in Database 12c to support analysis of big data. I am also planning to cover some of the features that we are planning for  Database 12c Release 2 , which is currently in beta. The talk is titled “ SQL - The Goto Language for Big Data Analytics ” and it should have something for everyone - if you have not made the move to Database 12c then I will be showing some great features that will encourage to start your planning and if you are already using 12c there will be some exciting new features to look forward to with  Database 12c Release 2 .  To give you a taster of what to expect during my session, which is on Wednesday Dec 9 at 3:30pm  in Hall 9, here are some sort-of relevant Dilbert cartoons, courtesy of Scott Adams :     If you would like to download my slides in advance of the session then follow this link:  http://bit.ly/1O5sy11 . See you...

Last week I was in Nuremburg at the excellent annual German Oracle user group conference - DOAG15. This was my first visit to DOAG and I was amazed at the size of the event. It is huge but most importantly it is very well organized and definitely one of the best, possibly the best, user conference that I have attended.  …and then there was the chance to drink some gluhwein  with the database PM team on the way to the speakers dinner.   There were a lot of Database product managers in attendance so it was great chance to catch up with my colleagues from HQ. This, combined with lots of Oracle Ace Directors made for lots of great sessions.Quite surprisingly there was a great spread of English speaking sessions and German sessions with translation. I even attempted a few German sessions that did not offer translation services. Honestly, if you are based in Europe and speak either German or English and you are looking for a conference that offers deep technical content along with produc...