http://www.oracle.com/newsletters/information-indepth/database-insider/mar-07/ari-kaplan_a.html

INFORMATION INDEPTH Database Insider Edition

IOUG President Ari Kaplan Takes an Inside Look at Oracle Database 11g Beta

In this two-part series, Database Insider speaks with Ari Kaplan, longtime DBA and current president of the International Oracle Users Group (IOUG) to see what his members are saying about their Oracle Database 11g Beta experience.

Insider: What's the buzz in the community about Oracle Database 11g Beta testing?

Kaplan: The buzz is extremely high around IOUG. People are excited and looking forward to the next major release. At Oracle OpenWorld, Chuck Rozwat provided a taste of things to come and that elevated interest and the excitement to a fervor pitch.

Insider: As IOUG President, you have participated in the last three major release betas. How does this beta compare to past releases?

Kaplan: I would say the last one and this one have a degree of professionalism that's hard to beat. Oracle is flying people out and working very closely with them to get feedback. The beta program keeps the touch point between Oracle and their database customers very strong, with very good open communication.

Insider: What are some of the planned features or planned upgrades within Oracle Database 11g Beta that have your members excited?

Kaplan: At IOUG, we have a best practices special interest group and high availability and security are some of the highest priorities. The plans for hot patching and any RAC upgrades are things they want to understand. The whole notion of hot patching is very intriguing to them.
When Oracle and every other vendor have bugs or updates, most companies have to shut down the application or shut down the database to apply the patch. But with Oracle Database 11g Beta we're seeing that you can patch your database or upgrade it to the new bug fix without having to shut down your database or application. So for high availability, that's what people are looking at. It releases people from the administrative burden of having to plan to shut down the database or do rolling patches. That's important for 24-hour solutions where you can't even have downtime on the weekend. The whole downtime management issue pretty much goes away.
Having the hot patching is going to really improve the relationship with Oracle and their customers. I think this is going to draw customers closer to Oracle and it's going to allow Oracle to have many more adherents to their regular patch updates. That leads to a whole healthier Oracle community.

DB Insider: Speaking of the Oracle Community, it's almost time for IOUG's big annual event, COLLABORATE '07

Kaplan: COLLABORATE '07 is going to be on tax day, April 15, in Las Vegas. We're going to have a four-day event for education and for networking. There's going to be a large participation with Oracle Corporation as well. It's going to be the largest Oracle user event in the world.

Insider: Thank you for speaking with us. Have a great time at COLLABORATE '07.

Kaplan: Thank you

Next month, Kaplan delves deeper into Oracle Database 11g Beta to discuss RAC, Database Vault, and how the IOUG is helping Oracle plan for the future.

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