OGB Appreciation Day 2019 : It’s a Wrap (#ThanksOGB)

Yesterday was the Oracle community OGB Appreciation Day 2019.

I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who took the time to join in. Here is the list of posts I saw in chronological order. If I missed you out, give me a shout and I’ll add you. 🙂

Another happy “Blog Birthday” celebration for Flora B., who first started blogging because of a previous appreciation day. It’s always good to see one of the children come home. 🙂 

Once again, thanks everyone for getting involved and of course #ThanksOGB

See you all next year!

Cheers

Tim…

OGB Appreciation Day : Infrastructure is dead. It’s all about the platforms baby! (#ThanksOGB)

Here’s my entry for OGB Appreciation Day 2019

If you’ve followed me in recent times, you’ve probably heard me say something like this.

“Infrastructure is dead. It’s all about the platforms baby!”

I might not have added the “baby” though. 🙂

This may seem like an unusual statement for someone that has been involved in infrastructure for most of their working life. So what gives? I think this is a natural progression for someone like me.

Automatic Updates

I’ve always pushed to move to the latest and greatest version of things. I push upgrades and patches quite aggressively. I always want people to be using the latest versions, and the latest features on those versions if possible. That can be problematic for people who don’t no-life this tech game.

Using a platform, where it’s someone else’s responsibility to keep the platform up to date, is great. Without it, welcome to technical debt town, population you!

Reducing Complexity

Life is getting more complex, not simpler. Take a look at something like the CNCF landscape and tell me how confident you are putting together a bunch of those projects to deliver a production system. There is some great stuff there, but I would be very worried if someone put me in charge of that. Sure, things like OLCNE will make things easier, but it’s still going to be scary. Why would I put myself through that stress if there is a service/platform built on that, and I can get all the benefits, without the hassle? I wouldn’t.

I don’t know how to build a car, but I can drive one. I want a platform that lets me drive, without having to build, or in some cases even understand what’s under the hood…

Take the robot out of the human

I’m not sure who came up with this phrase, but I hear it all the time, and I’ve started to use it all the time. I’m a fan of automation, but for many people the transition from manual build to automated build is really hard. One of the bonuses of good platforms is they come with automation built in.

Even when you can’t do conventional automation, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) tools like UiPath can allow you to automate existing manual tasks to make them automatic, or semi-automatic.

Clearly this is not just about platforms and cloud, but for a lot of people they need a sufficiently big push to get them moving. For some a cloud project and adoption of platforms may will be that push.

There are lessons to be learned

You need to be at least trying platforms and cloud services because they alter your approach to things. It’s very easy to get set in your ways and do things the same every time. My copy/paste foo is strong too!

When you start to play around with platforms and services you will start to rewire you brain and it will alter the way you approach tasks, and alter your expectations from yourself and others. My “definition of done” is a lot different now than it was before I started using services.

Even if you stay on-prem, you should be aiming to emulate the experience of cloud, because it’s what your users expect, or will come to expect.

And nothing can go wrong!

Believe me, I know what can go wrong. I have first-hand, and ongoing experience of what can go wrong, but it still doesn’t alter my opinion that this is the correct course of action.

A little something I’ve said in a few conversations goes something like this. People that work in technology are often into science fiction. When the captain of the USS Enterprise asks, “Computer, what is the composition of that nebula?”, they don’t expect the computer to answer with, “I can’t give you the answer. Someone needs to extend a tablespace!” How can some of us be so into the science fiction future, yet be so committed to a zero-change policy where our systems are concerned? It doesn’t compute for me.

Unless you are working for a cloud provider, I think you’ve got to move beyond the obsession with “internals” and focus on adding value to the business. We need to elevate our focus…

Where do I start?

If you are reading this you are probably an Oracle developer or DBA, so a good place to start would be the Free Tier on Oracle Cloud. Dip your toe in the water. If you like it, maybe this will be the start of something big for you!

Cheers

Tim…

OGB Appreciation Day 2019 (#ThanksOGB)

It seems like every year this has a different name, but the motivation is the same… This year it is #ThanksOGB…

History

Back in the day we had a community site called Oracle Technology Network (OTN), which is why the first incarnation of this event was called #ThanksOTN. Later OTN got re-branded as Oracle Developer Community (don’t call it ODC 🙂 ), so the last couple of years we got #ThanksODC. That confused a few people, as they thought this was about the Oracle Developer Champions, Oracle Database Cloud, Oracle Developer Cloud or some other such stuff. It wasn’t. Some people didn’t identify as developers, so thought it was not for them. None of that is true. It’s pretty simple. I can’t image there is anyone working with Oracle technology that hasn’t used forums, read articles or downloaded Oracle software from OTN/ODC over the years. You must have directly, or indirectly, benefited from the work done by the people at Oracle who support our community. This is just an opportunity to say thanks to those brave folks who endure our endless moaning. 🙂

What is OGB?

It’s “Oracle Groundbreakers Appreciation Day”. Who are they? To quote Jennifer Nicholson.

“I want to point out that Groundbreakers includes ACEs, Java Champions, Ambassadors and all those who have the Groundbreakers spirit. :-)”

I would like to include Oracle staff, especially those that work directly to support the community. Even though it is “Oracle Groundbreakers Appreciation Day”, this is not specifically about the Oracle Groundbreaker Ambasssadors Program, so you aren’t blowing smoke up their asses. This is a thank you to everyone that makes the community great, especially those people that work at keep us all moving! If you’ve benefited from the Oracle community at large, please join in…

Does that mean I’m thanking myself?

You are thanking all the people who have have contributed and helped you in your journey!

When is it?

Every year I pick a date and have to change it because of a national holiday on some country. 🙂 At the moment the date of the event is in a little over a weeks time on Thursday 10th October 2019.

Check back closer to the time to make sure the date hasn’t changed. If we have to move it, it will only be by a day either side.

How can I get involved?

Here is the way it works.

  • Write a blog post. The title should be in the format “OGB Appreciation Day : <insert-the-title-here>“.
  • The content can be pretty much anything. See the section below.
  • Tweet out the blog post using the hashtag #ThanksOGB.
  • Publishing the posts on the same day allows us to generate a buzz. In previous years loads of people were on twitter retweeting, making it even bigger. The community is spread around the world, so the posts will be released over a 24 hour period.
  • Oracle employees are welcome to join in.

Like previous years, it would be really nice if we could get a bunch of first-timers involved, but it’s also an opportunity to see existing folks blog for the first time in ages! 🙂

The following day I write a summary post that includes links to all the posts that were pushed out through the day. You can see examples of the last two here.

What Should I Write About?

Whatever you want to write about. Here are some suggestions that might help you.

  • My favourite feature of {the Oracle-related tech you work on}.
  • What is the next thing on your list to learn.
  • Horror stories. My biggest screw up, and how I fixed it.
  • How the cloud has affected my job.
  • What I get out of the Oracle Community.
  • What feature I would love to see added to {the Oracle-related tech you work on}.
  • The project I worked on that I’m the most proud of. (Related to Oracle tech of course)

It’s not limited to these. You can literally write about anything Oracle-related. The posts can be short, which makes it easy for new people to get involved. If you do want to write about something technical, that’s fine. You can also write a simple overview post and link to more detailed posts on a subject if you like. In the previous years the posts I enjoyed the most were those that showed the human side of things, but that’s just me. Do whatever you like. 🙂

So you have a little over a week to get something ready!

Cheers

Tim…

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