Welcome to 5 Minute Briefing: Oracle an information resource prepared by Database Trends and Applications Magazine and published in cooperation with the Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG). To subscribe, click here.

New Ntirety-Sponsored IOUG Survey Explores How Well Database Professionals are Paid

How well are Oracle database professionals and managers being paid? Recently, the Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG), conducted its first annual salary survey of managers and professionals at Oracle database sites. The survey was conducted by Unisphere Research, in cooperation with Ntirety, a leading provider of remote database administration services for Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server.

Not only did the survey find wide differences based on experience, but also within the pay rates of larger organizations versus their smaller counterparts, geography, and by level of skills certification.

Of the 503 respondents to the survey, 50 percent said they are database administrators, 16 percent are analysts or developers, 10 percent are IT managers, and the remaining 24 percent hold a variety of titles, including that of consultant, architect, and project manager. A majority, 58 percent, indicated they have more than a decade of experience at their jobs, while 10 percent are relatively new with less than five years' experience. About half said they hold some form of certification.

“This survey by the IOUG represents a ground-breaking measurement of the impact that specific skills and certifications have on the potential earnings of database professionals,” Joe McKendrick, Unisphere Research analyst and author of the executive summary for the 2008 IOUG Salary Survey, told 5 Minute Briefing. “Database administrators who had certifications definitely tended to be in the higher ranges of the salaries we tracked, whereas few of those certified respondents were found in the lower echelons of the salary ranges.”

Additionally, the survey examined the “hot” skills, for which employers are willing to pay a premium. In follow-up questions to the salary data, many respondents pointed to business-related skills, in which data professionals interact closer with the rest of the organization to map out data requirements within applications. “Skills have moved from totally database-centric to business-centric,” said one respondent. “Technology for technology's sake is no longer important. Technology that has a positive business impact is important and the DBA is relied upon to understand it if it's database-related.”

To access the full survey results of the Ntirety-sponsored IOUG Survey, go here. For more on Ntirety, go here.

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Oracle Announces Oracle Application Testing Suite; Oracle IT Service Management Suite Certified ITIL Compatible

Oracle yesterday announced availability of the Oracle Application Testing Suite, the latest addition to Oracle Enterprise Manager's suite of Application Quality Management products.

The Oracle Application Testing Suite provides an integrated solution for load testing, functional testing and test management, enabling customers to thoroughly test packaged, Web and SOA-based applications and their underlying infrastructure to help ensure optimum quality, scalability, and availability. With this announcement, Oracle is adding to its existing portfolio of testing solutions, Moe Fardoost, Oracle director of product marketing, told 5 Minute Briefing. Oracle Application Testing Suite incorporates technology acquired earlier this year with the e-TEST suite Web application testing products from Empirix. As a result, Oracle now offers “a complete testing solution” for both Web applications - as well as database applications and secure data sharing, which were part of pre-existing capabilities within Oracle, he said.

Key components of Oracle Application Testing Suite include Oracle Load Testing for Web Applications. “This is the component that allows you to generate tens of thousands of simultaneous requests so that you can stress-test your application,” said Fardoost. Another component, Oracle Functional Testing for Web Applications, enables comprehensive functional testing of applications and Web services and is a “huge” productivity boost, noted Fardoost.  Its transaction engine simplifies automated test script generation and enables the automation of complex Web applications and associated technologies out-of-the-box to validate the end-user’s experience. Finally, Oracle Test Manager for Web Applications “is the component that really helps you manage the whole testing task from planning to scheduling to defect management,” said Fardoost.

“Testing has always been a major part of the application lifecycle and we have been aware of the challenges customers have in trying to get better quality with less resources and with fewer skills,” Fardoost explained. With the new capabilities for Web application testing, Oracle offers maximum automation of load and functional testing, enabling organizations to reduce their testing effort by as much as 50 percent as well as better utilize less skilled IT resources, said Fardoost.

Oracle also yesterday announced Oracle IT Service Management Suite has been certified as ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) compatible through the PinkVERIFY IT Service Management (ITSM) certification program. Key components of the Oracle IT Service Management Suite include Siebel CRM HelpDesk, Oracle Enterprise Manager and Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.

For more on Oracle Application Testing Suite, go here. For more on Oracle IT Service Management Suite, go here.

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Persistent Systems Announces First Rapid Migration Solution for Oracle Identity Management

Persistent Systems, a provider of outsourced product development (OPD) services, has announced it has developed a solution that seamlessly migrates Oracle customers from existing identity and access management platforms to the Oracle Identity Management suite. According to Persistent, the Accelerated Migration Solution reduces the time, cost and risk involved in the Oracle Identity Management suite. “Our relationship with Oracle essentially is an engineering relationship,” Muneer Taskar, head of Persistent IdM solutions, told 5 Minute Briefing. “We know the products inside-out.”

Oracle Access Manager serves as a standard identity management and access control system for an enterprise's application ecosystem, allowing authorized personnel to centrally manage identity administration and access management for all applications. Persistent’s accelerated migration solution extends Oracle’s market by providing a reliable migration path for new customers, according to Persistent.

A migration from one identity management product to another has typically been a long and expensive process, with some organizations reporting that it takes two to three years for a full migration, observed Taskar. The traditional approach has been very analysis-heavy and requires expertise in the field. Since, in doing a migration, “absolutely no mistakes can be made,” Taskar said that organizations can be reluctant to make a change. However, with its tools, he said, Persistent can automate a large part of what would typically be a manual two-to-three-year process, reducing it down to six months, and in doing so, make it a “risk-free and simpler process.”

According to the company, the combination of more than a decade of Oracle Identity Management engineering, implementation and support - along with deep expertise in data management and migration has resulted in Persistent's rapid migration product. A long-standing engineering partner of Oracle, Persistent Systems is a member of the worldwide Oracle Partner Network. For more about Persistent Systems, go here.

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Oracle Announces Latest Release of Oracle Audit Vault

Oracle has announced the general availability of Oracle Audit Vault, release 10.2.3, which helps organizations secure all their enterprise databases and address regulatory requirements. This latest release of Oracle Audit Vault also collects audit data from Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and 2005, in addition to Oracle Databases. "Oracle Audit Vault 10.2.3 allows organizations to turn database audit data into mission-critical business intelligence for enabling enterprise security and regulatory compliance," said Vipin Samar, vice president of Database Security, Oracle, in making the announcement.

With Oracle Audit Vault, audit data is automatically consolidated into a secure, centralized repository based on Oracle's proven data warehousing technology, and analyzed in real-time against enterprise-defined policies. Any unauthorized activities can be detected using Oracle Audit Vault's dashboard alerts capabilities. Oracle Audit Vault also features built-in and customizable reports to address the need for reliable compliance reporting for regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, and the PCI Data Security Standard

This latest release introduces additional pre-built reports, and now captures before-and-after changes to sensitive data to help organization save time and costs related to compliance reporting. The new release also offers improved reporting capabilities such as filtering audit data, highlighting rows with condition values, as well as generating charts and graphs. Custom reports can be saved and shared within the enterprise or with external auditors. Oracle Audit Vault 10.2.3 also increases privileged user monitoring by auditing Oracle Database Vault, a solution for real-time enforcement of preventive database controls.

For more information about Oracle Audit Vault, go here. To download a free, evaluation version of Oracle Audit Vault Release 10.2.3, go here.

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Oracle recently announced it’s agreement to acquire ClearApp, a leading provider of application management solutions for composite applications. Providing the collective resources, educational programs, and intellectual capital for the greater Oracle ecosystem, IOUG would like to welcome ClearApp to the customer community. 

A valuable and complementary addition to the Oracle product family, ClearApp addresses the increasingly difficult task of managing composite applications built on SOA platforms by providing visibility of business services across all related application components.

Click here to learn more.

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BIWA Summit Early Bird Registration Deadline is Monday

If you haven’t registered for BIWA Summit 2008, December 2-3, 2008 in Redwood Shores, CA, now is the time to do so. Register by next Monday, September 15 to take advantage of the early bird rate, a $100 savings and:

• Hear from renowned speakers like Jeanne Harris, Executive Research Fellow and Director of Research, Accenture Institute for High Performance Business and Usama Fayyad, Chief Data Officer/Executive VP of Research & Strategic Data Solutions, Yahoo!
  
• Learn from more than 75 technical sessions across three tracks
  
• Peruse the Solution Showcase
  
• Attend Analyst/User Panel Discussions
  
• And much more!
  

Register by Monday, September 15 to save!

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Top 5 Reasons to Join the IOUG at Oracle OpenWorld

Join the IOUG at Oracle OpenWorld, taking place September 21-25 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA. Don't miss your chance to:

5. Network with fellow IOUG members and Oracle users throughout the week.

4. Have your name entered into a drawing for a complimentary University Seminar at COLLABORATE 09 – IOUG Forum, May 3-7, 2009 in Orlando, FL by visiting the IOUG booth, located in the Users Group Pavilion of Moscone West.

3. Enhance your knowledge on Oracle's latest acquisition – BEA. The IOUG and the Oracle Development Tools Users Group (ODTUG) will be presenting BEA-specific, customer-driven sessions.

2. Learn from more than 20 technical sessions presented by the IOUG. Topics range from Fusion Middleware to Content Management to Data Warehousing.

1. Attend SIG Day*, where more than 45 sessions will be presented by IOUG SIGs in valuable focus areas.

Register today for Oracle OpenWorld, and make sure you indicate you are affiliated with the IOUG when registering!

*You do not need to be a member of a SIG to join these sessions.

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Register for IOUG University Seminar by September 26 to Save

The IOUG is excited to present a University Seminar in conjunction with UTOUG Fall Conference. Register by September 26 for the seminar, Oracle Database 10g Streams: Data Replication, taking place on October 27 in Salt Lake City, UT, prior to the conference. Don’t miss your chance to enhance your knowledge on Oracle Streams:

Using Oracle Streams you can propagate data, transactions, user defined events and messages in a stream of information within a database, or from one database to another. Oracle Streams offers more flexibility than other replication solutions in capturing, propagating and applying the information to other databases or applications. In this session, you will learn all about Oracle Streams architecture, configuration, administration and monitoring. Once configured and managed properly Oracle Streams can be very efficient and effective method for replicating data. An elaborate demonstration will show how Streams replication works.

Register by September 26 to save $100 on this seminar! And, click here to register for UTOUG Fall Conference on October 28.

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Registration is Now Open for IOUG Boot Camp Seminars

Register today for the IOUG Boot Camp Seminar, Zen and the Art of Database Tuning, being held in conjunction with various Regional Users Groups (RUGs) throughout the country:

• November 6, 2008 in partnership with National Capitol Oracle Users Group in Reston, VA
• November 7, 2008 in partnership with Ohio Oracle Users Group in Dublin, OH
• November 14, 2008 in partnership with Dallas Oracle Users Group in Plano, TX

Learn various SQL and Database tuning techniques in this seminar. Topics include: proper table and partitioning design, proper selection of indexes for a specific database and SQL type and more.

Register today to take advantage of the early bird rate!

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Save the Date for IOUG Technology Forum

Save the date for IOUG Technology Forum, taking place taking place December 2, 2008, in Schaumburg, IL. Presented in partnership with Quest International Users Group (Quest), this is a unique opportunity to receive in-depth, focused Oracle technical knowledge in two areas – Fusion Middleware and Database Administration/Development. Don’t miss your chance to attend sessions like:

• Fusion Middleware Track
  
  • What Really is Fusion?
    
  • Integrating Oracle PeopleSoft with Other Applications
    
  • Configuring BEA and Oracle Fusion with PeopleSoft
• Database Administrator/Developer Track
  
• Oracle for the PeopleSoft DBA
  
• Oracle for the PeopleSoft Developer
  
• Tuning Oracle for PeopleSoft

Keep checking the IOUG Web site, as additional sessions and registration information will provided shortly!

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Oracle Presents High-tech Sessions at Oracle OpenWorld

This year, Oracle OpenWorld spotlights the high-technology industry with sessions that focus on end-to-end, industry-specific process flows. Join us to discover how mapping complete, open and integrated business process flows across lines of business and delivers a quantum leap in productivity and competitiveness.

With more sessions than ever to choose from, you’ll learn how Oracle high-technology solutions can help you accelerate innovation, drive operational excellence, and leverage business intelligence for decisive action with less risk.

In the high-technology industry track, you’ll learn about Oracle, partner, and customer solutions that can help you:

• Meet the demands of shrinking product lifecycles and constant pressure for innovation
• Create an efficient supply chain that reduces costs and increases responsiveness
  
• Improve marketing effectiveness and manage your partners and sales channels more efficiently
  

More than 20 sessions will be presented in this area.

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Download the Latest Tools from Oracle
 
Live Webcast: Wednesday, Sept 10, 2008 – 11AM PT / 2PM ET
Application Grid: Oracle’s Vision for Next-Generation Application Servers and Infrastructure- View this live Webcast to hear senior Oracle executives Hasan Rizvi, Steve Harris, and Adam Messinger discuss the application grid. Learn how Oracle is combining cutting-edge technologies from its recent acquisition of BEA with the Fusion Middleware portfolio. Discover a new level of reliability, performance, and "scale-agility" in your data center, with emphasis on efficiency for today’s challenging economic environment. Register now.

Help save paper – and our planet - Choose Oracle E-mail
When it comes to waste paper, prevention really is better than cure, as it reduces the environmental impact of both manufacture and recycling. That’s why we’re committed to cutting back our paper consumption and postage by encouraging you to adopt e-mail as your preferred method of receiving communications from Oracle.

Get Started with Oracle on Windows DVD
Learn how Oracle gives you the power to grow by providing a scalable, easy-to-use platform for running your business at a price you can afford. Request your free copy of this DVD, containing Oracle Database 11g software, whitepapers, tutorials, etc.

FREE Oracle Data Masking Resource Kit
Stop inadvertently exposing sensitive or regulated information when you copy production data into your non-production databases. Learn how you can de-identify production data to create realistic and functionally complete databases in our FREE Oracle Data Masking Resource Kit with industry expert webcasts, data privacy protection and regulatory compliance guides, step by step tutorials, and more.

FREE Oracle Database Vault Resource Kit
Protect sensitive application data in your database with the industry's most advanced real-time database security product, Oracle Database Vault. You can even control what privileged DBA users can and cannot do, as well as when, where, and how they do it. Learn how you can enforce database security policies in our FREE Oracle Database Vault Resource kit with industry expert webcasts, data privacy protection and regulatory compliance guides, step by step tutorials, and more.

Oracle Webcast: Powerful Testing For Fast Low-Risk Deployments
First impressions are so important. That's why Oracle offers powerful testing tools to help your company deploy higher-quality, more reliable applications - in a fraction of the usual time and effort. Click here to learn more!

Oracle Webcast: View Your Web Sites and Applications Through the Eyes of Real Users
Your web sites and e-commerce applications are only as good as your users think they are. Oracle Real User Experience Insight offers an industry-leading solution to help your company track and analyze real user experiences. Learn more!

Webcast: Drive Competitive Advantage With Better End-user Experience For Web sites and Applications

In this on-demand webcast, you will hear J.P. Garbani from Forrester Research discuss successful strategies and best practices to help you deliver better online experience to your customers. Learn more now!

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Founded in 1993, the Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG) (formerly International Oracle Users Group) is a user-driven membership organization for Oracle technology and database professionals serving more than 15,000 database administrators, developers, architects, technical managers and other Oracle professionals throughout North America and worldwide. The IOUG empowers its members and the broader Oracle community through their technical publication, SELECT Journal, Web site resources including more than 3000 papers, tips and articles and networking with other users through online discussion forums, Special Interest Groups and a network of regional Oracle user groups. For more information about the IOUG, please visit the IOUG Web site.

Database Trends and Applications, published by Unisphere Media, a division of Information Today, Inc., provides timely coverage of the technology and intelligence needed to conceptualize, plan, initiate, implement and manage large-scale integrated information projects. Unisphere Media also publishes 5 Minute Briefing: Data Integration, a summary of news, trends, and insights addressing crucial data integration challenges and 5 Minute Briefing: MultiValue, a review of news, technical tips and insights for the MultiValue database community. Visit our Web site here.

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