As we prepare for the week of Oracle OpenWorld 2014, I look back on the 25 years I have spent within the orbit of Oracle Corporation.

I joined Oracle Consulting Services (OCS) as an employee on 15-January 1990 and worked my way to Technical Manager when I resigned to start my own consultancy on 31-July 1998.  I worked as an independent Oracle consultant from then (with a side trip into company-building with friends) until 30-April this year.  On 01-May 2014, I joined startup Delphix.

Throughout this quarter-century of La Vida Oracle, I’ve made a great living, but it has also been a great way of life.  I started presenting at the Rocky Mountain Oracle Users Group in 1993, and joined the board of directors in 1995.  I’ve since worked with many other Oracle users groups as a volunteer and I’ve found the experiences to be incredibly educational, in so many ways.  I’ve also met a lot of amazing people through volunteering at Oracle users groups.  I met the junta of the Oak Table Network, and joined that group in 2002.  I was elected as an Oracle ACE in 2007, before I even knew the program existed, then I was made an ACE Director in 2012, which is an elevation I appreciate but still never sought.

But over it all, all throughout, is Oracle.  The Big Red O.  Some people have had bad experiences at Oracle Corporation, some have had REALLY bad experiences, just as people have good and bad experiences at any huge corporation.  In the spirit of a comment made famous by Winston Churchill, “Democracy is the absolute worst form of government.  Except for all the others.”  Oracle is populated by, and led by, some very human … beings.  I love them all, some more than others.

So for 25 years now, out of the 37 years Oracle has been in existence, I have had a really great life.  La vida Oracle.  I am so GLAD I met ya!  And I love this life!

And so it continues today.  For the first time in a quarter century, I’m out of the direct orbit of Oracle, now that I’m working at Delphix.  I’m still heavily involved with Oracle as an Oracle ACE Director and adviser to the boards of three local Oracle users groups (RMOUG, NoCOUG, and NEOOUG) and a board member at ODTUG.

Delphix builds data virtualization software for Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, and Sybase ASE, as well as file-system directories on Unix/Linux and Windows.  Virtualizing Oracle databases is a big part of Delphix’s business, but it is not the only part, and the non-Oracle parts are growing rapidly.  It’s refreshing to work with other database technologies.  But I still love working with Oracle Database, and I’m continually impressed by Oracle’s technology prowess, with the In-Memory option of Database12c a brilliant example.

Some say that Delphix competes with Oracle.  Be serious – please name a technology company that doesn’t compete with Oracle in one way or another, as the breadth of Oracle products and services is so expansive.

As an independent contractor at EvDBT for 16 years, I myself competed with Oracle Consulting in my own very small way.  But, at the same time I cooperated with Oracle by optimizing the implementation of Oracle technology.  I sure as heck understand who hold the tent up.

The same is true with Delphix.  As a company, Delphix products can be said to compete with Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Control, in the niche area known as Database-As-A-Service (DBaaS) in the specific SnapClone functionality.  The Delphix software appliance is very similar to this SnapClone piece, but this part of the Oracle product is just a small part of the scope the vast EM12c Cloud Control product suite.

In the same way, I as an independent consultant could have been said to have competed with the EM12c diagnostics pack and performance tuning pack, because the techniques I used and taught tended to make people independent of those tools.

That’s not to say I steered people away from EM12c; it’s just that I myself didn’t use it for performance tuning, though gradually I learned to appreciate many of its features, not least through paying attention to my wife Kellyn Pot’vin.

In fact, the Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Control, using the Cloud API, can fully administer virtual databases created by Delphix.  After all, Delphix is just an alternate mechanism to implement data virtualization.  Instead of using the mechanism of Oracle DBaaS SnapClone, customers can also use Delphix.  So Delphix can become a part of EM12c.

So there is no competition between Delphix and Oracle.  Delphix is an alternative to the SnapClone mechanism underlying DBaaS, but Delphix virtual databases can still be orchestrated through the EM12c console.  It need not be an either-or choice.

Of course, I still have to write that extension through the EM12c cloud API, and I’m getting right on that.  Unless someone else gets to it first.

Keep your eye on the Oracle EM12c Extension Exchange webpage for more progress on integrating Delphix within EM12c…