Tag: delphix

Presenting “Accelerating DevOps Using Data Virtualization” at #C16LV

Borrowing from Wikipedia, the term DevOps is defined as…

DevOps (a clipped compound of "development" and "operations") is a culture, movement or practice that emphasizes the collaboration and communication of both software developers and other information-technology (IT) professionals while automating the process of software delivery and infrastructure changes. It aims at establishing a culture and environment where building, testing, and releasing software, can happen rapidly, frequently, and more reliably.

Now, I hate buzzwords as much as the next BTOM (a.k.a. bitter twisted old man)…eastwood

…but the idea behind DevOps, of building, testing, and releasing software more rapidly and reliably is simply amazing and utterly necessary.

As system complexity has increased, as application functionality has ballooned, and as the cost of production downtime has skyrocketed, writing and testing code leaves one a long way from the promised land of published and deployed production code.

As explained by DevOps visionaries like Gene Kim, the biggest barrier to that promised land is data, in the form of databases cloned from production for development and testing, in the form of application stacks cloned from production systems for development and testing.

The amount of time wasted waiting for data on which to develop or test dwarfs the amount of time spent developing or testing.  Consequently, IT has learned to be satisfied with only occasional refreshes of dev/test systems from production, resulting in humorously inadequate dev/test systems, and that has been the norm.

There is a new norm in town.

Data virtualization, like server virtualization, breaks through the constraint.  Over the past 10 years, IT has learned to wallow in the freedom of server virtualization, using tools like VMware and OpenStack to provision virtual machines for any purpose.

Unfortunately, data and storage did not benefit from virtuaMatrix1lization as well.  This has resulted in a white-hot nova in the storage industry, and while that is good news for the storage industry, it still means that IT has cloned from production to non-production the same way it has done the past 40 years, in other words slowly, expensively, and painfully.

Matrix2And we have continued to do it the old way, slowly, expensively, and painfully, because we didn’t know any better.

The IT industry couldn’t see any better way to do clone from production to non-production.  Slow and painful was the norm.

But once one realizes the nature of making copies, and how modern file-system technology can share at the block-level, compress, anMatrix3d de-duplicate, suddenly making copies of databases and file-system directories becomes easier and inexpensive.

Here is a thought-provoking question:  why doesn’t every individual developer and tester have their own private full systems stack?  Why can’t they have several of them, one or more for each task on which they’re working?

I can literally hear all of the other BTOM’s scoffing at that question:  “Nobody has that much infrastructure, you idiot!”

And that is the point.  You certainly do.

You just don’t have the right infrastructure.

This was presented at the Collaborate 2016 conference in Las Vegas on Monday 11-April 2016.

You can download the slidedeck here.

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Presentation "Accelerating DevOps Using Data Virtualization" 16.66 MB

Data Virtualization and Greener Data Centers

On the Saturday before the Oracle OpenWorld 2014 conference started, I had the added bonus of finding out that the Data Center Journal had published my article on how data virtualization leads to greener data centers.

So, rather than reprise the article here (which I’m tempted to do), please instead click here and give it a read!

Lovin’ la vida Oracle

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…

#CloneAttack at Oracle OpenWorld 2014

Delphix and Dbvisit will be at the OTN Lounge in the lobby of Moscone South from 3:30 – 5:00pm on Monday 29-Sept.  Come join us to hear about #CloneAttack and #RepAttack, two great hands-on learning opportunities.

What:

#CloneAttack is your chance to install a complete Delphix lab environment on your Windows or Mac laptop for you to play with and experiment at any time.  Experts Kyle Hailey, Steve Karam, Adam Bowen, Ben Prusinski, and I will be sharing USB “thumb” drives with the virtual machine OVA files for the lab environment, and we will be working one-on-one with you to help you get everything up and running, then to show you basic use-cases for cloning with Delphix.

Bring your laptop, bring your VMware, and get some data virtualization into your virtual life!

At the same time, #CloneAttack will be joined by #RepAttack by Dbvisit, where Arjen Visser, Jan Karremans, and the team will be helping you replicate Oracle to Oracle for zero downtime upgrades.

This just in!  #MonitorAttack from Confio SolarWinds will also be joining the party at the CCM on Tuesday to show you how to quickly and easily install Confio Ignite and enjoy the great features there.

Where:

Children’s Creativity Museum, 221 4th St, San Francisco

When:

Tuesday, Sept 30 from 10am – 5pm PDT

Before you arrive:

Hardware requirements (either Mac or Windows):

  • at least 8 GB RAM
  • at least 50 GB free disk space, but preferably 100 GB free
  • at least 2 Ghz CPU, preferably dual-core or better