Collaborate 2014 - What you Need to Know - Emerging skills

Collaborate 2014 Las Vegas - IOUG, OAUG and Quest
The  Collaborate 2014 conference brings together three of the key Oracle user group communities the IOUG (Independent Oracle Users Group), the OAUG (Oracle Application Users Group) and Quest (PeopleSoft, JD Edwards).  The exhibition hall and overall attendance seemed to be up and there was plenty of energy at the conference.   I focus on the technology side so I will share my thoughts and insights from the IOUG side of the conference.

Cloud, Big Data and NoSQL 
From the database side there were top speakers like Rich Niemiec, Charles Kim, Arup Nanda, Tony Jambu, etc. rocking the house as always and delivering great insight, knowledge sharing and showing vision and direction.  From my perspective there were three areas that had the most energy and interest as well as creating the most buzz between sessions.   The three hot areas were Cloud,  Big Data and NoSQL.  These are also three areas that most Oracle people have a lot to learn.  Everyone was looking at getting a much better understanding of these three areas, the roadmaps, as well as how these three areas will impact attendees current positions as well as their futures.

Despite excellent presentations in the Cloud, Big Data and NoSQL,  attendees realized that there is a lot to learn in these areas.  In the cloud space someone needs to learn the cloud business model, driving factors, goals and objectives, orchestration, deployment models as well as the skill sets and best practices around cloud solutions.  In the big data area, everyone seen that it takes time to learn big data, the Hadoop platform, data architecture, ETL models as well as skills and best practices.  In the NoSQL area attendees learned there are a number of different NoSQL solutions available, all with different features and functionality.  Everyone also seen that the cloud, big data and NoSQL are areas that are constantly evolving and maturing at rates much faster than in Oracle major releases.

Oracle has always evolved to meet market and customer needs.  These areas are a little different.  Oracle DBAs and Developers realize the importance of acquiring skills in RAC, Replication, RMAN, Java, Fusion Middleware,  OEM, Exadata, etc.   There are also a number of key products coming from strategic vendors.  The Shareplex Connector for Hadoop can be used to load data directly from Oracle into HDFS or HBase.  The Shareplex Connector will replicate data near real-time (HDFS) or real-time (HBase).

Cloud, Big Data and NoSQL are extremely valuable and marketable future skills to acquire since there is so much current and future demand. As in evolution of IT, there are always the visionaries, early adopters and evangelists.  We are seeing the next generation of skill sets that will be in demand emerge from these areas at this conference.  I also find it interesting that just like RAC and Exadata, etc in their infancy drew the top leaders to them because the top leaders in the Oracle user community seen the future of Hadoop, NoSQL and the Cloud.  The top RAC and Exadata people have always been knowledge experts with infrastructure, architecture and understanding the business.  It is the infrastructure, architecture and business experts in the Oracle user community that are gravitating to these emerging areas.

I believe the cloud, big data and NoSQL areas are going to create a lot of energy in the Oracle user community in the next year.  I look forward to the discussions with the user community moving forward.