Oracle CloudWorld 2024 in Las Vegas in September focused a great deal on AI but also made time for all of Oracle's key market segments and products, as well as the 23ai Oracle Database. Throughout the year, everyone notices any announcement that Larry Ellison makes to see where the Oracle ship is sailing next. I believe the biggest announcement that Larry Ellison made at CloudWorld was that all future apps developed at Oracle would be on the Autonomous Database using APEX as the development tool.
In Larry's keynote session, we saw more than a few major announcements for Oracle. Using Larry's keynote as a compass, the compass certainly points toward AI in every Oracle product, but it also includes a multi-cloud future. A major announcement had to do with a future multi-cloud world. I believe that Oracle is now separating itself along with the three other major cloud vendors, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, into an elite top 4 category above the rest where you can mix and match clouds with a Hybrid Cloud or use pieces like, Autonomous Database, seamlessly in a cloud different than Oracle. Larry talked about how the multi-cloud era is beginning, but he only talked about those four clouds: AWS, Google, Microsoft, and Oracle (he mentioned that it is in alphabetic order, not in order of importance).
Larry also talked about applications that were major players, including Oracle, Salesforce, and Workday. Notice that Oracle is the only one among both the cloud leaders' top 4 while also being among the top 3 elite on the applications side. A big surprise was that Amazon Cloud users can use the Amazon Cloud to access Oracle Autonomous Database starting in December 2024. He said the Oracle database at AWS would include Exadata, the 23ai Database, and the Autonomous Database at Exascale. It's not just about using AI in the same place as your data (vs. moving it from place to place), but it also has to do with having Oracle security. Oracle's security prowess has put them in front of the pack. Larry brought Matt Garman, CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS), on stage but later showed that Oracle has 160 public and private Oracle cloud data centers across the globe.
Some are commercial, some are governments on Sovereign Clouds and EU Sovereign sites, and some are dedicated regions with Oracle Ally (with partners like Fujitsu in Japan). Currently, Oracle has six Oracle database sites in Azure and some in Google Cloud. In the future, there will be nine sites with Oracle databases at Azure, 14 Oracle databases at Google Cloud, and one at AWS by December 2024. Another cloud focus was how Oracle builds clouds for any given region. Every Oracle data center is identical except for the size. They have the same infrastructure, CPUs, GPUs, RDMA Network, autonomous operating system, and database applications like Fusion Apps, ERP, HCM, Oracle CX (Customer Experience), NetSuite, Oracle Cerner Health, and many other industry applications. Larry talked about some of their AI customers, including Nvidia and OpenAI.
Larry then explained Oracle's Gen2 Cloud security for both public and private clouds and how data security, app security, user identity security, and network security need to handle a new cyber warfare.
Our cyber robots versus their cyber robots, as Larry put it. Larry then talked about why the autonomous systems, autonomous database, and this robot DBA, using the autonomous database running on autonomous Linux, remove human error. Oracle does the configuration, encryption, backup, recovery, and update patches without human labor, which means no human error. New Millennium Health (Cerner - acquired by Oracle) now runs on the autonomous database. In 2025, Fusion Apps, CX, Sales and Marketing, HCM, NetSuite, and many industry applications will all be moved to autonomous databases using APEX in the Oracle cloud.
Larry talked about APEX next. While APEX is a great product now, they are putting AI into it to be capable of building entire applications with an automatic code generator. You declare the metadata you want, including how you will have tables, indexes, and so on. APEX will generate secure, scalable, stateless, reliable, non-stop programs. APEX will build the entire application (with your tweaking and oversight).
Larry believes this application code generator in APEX will give you a 10x developer gain.
Larry then focused on the next new advancement in security, including biometrics (including face scans, fingerprints, and voice). He sees this possible at passport control, where you could just walk right through, secure/safe school entry, prescription pick-up, self-checkout, bill paying, etc. It's easier and safer but 100% voluntary. He feels like Oracle could register your identity in 2 minutes for these uses.
Larry then talked about issues with network security, where you need high performance, high bandwidth, low latency, and reliable communications between systems. Still, you also want security goals restricting the network access between the users and data. Oracle announced a new product called ZPR (or zipper). ZPR stands for zero trust packet routing. The goal is to separate security from the configuration itself. ZPR is going to tag every machine and service to authorize things as they pass from the user to the data. It will have real-time network packet inspection, forcing data security every step of the way, and it can inspect billions of packets per second. An example command is:
allow #accounting.api endpoints to connect to #accounting.database endpoints
This provides higher-performance security using the ZPR policy language and network configuration. So, security includes adding biometric user security that would block the most severe cyber attacks, but in addition to that, ZPR, which stops other types of security break-ins, is also used.
In summary, it's autonomous software that creates the code automatically, autonomous database and systems managing these databases automatically, biometric identity access, and ZPR to prevent most cyber attacks all within Oracle Gen2 Cloud security. How many of these new security technologies use AI? All of them! Larry believes that only smart robots will win the cyber war.
Oracle CloudWorld 2024 revealed some of the most exciting advancements in AI, multi-cloud infrastructure, and security, shaping the future of technology. In the following parts of this series, we'll dive deeper into Oracle’s global cloud strategy, the role of AI in cybersecurity, and the groundbreaking advancements redefining how businesses approach security and application development in the cloud. Stay tuned for more insights from Oracle CloudWorld 2024.