The Magic of Virtualization
Oracle Technology Network embraces all things virtual.
The virtualization meme has changed our industry forever, and in more ways than
you might think.
In its most common context, virtualization
has completely rewritten the rules of operational I T. And a range of enabling technology
has emerged in the past decade to support
that transformation, including technology
from Oracle. But if you were to boil down
the virtualization concept to its essence,
that essence would simply be this: with the
right technology, important resources can
transcend physical barriers to reach their
maximum potential. (It’s rare for a technology
to meet the famous standard from British
writer and scientist Arthur C. Clarke—“Any
sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”
1—but this one does.)
So, we know that I T is taking full advantage of virtualization technology for the
obvious potential benefits. But similarly,
Oracle Technology Network is now using the
essence behind it to the advantage of its
community—“thinking outside the box,”
literally, in several ways.
Prebuilt developer VMs. It has been less
than two years since Oracle Technology
Network rolled out its first prebuilt developer
virtual machine (VM): Oracle Database App
Development VM, which was designed for
use with Oracle VM VirtualBox. Today, that
original VM is available alongside other VM
flavors for enterprise Java development,
Oracle Solaris 11 administration, Oracle
Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition
development, Oracle VM management, SOA
and business process management development, and more. In all cases, you get a fully
capable, preinstalled environment at your
fingertips—far better than a demo, it’s a
genuine test-drive (without the multiple
installs or operating system issues).
Virtual Developer Day. Face-to-face gatherings have their place and always will. But
today, there is no need to leave the comfort
1 “Clarke’s Three Laws,” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke%27s_three_laws
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With the right
technology,
important resources
can transcend
physical barriers
to reach their
maximum potential.
of your desk chair for useful training and
enablement. With the Virtual Developer Day
platform, Oracle Technology Network offers
online hands-on workshops—based on down-loadable prebuilt developer VMs—that have
a global reach and that can be accessed on
demand after the fact. (Of course, attending
an in-person Oracle Technology Network
Developer Day in your area may be a possibility, if that’s your preference. In fact, why
not do both?) Developer Days come in various
flavors, including Enterprise Java Development
with Java EE, Glassfish, and Oracle WebLogic
Server; Rich Enterprise Application
Development with Oracle ADF; and Java
Development with Java SE 7, to name a few.
Cloud computing. With the coming general
availability of Oracle Public Cloud, Oracle
Technology Network members will have
self-service, subscription-based access to
Oracle Database Cloud Service and Oracle
Java Cloud Service for rapid development
and deployment without the burden of
installing, configuring, and managing the
software and systems.
New virtual communities. Forums.oracle
.com, deployed in 2001 and now with 1
million registered users on its own, is the
most venerable example of a virtual community brought to you by Oracle Technology
Network. In the past year, Oracle has also
made major investments in Java.net, the
online community and collaborative devel-
twitter.com/oracletechnet
linkd.in/otnli
opment platform for Java developers around
the world that is also the home of Oracle’s
own open source Java projects.
Java Magazine. Yes, I even put Java Magazine
in this category. Because the publication is
all digital, all the time, its contents can be
shared among readers globally much more
efficiently than a hard copy. When was the
last time you mailed or faxed a paper reprint
to someone? Furthermore, the magazine’s
format allows the editorial team to experiment with rich content and interactivity in
new and interesting ways.
In closing, when you think about it, the
virtualization concept has applicability
far beyond I T operations. On the Oracle
Technology Network team, we’re putting that
thought into action—our specialty.
Do you have any other thinking-outside-the-box ideas for us? Let us know via our
community feedback channel at forums
. oracle.com.
Justin Kestelyn
( justin.kestelyn@oracle
.com) is senior director,
Oracle Technology
Network and developer
programs, as well as
Oracle Technology Network editor in chief.
WEB LOCATOR
Prebuilt Developer VMs
oracle.com/technetwork/developervm
Oracle Technology Network Developer Day
(Physical and Virtual)
bit.ly/yjjWSW
Oracle Public Cloud
cloud.oracle.com
Java.net
java.net
Java Magazine
oracle.com/javamagazine
Oracle VM VirtualBox
bit.ly/zEljbX
