One thing that the last year has taught me is that things change quickly. One of the biggest challenges is to keep up with this change and figure out what is new and what is not. We are going to take a diversion today and look at changes in the Oracle Public Cloud then get back to provisioning database into different cloud platforms tomorrow. This is important because it helps us define how to differentiate platform as a service from infrastructure as a service with software installed on it. Entries like scale up and scale down of services, DataGuard between two data centers for DBaaS, temporary bursting services to larger instances, various connectors and plug ins for integration and SOA services are examples of PaaS advantages. Many of these features automatically happen or reduce hundreds of commands that needs to be executed to configure a service or integration. Provisioning a database into an IaaS service comes with tradeoffs and sacrifices. It is important to know what added services you are getting when you select PaaS over IaaS. The list of new features helps us understand the added value of PaaS and how we can leverage them.
Let’s start with infrastructure and see how things have changed. If you go to the Oracle Public Cloud Documentation you see tabs listing all of the services. For infrastructure this corresponds to compute, storage, and networking. If we click on infrastructure then compute, it takes us to the Compute Documentation. Note that there is a What’s New page. At the time of writing this blog, the newest entry is April 2016. The key announcements in this entry include
- April 2016
- Oracle Compute Cloud Service — Generally Available (GA)- it was controlled availability
- 1 OCPU subscription – previous min was 500 OCPUs
- Bursting – non-metered services can short term double the cores allocated an additional services billed like a metered service
- Oracle-provided Windows images – Windows 2012 R2
- Oracle-provided Solaris images – Solaris x86 11.3
- Cloning storage volumes using snapshots
- Cloning instances using snapshots
- Resizing storage volumes – storage can be resized while attached to active instance
- Private Images page moved to a new tab on the web console
- Instance IP addresses now shown on the Instances page
- Improved image upload tool
- March 2016
- Changes in the web console for creating storage volumes
- opc-init documentation – startup initialization scripts when a new image is booted
- February 2016
- Oracle Network Cloud Service – VPN for Dedicated Compute
- Security IP list as the destination in a security rule created using the web console
- SSH key management actions moved to the Network tab of the web console
- Summary information displayed for each resource in the web console
- Simplified navigation and improved performance in the web console – Orchestration tab changed
There isn’t a what’s new for storage and networking because it is folded into the compute page. Note that there were a few storage entries (resize to an active instance and cloning storage volumes) and network entries (VPN, Security list, SSH key management) in the compute page.
For platform as a service, there is a What’s new for DBaaS that details changes to the database as a service and schema as a service options.
- May 2016
- Oracle Data Guard available – database creation and replication between data centers
- Backup and recovery available through the console – previously required ssh access
- Updated version of Oracle REST Data Services
- Oracle GlassFish Server removed – services now available through REST services
- April 2016
- Configure a service instance’s database as the replication database for Golden Gate
- March 2016
- Add an SSH public key to a service instance – allows for multiple ssh keys to an instance
- Jan 2016 PSU integrated into base image for single-instance databases
- Jan 2016 bundle patch integrated into base image for Oracle RAC databases
- February 2016
- Selectable database character set and national character set during instance creation
- Jan 2016 PSU available for patching
- January 2016
- 2 TB (terabyte) storage volumes now supported
- Ability to create “temporary” storage volumes using Oracle Compute Cloud Service – storage can be short term added and removed as needed.
In the Application Development area there is a What’s New for
- Application Container Service
- May 2016
- New Command-Line Interface
- New utilities for JavaScript and Node packaging and dependency management
- New deployment configurations for Java-based applications target Oracle Application Container Cloud Service
- A new Oracle Developer Cloud Service sample project
- April 2016
- Node.js 0.10.x, 0.12.x
- Oracle Linux 6.6
- Oracle Java SE 7, 8
- May 2016
- Developer Cloud Service
- May 2016
- Deploy to Oracle Application Container Cloud Service instances
- Snippets support
- New Member dialog
- Home tab remembers your last opened child tab
- Upload artifacts to the project’s Maven repository from the Code tab
- View the dependency information for Gradle builds
- The Code button in the Commits view displays files of the current path
- More pre-defined standard search queries added in the Merge Request tab
- Audit Log in the Job Details page
- Build is triggered on push to Git repository
- Deploy to Oracle Java Cloud Service using Oracle WebLogic REST APIs
- Lock a Git repository branch
- Restrict push and merge actions on a protected branch
- HipChat Webhook support
- May 2016
- Java Cloud Service
- May 2016
- Manage Oracle platform services from a command line interface (CLI)
- Create and manage access rules
- Create service instances that use database deployments with cloud-only backups
- Flexible usage changes to Oracle Java Cloud Service non-metered subscriptions – additional processors can be short term allocated and billed on a metered basis
- April 2016
- Create WebLogic Server 12.2.1 service instances
- Provision service instances with a domain partition
- Create service instances that use Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) databases
- New patches are available, WebLogic server, Java Developer Kit
- March 2016
- Manage SSH access for service instances
- Add a second load balancer to a service instance
- May 2016
- Mobile Cloud Service
- May 2016
- Location Platform API
- Microsoft Azure Active Directory authentication
- export and import artifacts across MCS instances
- OAuth and JWT token policies for REST connectors
- April 2016
- Facebook credentials or their corporate single-sign on credentials
- JavaScript SDK has been re-tooled to specifically support browser-based mobile apps
- Cordova SDK supports hybrid development on the Cordova framework
- May 2016
For Content and Collaboration Services
- Process Cloud Services
- April 2016
- New Process Editor
- New Data Association editor
- Transformation editor
- Business Indicator metrics
- Business Analytics dashboards
- Outbound REST Connector editor
- Document-Initiated Process
- Web Service Message Protection
- Security Certificates
- New REST APIs
- Workspace Enhancements
- SSO and Authentication
- Web Form Snapshots
- Business Objects from JSON instance
- April 2016
For the Integration Cloud Service
- Integration Cloud Service
- April 2016
- Orchestration support – BPEL Process integration
- Oracle Sales Cloud Adapter – REST APIs and interface catalog
- REST Adapter enhancements
- SAP Adapter – inbound integration support
- Microsoft SQL Server Adapter – inbound integration support
- File Adapter – inbound integration support
- Java Messaging Server Adapter – outbound integration support
- DocuSign Adapter – outbound integration support
- SuccessFactors Adapter – outbound integration support
- ServiceNow Adapter – outbound integration support
- Oracle Field Service Adapter – inbound and outbound integration support
- Adapter Portal
- Search improvements
- Mapper visual enhancements
- Execution Agent (on-premises Oracle Integration Cloud Service)
- March 2016
- Adobe eSign Adapter – outbound integration support
- File Adapter – outbound integration support (support for 5 MB)
- Microsoft SQL Server Adapter – outbound integration support
- FTP Adapter – secure FTP server support
- SAP Adapter – TRFC, QRFC, and error document support
- Oracle Database adapter – inbound integration support
- Oracle Siebel Adapter – inbound integration support
- Salesforce Adapter – custom WSDL support
- REST Adapter – multidimensional, nested array support in JSON documents
- Scheduler – Delete files upon successful retrieval after an error
- Large payload support – 10 MB
- April 2016
- SOA Cloud Service
- May 2016
- Oracle Enterprise Scheduler is now available as part of Oracle SOA Cloud Service
- Three new tutorials
- March 2016
- Scale Oracle SOA Cloud Service Nodes
- Non-Metered Subscriptions
- Oracle Managed File Service
- Oracle B2B
- May 2016
For Business Analytics the changes are
- March 2016
- File size limit increased to 50MB
- Visualize data in Oracle Applications
- Update data sources after upload
- New ways to present data visualizations; Donut charts, Tile views, Text boxes
- Enhancements to visualizations; Trends, Color management, Thumbnails, Sort data elements, Filter data
- Quickly copy report columns with “Save Column As…”
- Build multiple data models
- Upload data from Excel spreadsheets and OTBI (Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence) data sources
- Data Loader deprecated
- Integrate with multiple data sources
- Whitelist safe domains
- Index content and schedule crawls
- Download the public key for remote data connectivity
- Updates to the REST API
In summary, it is important to look at the new services and new announcements. Some of the changes are relatively small and of low impact. Other changes provide new features and functions that might change the way that you can leverage cloud services. These pages are updated monthly while the cloud services are typically updated every other week. It is recommended that you get into a routine schedule of checking the What’s New links in the documentation. Unfortunately, there is not a single location to look at all of these updates. This blog is an attempt to aggregate the new features for Iaas and PaaS.