No human involvement to ensure efficiency, cyber security

First 100pc self-driven database launched

SAN FRANCISCO: Oracle executive chairman and chief technology officer Larry Ellison has unveiled a new machine learning application for database and cyber security, which he termed the world’s first 100 percent self-driving autonomous database. 

He made this announcement during his opening keynote presentation at the Oracle OpenWorld 2017 event.

Ellison introduced Oracle Autonomous Database Cloud, and said total automation based on machine learning eliminated the human labour required to manage a database. There was no human involvement as this application enabled a database to automatically upgrade, patch and tune itself while running and there was no need to shut it down, he added. “As there are no humans involved, the issue of cyber security is also addressed.”

He said the technology could cut down the costly planned and unplanned downtime to less than 30 minutes a year and guaranteed that organisations could cut their costs to half as compared to Amazon - its competitor - if they adopted their solutions.

Ellison termed it a revolutionary technology, and said Amazon was five to eight times more expensive running the identical workload than the Oracle Autonomous Database. “We guarantee you contractually to cut your Amazon bill in half. It's fairly easy when you're five to eight times faster. We feel pretty comfortable,” he announced.

He went on to say, “It's not unusual for our competitors to use our technology. Amazon knows this. They are one of the biggest Oracle users on the planet earth. SAP is one of the biggest users of Oracle on earth.”

Machine learning would be the principle on which this application would work and on the basis of historical data and data patterns it would easily detect any abnormal activity.

Earlier, Doug Fisher, senior vice president and general manager, Software and Services Group, Intel mentioned in his keynote address that the company had partnered with Oracle for long, and was working with it to meet the challenges of managing the big data generated in current times.

Stressing that data would be to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th century, he said efficient collection, storage and usage of data would define growth of companies. However, he said, a major difference between the two is that “oil is definite while data is renewable.”

Fisher said the field of data generation transformed fast, and therefore there was a need to adapt to it accordingly. Citing an example, he said autonomous driving which was not far away would generate huge data and there would be need to have faster network speeds to manage the data generated by sensors, navigation tools etc.

So, he says, it’s high time they go for 5G. He said after the introduction of autonomous activity it is expected there will be 250 million hours of idle time as people will not be driving. Instead, they will be generating more data while using social media etc which will also have to be managed.

The city this week welcomed thousands of participants, including the customers and partners of industry giant Oracle, to its flagship event. Apart from these participants coming from 175 countries, there are over 18 million live-stream viewers following the proceedings.

Located at the city’s newly redesigned Moscone Center, the conference events span multiple venues in the city’s downtown till October 5. It would include experimental robotics, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, chatbots and other emerging technologies that would help businesses grow through better management and analysis of data.

Known as the industry’s most important business and technology show for the past 20 years, Oracle OpenWorld offers insight into industry trends and breakthroughs driven by technology.

Judy Sim, Oracle’s chief marketing officer in a welcome message said the event has evolved as customers’ needs have changed and was now one of the leading technology conferences in the world. “Today, we are thrilled to bring a positive economic impact worth more than $3 billion to the city of San Francisco over the last 20 years,” he added, while referring to what the city had gained during this time from this event.