From Black and White to Tie-Dye: An OCI Technicolor Race
What is technicolor? A quick search throws that it is the process of color cinematography using synchronized monochrome films, each of a different color, to produce a movie in color.
Usually, things start simple. For example, the most magnificent tree, used to be a tiny seed at the beginning, and then well, it grows.
And simple is good, it’s manageable, it’s comfortable… until it isn’t.
We had our annual staff meeting a few days ago, and it was a real eye-opener, particularly on where Eclipsys wants our business to point during our new fiscal year.
I have a nice analogy I’d love to share, and I promise I’m getting to a point. My kid’s school has a yearly event called “The Colors Race” (or “La Course des Couleurs”). It is optional for parents, but I joined my kiddo last year and loved it, so this year I did it again and survived (no, I don’t jog).
The basics of the race were simple:
- A clear objective (get to the finish line)
- Duration estimated, between 30 to 60 minutes
- Fixed length: 5 km
So just like Oracle’s beginnings, things were simple back then – one powerful enterprise solution for a relational database, clear rules on licensing and support, steady plans for the growth of the solution, and a need on the market worldwide for such a strong solution.
Things used to be good for a while, and the product continued to grow around the database as a core component and by adding nice new high-end products on the side.
Going back to the race analogy, the essence of the race was straightforward, however, the organizers found a brilliant way to make it interesting and get more engagement from all levels.
So, this is how the basic race got better and more colorful:
- The gym teachers started prepping the kids in advance by running timed laps a few weeks ahead of the race
- Parents could accompany their younglings
- You don’t get a medal, but instead, bragging rights
- You get the bragging rights by collecting 1 color per km, and you do that by getting a white T-shirt “painted” with color dust throughout the race.
- You didn’t need to run to take part in the fun, you could still be a part of the race by cheering folks, signaling the way, hydrating the runners, and several other collaboration options.
- A nice shiny apple was waiting for you after the finish line.
Now, going back to the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), and how goals align with our Eclipsys new fiscal year direction.
With all the disruption the cloud has injected in this new IT age, variety is implied. As much as we know and understand that when people hear the word Oracle they usually think about Databases, it doesn’t have to be just that, and it is our challenge to start changing that mindset. It worked with Amazon when you would first think “books”, then “merchandise”, and now “cloud” whenever you hear the A word. No, this didn’t happen overnight, but it did happen.
So, just like my kid’s school race looked like a regular race, it was turned into something much greater than that.
It was an opportunity to take something simple, like a white T-shirt with black writing.
And by traversing a fun goal/color-catching quest, it turned up to be a colorful T-shirt, nicely aligned with #PrideMonth.
So, what does this mean? It’s straightforward – OCI is not just a cloud for a Database. The database is one of the many colors we have available to paint that Oracle canvas and make it bigger/better/brighter.
The fabulous side effect, just like the race and the color-catch incentive, we must start getting our OCI colors on this great OCI race we registered for.
The transformation of the DBA and its role is imminent, and if we recall the earlier predictions that hinted at the upcoming evolution of the DBA role, are coming true – like everything else in nature, you either evolve or face the inevitable and slowly turn obsolete.
So, very exciting decisions ahead for our teams – now that you already manage the Database color, what’s the next color you want to add to your T-shirt? Is it Oracle Applications? Is it virtual networking? is it Infrastructure? Is it DevOps? Is it Security? Is it Monitoring? Is it (steadily) most/all of them one step at a time?
A lot of “is it” questions to be solved on this race, and with the quick evolution of OCI in the cloud arena, the sky might no longer be the limit (pun intended) and I can’t wait to see how this multicolor race takes our teams to the next level!
