It’s a very early Sunday morning in San Francisco. Over the past few days, thousands upon thousands of people arrived into the city – all connected to Oracle in some way – many of whom who were not in the least connected to Oracle only a short time ago (BEA comes to mind, among others). Today is the start of Oracle Open World 2008. With 45.000 or more attendees one of the biggest company parties in the world. A sea of red, flooding the city center.

Ever since I got on the plane with dozens of like minded souls and increasingly since I have arrived here in downtown Frisco, the big question was: what will be the major announcement of the show? Where is the spotlight going to shine? Not much gossip seems to have come out of Redwood Shores. And there are no obvious candidates really. 11gR2 is still on the drawing board it seems, the beta program not yet on its way. BEA was acquired some months ago and all plans with regard to BEA were announced in the beginnen of July. There could be another rabbit pulled out of a high hat – like Oracle Enterprise Linux in 2006 and Oracle VM in 2008..... Read the rest of this entry »