About Collaborate 11

I went into Collaborate 11 hoping to focus on a few specific areas: Fusion Applications and E-Business R12.2. So, short, sweet and to the point: I came back with 4 important highlights worth sharing:

• Upgrading to EBS 12.2 will require a bit of technical mojo, as the upgrade will include migrating the supporting middleware server from OC4J to WebLogic. It'll be cool to see the rock-solid data model of 12.1.3 layered with WebLogic (yeah, that's my inner geek talking).

• Oracle's VP of Applications Development, Steve Miranda, got a little feisty during the Q&A portion of one of his sessions (I personally liked the feistiness - it's about time). When asked if Fusion Apps were ready for customers, Steve responded that Oracle's Early Adopter Program was ready: "bring 'em on". Steve also stated that Fusion Apps would be available via e-delivery "in a couple of months." Methinks we're getting close.

• The whole Fusion picture came together for me at Collaborate…the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. Fusion Architecture, Fusion Middleware, Fusion Applications. I'll be writing more more here about how it all works together over the next few weeks.

Already looking forward to Collaborate 12...but I doubt that Vegas has any Brazilian steakhouses that will match up to the one in Orlando discovered by my friends from the Oracle UX team (thanks for letting me tag along). But if you come to Collab next year, maybe we can try to find one together!