I've been attending Oracle conferences for many years, and one of the things I enjoy most is the opportunity to reconnect with longtime friends, customers, and partners while learning what's next for Oracle technology. This year's Oracle AI World in Las Vegas was no exception. Between a major announcement for Essbase, fascinating conversations about AI, and some terrific events with the Oracle community, it was a busy and memorable week.
Essbase Comes to Oracle AI Lakehouse
For me, the biggest announcement was the introduction of Managed Essbase within Oracle AI Lakehouse.
I've been working with Essbase for 30-plus years, and I've always believed its capabilities extend well beyond its traditional market in finance. Historically, adopting Essbase typically meant purchasing a separate product, provisioning servers, and investing in specialized infrastructure and training.
Managed Essbase changes that equation.
With Essbase becoming part of Oracle AI Lakehouse, Oracle is making multidimensional analysis accessible to a much broader database audience. Much like Oracle APEX, which is built into the database platform, Managed Essbase dramatically lowers the barriers to adoption.
But the real opportunity isn't simply making Essbase easier to deploy. It's introducing an entirely new audience to what multidimensional analysis can do.
Why Multidimensional Analysis Matters
Nearly every business dataset has multiple dimensions, and the need to analyze information across those dimensions extends well beyond finance.
Consider a common supply chain question, "Will we have enough inventory to meet customer demand over the next 13 weeks?"
Answering that question may mean looking at thousands of part numbers across factories, warehouses, and distribution centers, while comparing forecasted demand, planned production, incoming shipments, and available inventory.
But the real challenge is analyzing that information at different levels. A supply chain manager might start by looking at inventory availability across an entire region, identify a potential shortage in a product family, and then drill down to the individual parts, facilities, and weeks responsible for the problem.
This is where Essbase shines.
Relational databases excel at storing and retrieving detailed information, but multidimensional analysis introduces additional complexity. For example, inventory can be aggregated across warehouses, but adding inventory balances across multiple weeks would produce misleading results. Calculations also need to behave correctly as users move between different levels of product, location, and time hierarchies.
Essbase was designed to handle these kinds of multidimensional calculations and aggregations, making it easier to analyze complex business data without having to recreate the underlying logic for every report.
And supply chain is just one example. Manufacturing, sales, operations, and many other business functions face similar challenges.
Making Essbase available to a much broader Oracle audience could open tremendous opportunities for multidimensional analytics. For those of us at Dodeca Software, who have spent years helping organizations make better use of Essbase data, this is an especially exciting development.
AI Is Changing the Software Industry
Another highlight was participating in an AI Advantage Industry Roundtable with technology leaders from companies large and small. I happened to be seated next to the Chief Technology Officer of Zoom.
In the roundtable discussion, we discussed how AI is transforming software development and reshaping markets. At Dodeca Software, we're already experiencing these changes firsthand. Our developers have adopted AI into their development workflows and we are seeing productivity improvements of 4x to 8x. It was fascinating to compare our experiences with those of other technology companies.
The Best Part of Oracle AI World: The People
As much as I enjoy the technology announcements, one of my favorite parts of Oracle AI World has always been the people.
We had numerous meetings with existing customers, prospective customers, longtime partners, and new partners. I genuinely enjoy hearing how people are using Oracle technology and what they're trying to accomplish.
Our Annual Executive Dinner
We continued what has become a great tradition with our annual dinner with Mia Urman and the people from AuraPlayer. This year we gathered at a cantina along the canal at The Venetian, bringing together people from across the Oracle ecosystem, including EPM, Oracle Cloud Financials, Oracle EBS, and other areas. It was a wonderful evening of conversation, reconnecting with old friends, and meeting new ones.
Happy Hour with Caprus, Constellation Consulting, and Wysent Consulting
We also hosted a happy hour with our friends at Caprus, Constellation Consulting, and Wysent Consulting. What started as a gathering turned into hours of great conversations with customers, prospects, partners, and friends.
Events like these remind me why I've enjoyed working in the Oracle community for so long.
A Shorter, Busier Conference
Oracle AI World was more compressed this year, with the big celebration on Tuesday evening rather than Wednesday and the conference wrapping up on Wednesday.
My week started on Sunday with the Oracle EPM Partner Summit. These sessions are always valuable because they provide an opportunity to hear directly from Oracle EPM leadership about product direction and what's coming next.
The exhibit hall was impressive, attendance appeared strong, and there was no shortage of interesting technology and conversations.
Looking Ahead
I came away from Oracle AI World feeling particularly optimistic about the opportunities ahead.
The introduction of Managed Essbase within Oracle AI Lakehouse is one of the most significant developments for Essbase in years. It creates an opportunity to introduce multidimensional analysis to organizations and business areas that might never have considered Essbase before.
At the same time, AI is changing how companies build software, work with data, and deliver information to users.
For Dodeca, these developments are particularly relevant as we continue helping organizations make complex enterprise data more accessible, useful, and manageable.
Beyond the technology, I'm grateful for the customers, partners, and friends who made the week so enjoyable. That's what keeps bringing me back to these events year after year.
I'm already looking forward to the next one.
