Database Security, Audit, Privacy and Support Blog

What’s the outlook of the Software as a Service (SaaS) business within the next two years?

According to Lawson Software CEO Harry Debes, “the industry will collapse.”

Some may find this statement questionable, especially when many of the major software vendors - - even Larry Ellison, who has publicly denounced SaaS as a profitable business - - have made recent investments in on-demand software. Earlier this week, Oracle released a pre-built integration feature between Siebel and CRM On Demand (its SaaS application). Salesforce.com is on track to become a billion dollar company.

This on-premise and on-demand integration will “synchronize customer data between the two applications, giving sales and executive managers a better view into the sales pipeline,” according to Oracle.

But others don’t see much benefit to these CRM hybrid deployments. Gartner analyst Rob Desisto says, “It’s very difficult to keep SaaS and on-premise in sync.”

Hybrid deployments aside, the future of SaaS remains the overarching question. In this interview with ZDNet Asia, Debes says: “This ‘on demand,’ SaaS phenomenon is something I’ve lived through three times in my career now.” And he’s quick to point out that this time won’t be any different than the others - - SaaS will go nowhere.  

Here are some other highlights from the interview:

• For the question, “Won’t people avoid the mistakes of “previous” SaaS incarnations?” Debes has a simple answer: “People are stupid.”
• Lawson Software uses Salesforce.com, a company who, in Debes’ opinion, is successful because their product is good, not because it’s SaaS.
• Debes gives two main reasons the SaaS business model doesn’t work: Up-front costs lead to a loss in revenue (when revenue is over a five-year period), and compared to traditional software, there’s a much lower chance SaaS will help you retain customers.

What about SAP, who last year created Business ByDesign to support its SaaS efforts? The development has not met with success, but SAP hasn’t given up hope on its on-demand offering. The company just announced that later this year, they will release a new CRM suite of products as part of Busines ByDesign.

According to the article, “The new version of the suite will incorporate an innovative approach to CRM and incorporate business intelligence technology from Business Objects.”

What do you think? Do you agree with Debes? Or, do you think these vendors’ efforts will pay off in the long run?

We recently blogged about two UK companies - RedPC and Overclockers - getting in trouble with the BSA over alleged software piracy. CRN in the UK recently wrote a follow-up story to the original news report about the BSA’s aggressive procedures claiming they were taking these companies to court for simply not filling in a form.

As we have said before, being audited by a software vendor or an organization like the BSA is nothing to joke about - if you should happen to be unfortunate and get into this situation, we recommend that you cooperate fully because as they have proven here, they will take the necessary steps to drag you to court, which not only will cost big bucks, but it can also be damaging to any business’ reputation.

Software vendors like Oracle and Adobe have every right to protect their source of income and will certainly do so with hired guns if necessary. Best bet - avoid situations such as these, get your software licensing in check and keep it that way!

Are you an Oracle user working in K-12 education? Do you have a growing interest in archiving and purging data? Do you want to connect with other Oracle database and system administrators?

Then the Oracle Applications User Group (OAUG) has a place for you. The OAUG offers over 75 Special Interest Groups (SIGs), each of which allows members to connect with others who work in their industry or with a specific application; for example, discrete manufacturing, Hyperion or Internal Control and Security.

The OAUG unveiled another SIG yesterday, and will offer interested members a chance to learn about this new group at Oracle OpenWorld.

The group, CRM Connect, “was formed to accommodate users of all Oracle-owned customer relationship management (CRM) applications and to facilitate communication between the CRM users community and Oracle,” according to the OAUG press release.

The group will serve users of the entire Oracle CRM community, which includes PeopleSoft Enterprise, Siebel CRM and Oracle E-Business Suite. The CRM community was created almost one year ago exactly.

A couple of weeks ago, the news surfaced that PeopleSoft Enterprise and Oracle E-Business suite had been left off Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation. While sales of these applications may be on the decline, CRM Connect will give users — whether or not they’re considering a switch — a chance to stay in touch and voice their concerns. According to OAUG, not only do these groups allow you to talk with your peers, but they present “opportunities for dialogue with Oracle associates about issues such as product development, quality and support.”

As you’re planning your OpenWorld schedule, consider blocking off some time to learn more about this SIG. The CRM Connect meeting will be held in two parts: Sunday, Sept. 21, at 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. in room 3001 at the Moscone Center.

Do you find groups like these useful? Have you ever (or do you currently) belong to any Oracle-related special interest groups? What have your experiences been?

I know I haven't posted much recently. I'm posting this from my blackberry in Iowa City, Iowa. I was in Chicago yesterday. I don't have my laptop with me on this trip so I feel waaayyyyyy out of touch. I'll have some good topics to write about soon. I'm able to spend some time on warehousing topics now (that is the focus of my job now) so that will be a major focus for me on the blog, too. I have not been able to dowload and clean up the survey data as of yet. I'll be back in tampa on

Miro is excited to announce that we have been invited to speak at three conferences in the fall:

Canadian ITAM Users’ Group (CITAMUG)

September 30^th

Toronto, ON

Topic: Smarter Oracle Licensing

Virginia Oracle Users Group (VOUG) Conference

October 9^th 

Richmond, Virginia 

Topic: Managing Your Oracle and Other Software Assets to Lower the Total Cost of Ownership

IAITAM Conference

October 17^th       

Marco Island, FL

Topic: Vendor Management - Best Practices for Software Asset Management - From Oracle to Microsoft

Check back for more updates to our schedule!

There are a lot of rumors circulating this week about Microsoft changing their licensing policy from one where virtual machine is tied to hardware only to a model that compliments the mobility of virtual machines. Glad to see that they are rethinking its business model to keep up with virtualization.

The currently policy required customers to reassign software licenses for Windows Server 2003, SQL Server 2005 and Exchange Server 2007 if they would like to move the code to a different physical server, they also do not allow a transfer between physical hosts more than once in 90 days.

A little late, but good to see that things are changing! More to come on this when Microsoft makes an official announcement…

Want to see why and how CiOs and CFOs should work together?  I was invited to contribute my thoughts on that particular issue for popular newsletter IT Finance Connection.  I was inspired by the outlets focus on the IT-Finance connection.  When dealing with software licensing issues and software asset management, we’ve had to go up to bat with CFOs more often than not.  CFOs often will not understand the process that goes along with purchasing enterprise software, and often are only concerned with what the cost will be to the organization. 

My attempt at pulling together the why’s and wherefores in an article entitled, CFOs and CIOs Should Work Together on Licensing, talks about the importance of the CIO to have a seat at the table. How do you get the C-Suite’s attention? Talk numbers, how will maintenance costs grow, what software licensing costs will be - and let them know that if not done right from the get-go, it could eat away even the most carefully planned IT budget for the entire year if audited by a vendor.

The importance of careful planning and proper software asset management for any type of business will result in cost savings - make your CFO understand how they can be part of the process and make it happen.

You can view the article here.

Microsoft unveiled a new volume licensing plan for large organizations this month called Microsoft Select Plus. The program will allow companies to use a single ID to track their licensing contracts across the entire company.

The program will mean bigger discounts as there will be the opportunity to increase your overall “points” - which are used to determine volume qualifications (you must have 500 points to qualify for Select Plus).

You can still qualify for this new program if you are already participating in a volume licensing agreement from Microsoft of if you have an existing Enterprise Agreement, Enterprise Subscription Agreement, Campus Agreement or School Agreement.

The complete announcement can be found here or more info from Microsoft here.

Oracle OpenWorld is less than five weeks away. You’ve already registered, made your travel plans and prepared your presentations. But what else can you do between now and the start of the world’s largest annual Oracle conference? 

It may be a good idea to do what many of our fellow bloggers have done — start making up a schedule. With more than 1,500 sessions to choose from over the course of five days, you should probably have a plan of attack before you arrive.

Doug at oracledoug.com’s five-day plan (which he, like many others, made with Oracle’s Schedule Builder) includes sessions such as “SQL Tuning Roundtable with the Experts,” “Inside Oracle Database 11g Optimizer: Removing the Mystery” and “Time-Travel Through Your Data with Oracle Total Recall.”

He admits to purposely leaving off any Web 2.0 or ‘Futures’ presentations, but you can find these in Oracle ACE H.Tonguç Yilmaz’s schedule, which includes a visit to the session “Web 2.0 Development with Oracle Application Express.”  Mark Rittman of Rittman Mead Consulting is especially looking forward to “Using Cube-Organized Materialized Views” and “New Technologies in Oracle BI Suite Enterprise Edition.” And all three of these Oracle gurus are planning to spend time in the OTN Lounge, where Oracle ACEs will be holding ‘office hours.’

This is only a tiny sampling of the vast array of OpenWorld presentations, sessions, keynotes and roundtables to choose from. Of course, your choices depend on your interests, industry, product area, etc. But here’s a list of a few sessions that I (and some of the aforementioned bloggers) found interesting — and that you may want to add to your list!

• Oracle OpenWorld Unconference: This is a more informal workshop, in its second year, where anyone can sign up to present a session on their topic of choice.

• Keynote with Charles Phillips and Chuck Rozwat (9/21 at 9 am): Rittman speculates that this may include announcements about the first Fusion release and key features of Oracle Database 11gR2.

• Oracle 11g Cram Session: This is part of OpenWorld’s Exam Cram Series. Other Oracle Certification activities include on-site certification testing and an OCP Lounge.

• Oracle Applications User Group (OAUG) Knowledge Factory session: This session gives an overview of the OAUG’s Knowledge Factory, which was launched at COLLABORATE 08.

Which sessions are on your ‘must attend’ (or ‘must not attend’ ) list? What would you recommend to others? Seen any of the speakers before? Similar presentations? Are they worth it or not?

They aren’t joking around - Forbes.com reported today that the BSA spent $360,000 in the second quarter to lobby on patent reform, data security and other issues. They lobbied on new legislation that would create a “new coordinator for intellectual property issues” and improve federal efforts against piracy.

This is a sign of things to come - with Microsoft, McAfee and HP behind this agency, they plan on taking piracy issues to the top - and cracking down on offenders.

Would you stand up against an audit? Be sure, because you’d better believe they will find ya!

This is the last week to participate in a database usage survey. The survey will be closed on Aug 24. I'll download the responses, clean the data and then upload the raw results. Over the next couple of weeks, I will publish some personal analysis and thoughts of the data.

If you haven't already done so, please take a few minutes to answer 25 questions.

I may reopen the survey afterward an

The BSA has put out their 2007 Piracy Study, which has revealed Software piracy in just 8 states in the US (AZ, CA, FL, IL, NV, NY, OH, TX) cost vendors  an estimated $4.2 billion, which is higher than the national figure for all other countries in the world except China.  Lost revenues to software distributors and service providers were an additional $11.4 billion, for a total tech industry loss of more than $15 billion. 

$15 Billion - that is nothing to be coy about - the BSA goes a little far as to saying what we could do with kind of money, but that’s a little extreme. Its lost revenue that would be spread among those who benefit from software vendors’ profits - it wouldn’t really “build 100 schools” as they claim. 

It is however, a concern for software vendors so you’d better believe they will try to eliminate this loss in the years to come through audits and more strict control of software licensing.

LewisC's An Expert's Guide To Oracle Technology

Oracle does not guarantee that multiple triggers on a table will fire in any particular order. Well, they do guarantee some things. For example a BEFORE trigger will fire before an AFTER trigger and ROW triggers fire before STATEMENT triggers.

But for two triggers of the same type (say 2 BEFORE ROW triggers), Oracle does not guarantee which wil

We talk on this blog all the time about how you really need to keep your software licensing in check and how much it can save by just simply managing software assets - well here is proof! ComputerWeekly wrote up a case study about racing venue Silverstone and how they were able to cut their software licensing costs by 20% simply by implement a SAM system.

How much do you spend per year on licensing costs? Well, take 20% of that and think about what you can do with it. How many more laptops or Blackberry devices you could purchase for your business.

Have PeopleSoft and E-Business Suite lost their magic?

If you take a look at Gartner’s Magic Quadrant, then the answer is yes. This year, PeopleSoft CRM and E-Business Suite were nowhere to be seen on the research firm’s annual Sales Force Automation rankings - - a list on which they have placed high in the past.

So, what does this mean?

Oracle certainly isn’t putting a lot of effort into selling the applicaitons.  For a tool to make Gartner’s Magic Quadrant - - a system that ranks vendors in the four categories of leaders, challengers, visionaries and niche players - - it must have 15 new customers actively deploying the application in the past year. Neither PeopleSoft nor Oracle E-Business Suite met these qualifications.

As described by Grant Buckler in this article from CIO Magazine, Oracle’s CRM offerings are “a mixed bag,” resulting from what Buckler calls “acquisition fever.”

Oracle’s Siebel CRM makes the software vendor a major CRM player. However, as Gartner’s Robert DeSisto says in the article, PeopleSoft Enterprise and E-Business Suite CRM are far from the forefront. “I don’t see quite frankly much activity there,” DeSisto says.

Where is the activity? Besides Siebel, Salesforce.com has been named the sole other leader in Sales Force Automation, with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, SAP and Sage’s SalesLogix as challengers.

This leaves Oracle’s E-Business Suite CRM and PeopleSoft CRM customers in a tough position. Should they wait to migrate to Fusion (scheduled to be released later this year), switch to a different vendor or just stick it out for the time being?

What do you see in the future for these CRM applications?

Here’s a look back at just a few of the many ups and downs of PeopleSoft and E-Business Suite in the CRM market:

Oracle unveils new version of PeopleSoft CRM

Siebel buy further complicates Fusion plans 

SAP beats Oracle in Jefferson County

If you’re a customer, what do you plan to do?  

LewisC's An Expert's Guide To Oracle Technology

Oracle does not guarantee that multiple triggers on a table will fire in any particular order. Well, they do guarantee some things. For example a BEFORE trigger will fire before an AFTER trigger and ROW triggers fire before STATEMENT triggers.

But for two triggers of the same type (say 2 BEFORE ROW triggers), Oracle does not guarantee which wi

Miro Consulting’s Scott Rosenberg was included in an article in this month’s Processor Magazine about software licensing compliance.

The article is a great piece on the basics of software licensing compliance and asset management for anyone looking for some beginner information on the whys and hows of compliance. Some other tips mentioned in the article are what to do when you are faced with an audit and also how virtualization impacts software licensing.

Check out the complete article here.

LewisC's An Expert's Guide To Oracle Technology

You might not think of remote desktop as a cloud tool but MS has added cloud storage to remote desktop and called it Live Mesh. I have been using it recently and it is pretty nice. I use VNC fairly extensively and, when I'm not using VNC, I tend to use <a hr

LewisC's An Expert's Guide To Oracle Technology

You might not think of remote desktop as a cloud tool but MS has added cloud storage to remote desktop and called it Live Mesh. I have been using it recently and it is pretty nice. I use VNC fairly extensively and, when I'm not using VNC, I tend to use <a hr

LewisC's An Expert's Guide To Oracle Technology

Just thought I would pass this along. Aptana is looking for people to join their Cloud Team. This looks like a very cool job.

Areas and systems of interest:

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LewisC's An Expert's Guide To Oracle Technology

Just thought I would pass this along. Aptana is looking for people to join their Cloud Team. This looks like a very cool job.

Areas and systems of interest:

<li style="MARGIN:

The BSA has gotten four more companies in the UK - so called “pirates” - and reached out of court settlements with them. Blitz Corporation, Genetics of Ludlow, Sheffield-based MTL Group and Modular UK all reached settlements described by the BSA as “running into tens of thousands of pounds”.

Blitz was operating approximately 15 PCs containing unlicensed copies of Adobe, Microsoft and Quark software, as well as illegally using OEM editions of Microsoft Windows XP and Vista, and unlicensed student editions of QuarkXpress Passport and Adobe CS3 Master Collection. Student editions - why does everyone try to get away with using these? They are limited at best and are just asking for trouble!

As you can see by these cases, the BSA is not discriminatory as to whom they seek out - no matter what size the business or how many PCs are in use. It would seem like a waste of time to go after a company for simply 15 software licenses.  My guess is that they follow up on every lead that they get from their online form and hotline and don’t shy away from going after the little fish as well as the big ones.

Just another reason for software asset management and proper software licensing!

LewisC's An Expert's Guide To Oracle Technology

Well, I have made the leap to SQL Developer. No more TOAD. In the past, I was using SQL Developer quite a bit but I would still fall back to TOAD for certain things. No more.

I am using v1.5 and have not had any weird crashes, no performance problems. There's nothing that I need to do that I can't. In a few instances, I have had to search arou

LewisC's An Expert's Guide To Oracle Technology

Well, I have made the leap to SQL Developer. No more TOAD. In the past, I was using SQL Developer quite a bit but I would still fall back to TOAD for certain things. No more.

I am using v1.5 and have not had any weird crashes, no performance problems. There's nothing that I need to do that I can't. In a few instances, I have had to search arou

LewisC's An Expert's Guide To Oracle Technology

I think I have once again run into one of the most misunderstood issues facing Oracle shops. We run RAC in an SE environment and were thinking about setting up a new development (with RAC) configuration. Do we need to purchase a license to develop and test in this environment? The short answer is that in most cases, yes, we must purchase a license.</p

LewisC's An Expert's Guide To Oracle Technology

I think I have once again run into one of the most misunderstood issues facing Oracle shops. We run RAC in an SE environment and were thinking about setting up a new development (with RAC) configuration. Do we need to purchase a license to develop and test in this environment? The short answer is that in most cases, yes, we must purchase a license.</p

Oracle scored a 10 for security last week.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t one of those “best-you-can-get” 10s. It was a 10 on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) scale, a system for rating and assessing the impact of system vulnerabilities - - and Oracle had a big one.

This vulnerability, which has been described as “severe” and “dangerous,” was found on Oracle’s new WebLogic server (formally known as BEA WebLogic).

In his Security Alert, Oracle’s Eric Maurice says that one can exploit this vulnerability without authentication (such as a username and password), but “it can result in compromising the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the targeted system.”

Whoever made the vulnerability public did not contact Oracle beforehand, Maurice said.

It’s been a year since we last discussed your database security bloopers, but it’s probably safe to say that this is one of the biggest ones since then. The WebLogic vulnerability marks the first time since January 2005 that Oracle has issued an out-of-cycle patch or security alert for one of its products.

However, whether this affects you or not, you’ve probably had your own share of security nightmares since last July - - which is why it’s time for “Oracle security bloopers III.” Take a look back at Oracle security bloopers II and More security horror stories, where readers wrote in about everything from SYS password misunderstandings to fraud-committing DBAs.

Especially with all the Oracle acquisitions, integrations and new products in the last year, security issues are inevitable. What Oracle security horror stories do you have? Send your stories (these can be anonymous) to me at sgarlick@techtarget.com or leave them in the comment fields below and share them with the Eye on Oracle Community!

Validation? Some may not be aware, but your Microsoft software may occasionally need to be validated - meaning you will have to download the validation feature of your software so Microsoft can be sure that you have activated and licensed your copy properly. Ouch! Yet another reason why licensing and activation are an important part of implementing any software application.

During the process, the product keys are checked along with the IP address of the device it’s being used on. No getting around this one!

So what happens if something isn’t right? Basically, you won’t be able to use your software properly and Microsoft will hound you until you have properly activated and installed the software.

There is nothing more annoying than when you are trying to use a program and it won’t let you do anything that you need to except maybe type!

It’s been a great award season for us here at Miro. We have been honored once again - this time by CRN Magazine as a part of their CRN Fast Growth 100 rankings.

You can find the complete ranking here.

It’s been a great ride -  Miro continues to see growth and we hope to be included on these lists for years to come!

LewisC's An Expert's Guide To Oracle Technology

In the first part of this series, I talked about Vertica the company and how Vertica is licensed. This entry will discuss the architecture of the database and how it handles various issu