Businesses of today are being forced to respond faster to competitive and customer challenges and are looking to IT to be a differentiator providing flexibility and speed as they address complex business forces. Forced to deliver more, faster, IT managers are looking at technology foundations that p

(Alan Joch) It’s a classic courtroom drama. Actor Jack Nicholson, playing the besieged Col. Jessep in the movie A Few Good Men, is directed by Tom Cruise’s Lt. Kaffee to “tell the truth.” From the witness stand, Jessep glowers at Kaffee and snaps, “You can’t handle the truth!”

(Bill Brenner) The protective wrapping around the programming language used to write procedures and commands in the Oracle Corp. database isn’t as ironclad as some might expect. In fact, one expert claims it can be unraveled to access sensitive data. (R)

(Tarry Singh) Database administration can be a very daunting task. Will that change with all the cool technologies like Virtualization or market developments like Offshoring? NO WAY! You will still need a DBA or a typical “IT Versatilist,” if you will, who will do the necessary tasks. Sure, things m

(Matt Hines) Oracle released an updated version of its user authentication package on Aug. 16, adding a range of tools gained via the company’s acquisitions and its work to build additional security measures into other products.

(Lewis R Cunningham) NVL2 is a neat little SQL function that I think is underused. It seems to me it could have a better name.

(Stephen Swoyer) It’s been a long time coming, but Oracle Corp.’s next-gen Warehouse Builder (OWB) is finally here. It’s actually been here for awhile now, according to Oracle officials, who note that OWB Release 2 has been available—to select customers, anyway—since early May.

(Joshua Greenbaum) To say that Oracle has sent the market – and its customers – conflicting information about its plans for Fusion Applications is being a little charitable. It’s been incredibly difficult to track the shifting sands of Oracle’s strategy over the last three years, and, if you’ve been

(Lewis R Cunningham) I noticed on Dr Anton Chuvakin’s blog, Anton on Security that he started doing a Tip of the Week. I used to do a Thought of the Day. I think this kind of entry is useful, especially if it is interesting information and is kept kind of small.

(Bob Watkins) In June 2006, Oracle took the unprecedented step of opening all its online documentation to public viewing without requiring an Oracle Technology Network (OTN) login. Although the documentation is still not searchable by Google’s “googlebots,” entries on the OTN blog promise that this