Past SFOUG Meetings and Presentations
Partial List

SFOUG's Q3 2007 Double-Header Presentations - Database Security and Oracle 11g Database
On September 6th we held our Q3 2007 meeting. For this meeting we had a double-header presentation, with one presentation on Database Security and another presentation on Oracle 11g Database. We saw a lot of new faces among our longtime members with over 60 people in attendance.

Glenn Miller, Consulting Manager with Oracle Corporation, presented to the group on the many new and exciting features coming from Oracle 11g. By extending Oracle's unique ability to deliver the benefits of grid computing, Oracle Database 11g enables users to improve service levels, reduce downtime, and make more-efficient use of IT resources while increasing the performance, scalability, and security of the business applications.

Doors opened at 5:30 and presentations started just after 6:00 PM with an overview of the mission of the group and an update of current events by Jay O'Leary, SFOUG President. Following this brief overview, Jay introduced our presenters for the evening.

Glenn's presentation on Oracle 11g Database addressed many current challenges facing IT departments today. With databases tripling in size every two years, IT departments are facing both new and familiar challenges: How to maintain users? service levels in the event of server, storage, or site failures? How to prevent data breach and ensure regulatory compliance? How to store, manage, and protect all types of information, yet easily integrate it into routine business operations? How to scale large transactional and data warehousing systems while ensuring performance, reliability, and manageability? And how to upgrade software and hardware while minimizing the risk of change? Oracle helps you address these challenges with a broad array of new features and enhancements in Oracle Database 11g.

Opening slides and agenda.(download 496k)

SFOUG's Q3 2007 Double-Header Presentations - Database Security and Oracle 11g Database
On September 6th we held our Q3 2007 meeting. For this meeting we had a double-header presentation, with one presentation on Database Security and another presentation on Oracle 11g Database. We saw a lot of new faces among our longtime members with over 60 people in attendance.

The meeting information on database security provided an overview of the current status of database security as well as likely trends for the near future. This information was presented by Jacob Bardin and Todd DeSantis of Sentrigo.

Doors opened at 5:30 and presentations started just after 6:00 PM with an overview of the mission of the group and an update of current events by Jay O'Leary, SFOUG President. Following this brief overview, Jay introduced our presenters for the evening.

The presentation included slides and demo-like overviews describing types and techniques of attacks, specifically SQL Injection attacks on both web applications and built-in database stored program units. The presentations showed how simple SQL Injection can be used to own the database server through the means of privilege escalation. We reviewed ways of preventing SQL Injection attacks - ranging from secure coding practices to various external tools that will alert and prevent SQL Injection attempts, and demonstrate how hacker techniques of evasion can be used to subvert them.

Special thanks go to Cassio DeSanctis for assisting with the event, Sentrigo for Sponsoring, Jacob Bardin, Todd DeSantis and Glenn Miller for presenting, and Sherlock and ORACLE for providing support and raffle items.

Opening slides and agenda.(download 496k)

SFOUG's Q1 2007 Presentation - Oracle's Business Intelligence Platform:
On March 22nd the SFOUG held our Q1 2007 meeting and presentation, with over 60 people in attendance. The meeting information focused on Oracle as an integrated Business Intelligence platform rather than a collection of tools for data warehousing, reporting, OLAP, data mining and other data exploration tools.

Doors opened at 5:30 and presentations started just after 6:00 PM with an overview of the group and an update of current events by Jay O'Leary, SFOUG President. Jay reviewed the agenda of evening activities and reiterated that the mission of the SFOUG is to provide an educational environment. Following this brief presentation, Jay introduced our presenter for the evening Shyam Varan Nath. Shyam is the President and Founder of the Oracle Business Intelligence, Warehousing and Analytics Special Interest Group (http://OracleBIWA.org).

The presentation included a demo-like overview of the Oracle BI technology. The presentation also highlighted the growing importance of real time analytics in a world where the advertising and campaigns are undergoing paradigm change due to do not call lists, spam blockers, digital media recorders etc. There was much discuss around Oracle's data mining tools which can be used to empower the underlying analytics. This presentation also cover how Extraction, Transform and Load (ETL) can be done in the Oracle database, leading to data for advanced reporting, analytics like data mining and OLAP and for the automation of critical decision making in a business organization to lead to actionable tasks. Shyam closed the presentation by taking several question from the members.

Immediately after the presentation the group raffled off several prizes including SFOUG shirts, Books, and Oracle shirts and hats.

Special thanks to Cassio DeSanctis for assisting with the event, and to ODTUG, Sherlock and ORACLE for providing support and raffle items.

Opening slides and agenda.(download 496k)

Presentations and Live Demonstrations at our Q2 2006 Meeting:
The second quarter, June 29th 2006 SFOUG meeting was on the much anticipated Business Process Execution Language (BPEL). You probably heard of web services, a technology for systems to call each other over the Internet. Often information is shared via XML messages between application servers. As businesses move more and more to using web services, the messaging and bundling of program logic can get complicated. That is where business process execution language comes in. BPEL is emerging as the standard for assembling services into an end-to-end process.

The presentations started just after 6:00 PM with an overview of the group and an update of current events by Jay O'Leary, SFOUG President. Jay reviewed the agenda of evening activities and reiterated that the mission of the SFOUG is to provide an educational environment. Following this brief presentation Jay introduced the meeting sponsor; Ed Marciniak of AUXIS. Ed took a few moments to provide a brief overview of his organization and participation with the SFOUG. Ed and his company AUXIS have sponsored the SFOUG in the past and we very much appreciate their ongoing support. Ed provided complimentary coffee mugs to all the participants.

Next up on the agenda was our good friend Glenn Miller, Consulting Manager with Oracle Corporation. Glenn conducted and excellent overview presentation on Oracle's 10g Fusion Middleware and how it supports and integrates Business Process Execution Language (BPEL).

The presentation was followed by live demonstrations of BPEL in action. Jason Oskamp, Senior Consultant with Oracle, demonstrated how Oracle's powerful tools built BPEL services without the need to write a lot of code. Jason's demonstrated how the service could load files on a scheduler, map data and stored results in database tables. Using the management console, users could monitor the entire process in detail, which avoided the risk of working in a unknown black-box.

Immediately after the presentation the group raffle off several prizes including SFOUG shirts, and Oracle shirts and hats.

Special thanks to Cassio DeSanctis and Sam Ling for assisting with the event, and to (AUXIS) for sponsoring.

Opening slides and agenda. (download)

A Great 2006 Q1 Meeting:
The evening started with an Oracle sponsored happy hour with food and beverages. During this time members enjoyed light appetizers and socialized with other Oracle professionals. Due to inclement weather, the meeting began with a delay. The March 23rd meeting was very well received. Members enjoyed a full buffet of chicken, burgers, pizzas and refreshments, while attending excellent presentations by Mike Cochran of Oracle. Entertainment included raffles of shirts and DVD players as well as a pool shooting competition.

It was a full evening of meeting activities:
The meeting kicked off at 6:40 pm with an update of current events by Jay O'Leary, SFOUG President. Jay reviewed the agenda of evening activities and reiterated that the mission of the SFOUG is to provide an educational environment. Jay introduced the meeting sponsors; Ed Marciniak of AUXIS and Jane Smit of Oracle. Ed and Jane provided a breif overview of their organizations and participation in the SFOUG.

Next up was Mike Cochran, Vice President of Oracle technology sales. Mike's presentation contained a lot of valuable information on Oracle?s strategic direction. In addition, Mike discussed the many acquisitions and how Oracle will be fusing the applications and technology together.

Immediately after the presentation the group adjourned to the entertainment area where they enjoyed a buffet of snacks (chicken, burgers and pizza) and beverages. Entertainment included a pool shooting competition as well as many door prizes and raffle items such as shirts, pens. Some DVD players were provided as raffle items by Artech Conculting Group.

Special thanks to Sam Ling for managing the door, and to Ed Marciniak (AUXIS) and Jane Smit (Oracle) for sponsoring.

Opening slides and agenda. (download)

Date: 12/7/2004
Oracle Portal and Discoverer "Drake"
and
VERITAS Oracle InDepth

Date: 8/25/2004
The Oracle Application Server 10g
By Glenn Miller (download 3MB)
Oracle

The presentation provided an in-depth look at the Oracle application server. The Oracle Application Server 10g is an application platform suite that offers full support for J2EE, high-speed caching, rapid application development, enterprise portals, identity management, business intelligence, application and business integration, wireless capabilities, and more, all pre-integrated to save you time and money. Glenn's presentation was followed by several raffles and giveaways including Pricenton Softech Pens, Oracle cable connectors, Windbreaker Jacket and a gift check for $100 (special thanks to Peter and Glenn for providing raffle items, and Cassio DeSanctis for managing the event)

Glenn Miller is a Consulting Manager with Oracle Corporation. Glenn focuses on State and Local Government in the South Florida Area.

Date: 5/19/2004
Enterprise Database Security
By Ulf T. Mattsson
Protegrity

The presentation illustrated how to protect Oracle databases from intrusions utilizing recent developments in information-based security solutions that address a defense-in-depth strategy. It reviewed case studies of cost-effective and time-effective solutions for Oracle databases that support the requirements of new privacy legislation and provide protection from the inside out without costly application modifications.

Ulf T. Mattsson is the Chief Technology Officer, Protegrity Inc. Ulf holds a master's degree in physics and a number of patents in the IT security area. He visited from Connecticut to present on Database Security.

Date: 5/19/2004
Oracle SQL Performance Tuning
By Gavin Powell
OracleDBAExpert.com
The presentation demonstrated how SQL statements containing very large joins executed against highly Normalized or complex data models can be extremely difficult to tune. It explained how the use of subqueries can help break large join queries into much more manageable and therefore more tunable parts. The presentation provided useful insights on performance tuning, with hands-on examples and "little known" features that can help DBA's uncover performance bottlenecks.

Gavin Powell is an Oracle Certified Professional and book author with over 15 years of experience.

Date: 2/11/2004
The Power Of 10 - Enterprise Grid Computing with Oracle 10g
By Lindsay Pickle
Oracle

This presentation explored Enterprise Grid Computing with Oracle 10g. Members learned how Oracle 10g adapts to the changing demands of business, providing the reliability, security, and performance that users demand. Topics included: The Oracle 10g platform, Why the Grid?, Achieving the highest level of availability, Storage Grids, Database Grids, Grid Control and more.

Lindsey Pickle is an Senior Solution Specialist with Oracle Corporation. Lindsey has been with Oracle for seven years and specializes in high availability database systems. Lindsey visited us from Atlanta to present on Oracle 10g.

Date: 8/21/2003
Designer and Developer Hats: Rapid Application Design for Oracle Applications
By Kevin Runner
Runner Technologies

This presentation explored the strategies and techniques for rapidly designing custom Oracle applications, at the same time focusing on developer implementation issues and performance. We discussed the importance of design standards, a solid development methodology, design considerations, deficiencies in modeling tools, and impact on code generators. This is not a purist approach to database design, but rather a practical approach for designing enterprise class databases without the traditional grunt work.

This has been an intermediate level presentation designed primarily for database designers and developers. The live demos used the Oracle Designer product, however the techniques presented applied to any modeling tool, such as AllFusion (aka ERwin).

Kevin is the President and Founder of Runner Technologies, and creator of the Orbit Web Development Suite for Oracle. Kevin has been designing and developing custom Oracle applications for over 10 years for such companies as IBM and Motorola. Kevin received his Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering at the Speed Scientific School in Louisville, Kentucky, and currently resides in Boca Raton, Florida.

Date: 7/3/2003
Ft. Lauderdale Oracle Technology Day

This was an opportunity to join other SFOUG members at this free local event and learn about Oracle Collaboration Suite, RAC on Linux and Oracle Business Intelligence.

For organizations looking to cut costs and increase employee productivity, Oracle Collaboration Suite is the most secure, reliable, and cost-effective choice. Oracle Collaboration Suite lets you:

• Replace fragmented point solutions that don?t work together.

• Reduce the number of servers required, cutting hardware costs.

• Reduce software fees by eliminating client and server license fees for many different products.

• Access all your communications via desktop applications, the Web, PDAs and mobile phones.

Following Sessions: Lowering Costs with RAC on Linux
(consolidation of Data Warehouses and OLTP DB in the same cluster)

Making Better Decisions with Oracle Business Intelligence - Oracle9iAS Portals
J2EE: Developing, Deploying and Managing High Performance Applications - Oracle 9iAS

Date: 6/19/2003
Members-To-Members: A Series Of Short Presentations By SFOUG Members
By SFOUG Members

The SFOUG hosted a Members-to-Members meeting June 19th, the week before the ODTUG conferences. The meeting hosted an informal series of short presentations from SFOUG members within our local business community. Presentations from people here in our own back yard, using Oracle to support their business. This was a great opportunity to hear IT approaches from other members and hold open discussions around how local organizations use Oracle. This was a casual information sharing meeting.

Presenters at the members-to-members meeting are featured on the SFOUG.org web site with bio's and presentation slides.

Speakers: Various speakers from local organizations such as; South East Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC), Sabre Systems, Precision Response Corporation (PRC), and Hawkeye Technology.

Date: 6/19/2003
Case Study - Migrating Internet Applications to Oracle 9i (JDeveloper)
By Jay O'Leary
Artech Consulting Group

Jay O'Leary is a Managing Partner with Artech Consulting Group, an IT professional services firm in Sunrise, FL. Prior to joining Artech in 1997, Jay served as a Group Technology Officer at Cambridge Technologies Partners (now Novell). While at Cambridge, Jay focused on the management of project teams and the delivery of IT services throughout the United States and Europe. Jay began his career at Citigroup where he worked on the development and implementation of financial control systems for the Corporate Bank offices throughout Latin America.

Date: 6/19/2003
Case Study - PRC Oracle and Linux Key Achievements
By Srinivas Sikha
Precision Response Corporation

Srinivas is a Senior Database Administrator at PRC where he has been working for the past 6 years. Srinivas attended Sri Venkateswara University College of Engineering (India) & Mississippi State University. His responsibilities at PRC include installation, upgrade and migration of Oracle databases, server and application tuning, hot and cold backup implementation, different types of recovery on production servers, installation and setup of automated monitoring tools, implementation of Oracle Financials, upgrade of Oracle Financials from 10.7 NCA to 11i, installation and configuration of 9iAS, Oracle Application Server, Developer Server and Reports Server.

Date: 6/19/2003
Case Study - Network Management
By Ashok Kapur
Hawkeye Technology, Inc.
Ashok Kapur received his college education at University of Maryland from which he earned MS Computer Science, BS Computer Science and BS Mathematics. He went to High School in New Delhi, India. He is married to Mary and has a 4 year old daughter, Brianna. Ashok has over 14 years of full lifecycle experience with over 9 years as Oracle Database Administrator. He has been an Oracle Certified DBA since 1997 and he is certified in Oracle versions 7.3, 8.0, 8i and 9i. He has presented at various conferences including VOUG and SEOUC. In addition to his DBA experience, Ashok has also managed several development projects. His industry experience includes telecommunications, security, broadcasting, finance, satellite and hospitality. Ashok is currently President and CEO of Hawkeye Technology, Inc.

Date: 6/19/2003
Oracle Collaboration Suite
By Louis S. Cupo
Sabre Systems, Ltd.
Louis Cupo attended the Brooklyn Tech High School, the American University and the University of Chicago. A Vietnam veteran, he was with the U.S. Air Force from 1967 to 1975 where he received a Commendation Medal in 1971 for writing a compiler and saving the Air Force $5 million/year. Louis has been a computer professional for the past 36 years, and has 33 years of experience with systems analysis, design and development. He has also worked as Oracle DBA for 17 years. In 1982, Louis founded Business and Professional Systems, Ltd subsequently renamed to Sabre Systems, Ltd where he currently serves as CEO.

Date: 5/15/2003
Oracle 9i Application Server - Overview, New Release Updates, Key 9iAS Customers
By Michael Reed
Oracle

Oracle9i Application Server is the industry's fastest, most complete and integrated J2EE application server. Oracle9iAS saves you money by offering portal software, wireless and voice, Web page caching, business intelligence, complete integration, and more in a single product. This presentation will provide an overview of the Oracle 9i Application Server, an update on the features included in the new release of version 9.0.4, as well as a discussion on key customers using Oracle 9iAS, how they are using the product, and the benefits they are realizing.

Mike Reed is a Senior Consultant with Oracle's Technology Business Unit. He has been the featured speaker at several SFOUG events during the past years. Among the local Oracle users, Mike has an excellent reputation for being able to deliver a wide array of content with captivating demos. Mike is very knowledgeable about the latest technologies used in Oracle solutions.

Date: 4/30/2003
What's Wrong With This Database Picture
Embedded Reporting By Fabian Pascal
Database Debunkers

Most of what is being said, written about, or done in data management (or whatever is left of it) by vendors, the trade press and "experts" is irrelevant, misleading, or outright wrong. While this is to a degree true of computing in general, in the database field the problems are so acute that, claims to the contrary notwithstanding, technology is actually regressing! This is due to the persistent failure by both DBMS vendors and database users, including DBAs, application developers and managers, to educate themselves and rely on a sound foundation in their respective practices. Indeed, it is lack of proper education that makes fads and accelerating obsolescence acceptable in the first place!

This presentation exposes fundamentally flawed ways in which the database industry operates and illustrates some of the prevalent fallacies and their costly practical consequences. It offers an opportunity to test yourself on your ability to see through the former and avoid the latter in one area -- de-normalization for performance. If you thought you understood it, think again.

The April 30th special event is being brought to you by a collaboration of your South Florida Oracle Users Group and the IEEE Computer Society. Fabian's presentation brings a colorful, if not critical view on the direction of data management as presented by vendors, press and experts. Working with Dr. Alexander Pons, Chairman for the Southeast IEEE Computer Society, we are bringing this feature presentation to you at no cost. The co-sponsored event will also provide the opportunity for SFOUG members to meet members of the IEEE. http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r3/miami/cs/

Fabian will be available for book signing at the event. The cost of his book is $40.00.

In an effort to mitigate costs of this special event, the meeting location will be at the University or Miami in Coral Gables. This will provide a unique opportunity for members who live far south of our usual venue to attend. Next month, the meeting will return to our regular venue at Dave & Busters in Hollywood.

Date: 2/20/2003
A Taste of the Web: Strategies and Solutions for Building Web Application In Oracle
By Kevin Runner
Runner Technologies
This presentation explored the technologies and strategies used to build Oracle based dynamic web applications. It was divided in two parts.

Part 1 was an "Overview of Web Technologies" used to build Oracle based web applications. This covered the architecture, presentation layer, and application layer of several technologies, including JSP, Java Servlets, Java Applets, Cold Fusion, ASP (.Net), PHP, Perl, PL/SQL, PSP, and Orbit.

Part 2 covered "Web Strategies and Solutions" in building web applications. This was a technical discussion about the mechanics of building transactional applications in thin client. Topics included required skills, application flow, layout styles, handling GUI objects, transaction integrity, and security.

This was a technical presentation focusing on the two aspects of web application development - front-end dynamic markup languages, and back end transaction processing. The audience was shown how a very "requirement intensive" example is developed in various front-end languages, including JSP, Cold Fusion, ASP, PSP, PHP, PL/SQL, and Orbit. Part 2 focused on transaction processing in the stateless world of web applications, including pitfalls to avoid and overcome.

Kevin is the President and Founder of Runner Technologies, and creator of the Orbit Web Development Suite for Oracle. Kevin has been designing and developing custom Oracle applications for over 10 years for such companies as IBM and Motorola. Kevin received his Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering at the Speed Scientific School in Louisville, Kentucky, and currently resides in Boca Raton, Florida.