• The words: SOMETHING BIG IS COMING
• The date: 26.7.17
• The brand: ORACLE

All set to a roaring soundtrack and a rumbling fade-out animation between slides.

Something big is coming pic.twitter.com/uSzWTuKtj9

— Oracle Cloud (@OracleCloud) 20 July 2017

What could it be? …we debated in the Development department here at Explorer as we started a countdown timer.

Now that APEX 5.1 is released, our “eagerly awaiting from Oracle” list (we have many lists) is down to just a couple of items.

In second place is the prospect of a release of Oracle Express Edition 12c which we understand Oracle are “on with” with no announcement of a potential release date.
However, in first place and top of the list is Oracle’s Free Cloud offering.
We had everything crossed it was going to be that – and I was determined to sign up on day 1. After all, the tweet came from @OracleCloud so it would’ve been the bookies favourite.

On 26.7.17, the announcement came and I would never have guessed; it was not the release of the Oracle free cloud offering, but instead was a 38-second video announcing the partnership between

Oracle and Bloodhound SSC. Ah ha – the clues in the earlier video all make sense now.

Blood SSC is making use of the great cloud and data technologies, find out how: https://t.co/pw7kNYDy9L pic.twitter.com/2cYWue8eVR

— Oracle Cloud (@OracleCloud) July 26, 2017

For those of your unfamiliar with Bloodhound SSC; it is a UK project to build a jet and rocket powered car that will break the 1000mph barrier and set a new world land speed record with first runs set for October. The current world record of 763mph is held by ThrustSSC, which I actually saw paraded through the streets of Coventry on its way to its final destination at the Coventry Transport Museum in 2001.

After reading more on the Bloodhound SSC website, the partnership with Oracle Cloud is really interesting when it comes to monitoring of the cars performance.

“Oracle will provide technology to help Bloodhound collect, analyse and broadcast data from more than 500 sensors installed on the Bloodhound SSC (Super Sonic Car) to classrooms around the world.”

For us this is an interesting prospect and we would love to see the data in a tool like Oracle Data Visualization, Oracle JET Charts or even in an APEX Dashboard – an Interactive Grid would be ideal for representing and charting the data.

As a department, we have previously looked at similar projects. We have downloaded data from the SpaceX projects – plotting data of altitude against velocity to track the take-off and return of their recyclable rocket. This used an Oracle APEX application using a Jet Chart region. In another scenario, Craig has also created APEX applications to manage weather data sourced from Raspberry Pi powered weather stations located at schools around the UK. More on this and I.o.T on his presentation here.

Still – we await the free cloud offering from Oracle. So why are we so excited about it? Details are thin but from what we hear, we are expecting:

• Sign up & use for free
• Suitable for production use
• Upgrade if you need more processing power/data storage
• Runs APEX 5.1
• APEX Application Store (think Google Play for APEX) where you can download applications in to your workspace or upload your own.

A free, production ready, cloud service really is a game-changer; so you can see why we are all so excited.

We have already started to brainstorm many ideas to get the most out of it when it arrives. There is lots of potential and we have many exciting ideas.

The obvious use for the Oracle Cloud service is moving your infrastructure to the Cloud. Have you considered it for your business? Even without the free cloud launch, many Oracle Cloud options are already available that will suit your needs. For example, Explorer have already moved Raspberry Pi and their weather station application to the Oracle Cloud.

If you would like to find out more, please contact us for a chat on Oracle Cloud options.

Author: Matt Mulvaney

Job Title: Senior Oracle APEX Development Consultant

Bio: Matt is an experienced APEX solution designer having designed numerous complex systems using a broad range of Oracle Technologies. Building on his previous experience of Oracle Forms & PL/SQL, he is entirely focused on providing functionally rich APEX solutions. Matt promotes APEX as a software platform and openly shares best practises, techniques & approaches. Matt has a passion for excellence and enjoys producing high quality software solutions which provide a real business benefit.