What's Hot!

Attain IT are Oracle Technology Experts

This section of our site is dedicated to sharing information on “what’s hot”.

Rather than regurgitating the latest hype from vendors and the press, this area is used to report on areas we see getting much more attention in the real-world of Australian IT.

• Low Cost High Availability

• Rapid Application Development – BI Dashboards and Internal Applications

• Database Upgrades and Functionality Extensions

• Oracle Managed Services

• Disaster Recovery Solution for non-enterprise customers

Low Cost High Availability

At last, availability and redundancy is available without huge expense. We are experiencing high demand for Oracle RAC (real application clusters) to be implemented in businesses who operate on a 9x5 basis.

This seems to be being driven by convergence of many factors, including;

• Price drops in hardware
• Price drops in storage
• Inclusion of RAC with Oracle Standard Edition Database 10g (no extra cost)
• Efficiencies in implementation services (for example, Attain IT can implement RAC in just a few days)
• Increasing pressure on smaller businesses to have enterprise style availability

It is our understanding that the combination of price drops and increasing pressure to have a degree of redundancy to facilitate high availability are driving this demand. No matter what the driver, it is most certainly a “hot” area with substantial interest and activity at present.

Attain IT is pleased to offer a free service to assess what is required to deliver low cost HA to your business. Contact us for more information.

Rapid Application Development – BI Dashboards and Internal Applications

Attain IT have been using Oracle Application Express (APEX), which comes free with Oracle’s database, as a rapid application development framework for some time now. Recently, however, we’ve found there is a real spike in demand for the abilities of this form of rapid application development. It’s no surprise to us, but delivers quite a degree of excitement to those coming across it for the first time, so it seems the word is getting out about ‘APEX’.

Oracle has substantial Business Intelligence capabilities, scaling right through from small business solutions to large scale enterprise BI. Application Express comes in at the low end of the cost / complexity scale but packs quite a punch in terms of capability.

We have had much success building BI Dashboards for small to medium sized organisations to publish core business metrics to key users. This flexible form of reporting can deliver real-time information updates through an easy to use portal interface, making it a great way to give key information to a wide range of user types.
With the benefits of rapid development and leveraging the experience we have built with this product, solutions can be delivered from concept to reality in less than two weeks.

Whilst it has characteristics such as easy alignment with an existing Oracle database and ability to perform future modifications at very low cost, it still stands up to rigorous deployment purposes. We have customers using this to serve national offices and one of our finance industry customers was recently complemented by APRA on the quality and functionality of their APEX-built reporting solution following an audit.

Application Express (APEX) is a natural choice for development of internal applications. Examples may include inventory management, timesheeting, job quoting and management of contact data.

Like any tool, quality results are delivered in short time frames when experts use the tool. Attain IT has significant experience with Application Express, which you can take advantage of for any manner of application, business intelligence or reporting needs. Contact us to discuss how quickly (and cheaply) your dream systems can be turned into reality.

Database Upgrades and Functionality Extensions

Oracle released its 11g database last year and this has triggered demand for users of Oracle’s world class database to review their current database usage. Every customer has a different environment, different needs and different constraints (such as application certification). Accordingly, a review of current database usage may lead to a move from 8i or 9i to 10g, from 10g Release 1 to 10g Release 2 or a move to the latest version, 11g, depending on each customers’ situation.

We have also recently seen customer interest in making the most of ALL of what has been purchased. Areas include data security (especially in finance and government areas), reporting capability, high availability and disaster recovery. This means that even customers who are not planning version changes are contacting us to start using more of Oracle’s capabilities, especially customers running Oracle 10g.

Whilst the situations all vary, one thing we’re certainly finding is that customers are moving along the version upgrade path. If you’re thinking about joining this crowd, contact us to discuss the best options for your particular environment.

Oracle Managed Services

It is hardly surprising to see Attain IT listing Oracle Managed Services in our “what’s hot” report. As Oracle experts, we have the specialist ability to deliver high quality managed services for Oracle environments in a low cost manner. This isn’t a skill you develop overnight and we’ve been doing it for many years. Our dedication to customer success is demonstrated most strongly in this service as our team get to know your staff and your environment and go out of their way to help.

This service has always been popular, however the prompt to include it in our “what’s hot” report was number of new customers approaching us to provide Oracle Managed Services as a result of their disappointment with much larger service companies. This disappointment was based on service quality rather than cost. Imagine their surprise when they later discover that Attain IT delivers high quality service AND significantly lower cost!

Attain IT use local, senior consultants to deliver this service. Rather than using junior staff or off-shoring, customers using Attain IT’s Oracle Managed Service benefit from experienced, Australian based expertise.

In addition to delivering better service, this has other related benefits. For example, when a project is required or a staff member at your site goes on leave Attain IT resources are available to assist. The consultant we provide is far more effective as they have already built an understanding of your team and your environment whilst providing the managed service.

This service is available to customers running Oracle Database, Oracle Application Server (Fusion Middleware) and Oracle 11i Applications. Click here to read more.

Attain IT’s pricing for Oracle Managed Services is high competitive. Contact us to see how we can deliver high quality management of your Oracle environment in a cost effective manner.

Disaster Recovery Solution for non-enterprise customers

Disaster Recovery (DR) is essential for enterprise class organisations. It is also highly appealing to smaller organisations as sometimes the impact of a disaster event can be even more catastrophic. However, the cost of DR solutions for Oracle environments often precludes smaller organisations from securing their data in this way.

Attain IT uses our specialist Oracle Technology understanding to help customers meet their business goals. Clients running Oracle Standard Edition database environments have sought a DR solution which meets their business and budget specifications. Accordingly, Attain IT developed a DR solution for Oracle Standard Edition which can be implemented in only 2 or 3 days.

This was released late in 2006 and has proven to be very popular. If you run Oracle Standard Edition and would like to look at a low cost DR solution, please contact us to discuss how we can help. (Please make contact us into a link to the details at the base of this page)

If you’d like to discuss how any of today’s popular technology topics noted above may suit your business, please contact us and we’ll be happy to discuss suitable solutions.

T: 02 8962 5600

EM: sales@attainit.com.au.

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