DevOps & Oracle

In many ways the world of Oracle is a traditional one, as far as IT can be considered traditional, but also one that is going through a huge amount of change. In this edition of 'Focus on Oracle' we look at how DevOps practices are moving into the Oracle ERP world and how we can adapt to the change and embrace new ways of working.

If you've been in the Oracle world for a while it's likely that you're used to working with on-premise systems and the practices of; release cycles, change boards, freezes and patching windows are very familiar to you. If you look at the DevOps world of continuous deployment and rapid release cycles there is a temptation to come to the conclusion that the two worlds are incompatible.

However, if you scratch the surface of the Oracle community you'll find that there are a few organisations that are embracing this change and starting to enjoy the benefits of a DevOps world.

At eAppSys we work with customers who want to embark on this journey.

Our approach is a holistic one, we don't just come and implement tools. We start with the teams, skills and processes. If we're going to make DevOps a success we need to do this as one elite team.

• First and foremost is Assessment where we look at the drivers for adopting DevOps. We often find that there are pockets of DevOps elsewhere in the organisation and there is a pressure to adopt these in the Oracle functions. This influence is useful but the Oracle teams need to consider what their needs are and make sure that these are aligned.
• Once we're decided on our goals we look at the Cultural Changes that will be needed. Many organisations are still siloed in terms of their delivery functions; development, functional support, DBA and infrastructure are very separate teams and, although they often work in sequence, very rarely work as one team. If our DevOps adoption is to be successful we need to bring these groups together and gain consensus and support for the change.
• When the teams have come together it's vital that everyone has the right understanding of DevOps. We can all google and read about what this means but this will lead to a fractured understanding is not a substitute for some structured Education to make sure that the whole team has a solid understanding and is confident in their own skills.
• With these foundational pieces in place we're ready to look at the Technical Change that will be needed. We deploy the automation, deployment and provisioning tools to enable rapid and reliable code delivery. Our most common mechanisms are Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD).

Importantly we make sure that the move to DevOps is an ongoing journey that we embark on in collaboration across teams.

The eAppSys team can support that journey and make sure you have a reliable guide to help you along the way.

The eAppSys Limited team are at 甲骨文 CloudWorld this week. If you'd like to discuss your transition to DevOps, drop them a line through the DMs, or just comment this post.

The team on the field will be: Praveen Baddam Graham Oliver Vinayaka Prabhu Chiranjeevi V.