The nature of the change is more gradual and evolving then disruptive, but nevertheless significant and with increasing momentum
In an interview you gave us last year, you talked about how Oracle invests a lot in the development of new cloud services. How far have you come with the projects one year later, and what would you like to point out in particular?
Oracle is working on innovative technologies all the time and especially recently we had the opportunity to present a series of truly groundbreaking solutions. One of them in autonomous technology which is one of the most important announcements in IT and Oracle history. What makes Oracle Autonomous Database so innovative are its core features we talked already a year ago. Since then, two key versions of the solution have appeared. The first is the autonomous data warehouse, which allows our customers to deploy net new or move existing data marts, data lakes, and data warehouses to the cloud. The second is autonomous transaction processing which is designed for high-performance, mission-critical databases, and mixed workloads.
The second area that needs to be mentioned is a set of cloud-based business applications. Our flagship products of Oracle ERP / EPM / SCM Cloud, Oracle HCM Cloud, and Oracle CX Cloud have been distinguished in several subsequent Gartner reports, covering both ERP, EPM, SCM, HCM, and CX systems. We are very proud of our apps cloud suite which, thanks to its unique functionality and ease of use, is taking the market by storm. The system supports all ERP areas: from finance, through supply chain management, planning, production, to business analytics, with the use of modern and user-friendly technologies – all equipped with advanced mechanisms of AI and built-in multi-dimensional analytical tools.
An important element of Oracle’s cloud expansion is also the roadmap to build a network of cloud data center regions equipped with the latest version of the Oracle’s cloud platform. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure was launched in late 2016 with a single region and a few core services across compute, storage, database, and networking. Since then, Oracle Cloud has expanded to over a hundred services available in 29 cloud regions worldwide with a plan to reach 40 regions by the end of 2020.
Has the Covid-19 crisis caused the acceleration of development of new technologies in some fields, and what is Oracle’s response to the crisis, globally and locally?
Recent months have demonstrated the need for organizations to accelerate their digital transformation, gain the flexibility and agility to adapt to changing market conditions. This can be done by using cloud-based solutions and Oracle’s focus is to be very close to its customers to help them accelerate their digital transformation journeys with our innovative technologies. Our autonomous database and cloud applications are designed specifically for our customers’ success in responding to growing demands, efficiently redesigning operations or developing new business models. With more than a thousand business applications in the cloud, we are proud to operate the most complete and innovative set of application cloud services in the world. This puts us in a unique position to deliver the business innovation and resilience our customers need today.
Regarding the Covid-19 crisis, Oracle’s top management has issued a special statement to its customers: wherever we can, we are trying in the best and most effective way to help businesses and institutions in a crisis situation. At the same time, we do not want to use the pandemic for business or marketing gain. On the other hand, we have developed a wide information campaign in the media, trying to influence the market as a trusted advisor in this indirect way.
Oracle is strongly present in the public and private sector in our country. What are the innovations that companies and state administration can expects, and which product would you single out?
Providing organizations with the transformational tools they need to embrace innovation, Oracle lately announced continued advancements in emerging technologies across Oracle Cloud, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, IoT, and human interfaces.
Oracle’s strategy is to make emerging technologies pervasive throughout its cloud offerings. To help customers more easily take advantage of these technologies as part of their digital transformation, Oracle has embedded innovative technologies into its business applications and extended these new capabilities into the platform so customers can build upon them.
Oracle has embedded innovative technologies into its business applications and extended these new capabilities into the platform so customers can build upon them
Also disrupting technologies serve as a foundation of a sophisticated Covid-19 Therapeutic Learning System that allows physicians and patients to record the effectiveness of promising Covid-19 drug therapies. The System is the result of a collaboration with the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and the Department of Health and Human Services.
About two months ago, Oracle announced a very exciting new initiative: Dedicated Region Cloud at Customer which offers customers a slice of its public cloud infrastructure into customer data centers with no changes and the same level of cyber security protection. Industry-first fully-managed cloud region brings all of Oracle’s second-generation cloud services including the secure autonomous database. With the dedicated Cloud Region Cloud at Customer, Oracle is making all of its cloud services available on-premises so enterprises can use Oracle’s cloud services, Oracle Autonomous Database, and SaaS applications wherever they need them – in the cloud, on premises, or via this dedicated region.
How do you rate the market in Serbia regarding the Public Cloud solutions and in general when it comes to innovations? Are innovations the driving force of the economy?
Adoption of public cloud in Serbia is increasing for both enterprise companies and midmarket and small business. There is a need to reduce the cost and shorten the time-to-market in order to remain competitive. Still, enterprise and public sector organizations often encounter roadblocks for public cloud adoption like data sovereignty, security, and connectivity. Oracle recognized that and we offer Oracle Cloud@Customer that brings Oracle’s complete portfolio of public cloud infrastructure, fully managed cloud services, and Oracle Fusion SaaS applications into customers data center. What we see, is higher adoption of Public Cloud Solutions in Financial Institutions, Public Administration, and Manufacturing Industry. This trend will continue especially during the Covid, because companies are trying to mitigate disruptive economic situation. Areas where we see bigger expansion of AI and Machine Learning solutions are in field of Chat Bots, Digital Assistants, Policies Automation etc.
Is Serbia ready for technological development (when we say Serbia, we mean companies and the public sector)?
Yes, I think it is ready. We have strong vendor and IT ecosystem that can support this growth. There are many University Programs, and we have more and more young people interested in Computer Science and IT. On the other side, we see enormous growth and modernization of public cloud services for citizens through Office for IT (Kancelarija za IT). This gives great platform for additional technical development in Republic of Serbia. On the other side, many international companies have representative offices and outsourced centers in our country, and technology wise, we can compare with many countries in Western Europe. We see large number of e-Services in both public and commercial sector and adoption of new technologies. The nature of the change is more gradual and evolving then disruptive, but nevertheless significant and with increasing momentum.