In this day and age, every business, no matter the size, whether public or private, in one way or another leverages software to cut costs, simplify processes and improve business performance. Because the software becomes an integral part of their business, they cannot afford to have the system down, or not have access to support personnel for these systems.

Too many times we are called upon in desperate times when companies are faced with the fact that they are left with no in-house expertise to support and maintain critical, home-grown software applications. It seems that we can’t get past the idea that people move on. Technical support professionals, programmers, database administrators, software engineers, and other technical folks - will eventually find greener pastures. Are you prepared for that scenario?

Not matter what you heard, and where you heard it, the bottom line on outsourcing or co-sourcing some of your IT functions, such as application maintenance, is that it’s just plain smart. Some companies do it to save costs, some do it because no in-house expertise, some because they want to protect their assets, and some because they want to protect their jobs. Yes. Their jobs. C-level executives don’t typically care for the “why” are we short staffed, but more for the “how” you will overcome the shortage, while still providing a high level of customer satisfaction.

May I suggest you do it for all of the above reasons? Allowing a firm such as IT Vizion, whose focus is on IT, isn’t just cost effective, but a smart approach to protecting your firm’s investments.

We are not an ‘individual’ that will eventually pack up and go. Our customers can count on us to be there for as long as there is a need, and the synergy still exists. We bring top talent to the table, with extensive expertise in all types of Web and Client/Server applications. Our focus is to deliver cost effective solutions that will boost your bottom line. Whether you need someone to maintain existing applications, or are looking to start with a new software that will allow you to automate your business functions, we are capable and ready to take you to that next level.

If all is well now, then this is the time to plan ahead. Don’t wait until you’re left in the dark. Becoming acquainted with software applications doesn’t happen overnight. The company you choose for this task, will need time to learn and understand your systems and your business, before they can be a real asset to you. Spend the time needed to find a long term IT partner that fits your culture, while bringing the complimentary skills needed to support your organization.

IT Vizion is located in Corona (Riverside County, California). We specialize in Java and .NET applications, Oracle and SQL Server databases, while adhering to the highest software development standards. We are proud to promote ourselves as a one-stop IT shop.

I am spending the week in San Francisco at Oracle’s OpenWorld. This is the “premier” Oracle event. Oracle takes the opportunity to talk about progress (over the years), introduce new products, and discuss its road-map. This years’ event attracted over 43,000 attendees.

San Francisco is a great city to see (that’s later in the week), but my purpose here is to come up to speed on Oracle’s flagship product, their Database, and see how it can be applied/managed better for our customers. The new Oracle Database 11g has a handful of new features including things that stood out in the crowd - at least for me: Database Replay (change management), Fault Diagnosability Infrastructure (similar to the OFA idea), RMAN improvements (such as active database duplication), DataPump enhancements (additional encryption support, AES), tablespace encryption, and statistics improvements to mention a few.

Since I work quite a bit with embedded Oracle installations, I was disappointed to see that Oracle hasn’t made any changes to the way it’s embedded database technology works - besides introducing OracleLite. Well, I take that back. One thing that they’ve done is to update the Embedded Database Readme and Installation docs… Here is one major problem I have with the current process, and it just irks me:

• Ability to deliver the just the install files necessary to support the customer environment, and not the the entire 1.76GB folder!

This is a huge disadvantage if you ever consider delivering the application over the FTP. Besides this “minor” drawback, the embedded database works pretty well - as long as you have all your database maintenance schedules in place.

For today, I’m checking out. Let’s see what tomorrow holds at the Moscone Center… Ciao.