The Compleat Idiot's Guide to PBCS, No. 17 -- License Compliance

This is never a fun topic, is it?

With the caveat that IANAL nor am I the guy that actually signs the contract nor do I work for Oracle, it has been pointed out to me that PBCS – which was once Planning-in-the-Cloud-but-better – is now a platform that supports multiple products such as PBCS, EPBCS, FCCS, the soon to be released (or is it out now?) PCMCS, and I would daresay a number of future products.  Multiple products equals (potentially) multiple contracts; certainly that is true if you follow the message of this post which is a note of warning because:

• Said products are not in your company’s contract unless you’ve specifically bought them.
• There’s not a (technical) thing in the world to prevent you from using what you haven’t paid.
• Oracle can see everything you’re doing on their pods.  You are after all paying to have Oracle manage the software.
• Oracle has a reputation for pursuing license non-compliance with gusto, verve, and tenacity.
• It really isn’t cricket to use what you’ve not paid for.

So can we say that playing with this sort of thing is as dangerous as A-Bomb testing?  Almost.

Like eating cookies in the supermarket before you get to the checkout

OMG that drives me crazy.  Do you have the money?  Is it yours?  Will you put it back if you don’t like it?  Maybe, no, and who knows but look at what you’re doing right now.  While I digress once again my philosophy on paying for things when one ought to should be clear.

Careening wildly back to the point of this post, the rules about using what you’ve paid for in the Cloud are actually no different than what happens in the on-premises world (or, arguably, the supermarket checkout line).   It isn’t yours if you (actually your company) haven’t paid for it.

It’s easy-peasy-no-big-deasy to navigate to eDelivery, download whatever on-premises EPM product your heart desires (sans patches as that is covered by your access at My Oracle Support), and – if you’re way smarter than me – flawlessly and quickly install the software in your environment.  Installed or not, if you haven’t paid for it, you’re in violation.  Yikes.

As just about everyone knows I am completely and comprehensively infrastructure allergic and moreover incompetent (I am incompetent in all sorts of areas; this one is infrastructure).  Contract violation is miles easier in the Cloud because you/I don’t have to install anything so even a profound allergy isn’t prophylactic.

Get thee behind me, Satan.  

Although I am a fan of the dramatic, I am not actually equating Oracle license violation with Luke 4:8 and Matthew 16:22-24 but I am making the point that temptation is staring you right there in the face.  Don’t be weak.

Here’s what we see on login to the service.  I feel like Eve in the Garden of Eden.  

I’m going to resist FCCS temptation not because I am morally superior but because I am not a beancounter.  I am going to go to Planning and Budgeting ‘cos that’s what I do.

With that warning, ooooooh, lookit that.  Would I like to click on EPBCS?  Why yes I would.  And what happens?

The wizard to build an EPBCS application fires right up.  And that is where I stop for now.

You Have Been Warned

I actually am too chicken to see what happens if I click on FCCS as a billet-doux from Oracle Contracts is not very high on my To Do list.  I’d ask who amongst the Best and Brightest of my many (ahem) readers have violated their license to see what happens but that would be self-incrimination.  I’m not here to tempt (there’s that theme again) you to throw away your 5th Amendment rights.

But seriously, folks, if you know what happens (I am guessing off you go on an FCCS application wizard and subsequent contract violation(s)) and you shouldn’t be doing it, there is a way to anonymously comment to this blog.  I’m curious to hear what you have to say.  And no, I don’t actually expect a response but who knows.

Also seriously, don’t do it.  If you’re a partner, sign up for that pod (these are precious things within consulting companies) internally; if you’re a customer, I understand Oracle has sales reps that are just itching to sell you all of these products.  I’ll bet they’ll figure out a way to make you happy.

Be seeing you.

Postscript

I really am going out on a bit of a limb with this post because I simply haven’t navigated into a product I shouldn’t have access to.  Typically (always, actually), I for real and for true do whatever I write about because how else could I write about it.  This is different.  Call me Scaredy Cat Cameron, but as noted I’ve got lots of other things to do with my time.

My point is, I am unusually anxious to correct whatever’s wrong in this post.  Credit will be given no matter how embarrassing it will be for me.  Besides, mild embarrassment is my normal state.

Hybrid Essbase, Oracle, Kscope16, and you

Surveying the Hybrid landscape

If you read this blog, you know that Hybrid is the future of Essbase.  If you don’t agree with that you should read this, and this, and buy this book, and listen to this podcast, and read this white paper, and read this, and this, and this, and then go find the downloads for these two presentations.  Convinced?  You should at least be convinced that I think Hybrid is the future.

But as with so many things in my life, what I think really doesn’t matter.  I need only reflect on my 15 years of life with my cat as proof positive that what I think or want or need is 100% not important except for meal times and when it’s cold and I can act as the human furnace.  This harsh relationship has taught me to focus on what others need, not what I want.  See cat haters, felines are agents of self-actualization.  And hairballs.  

What really matters

What really matters in the world of Essbase is what you want the product to do.  Oracle owns Essbase, invests money in it, brings new features to market, and is literally invested in your adoption, advocacy, and use of the tool but only if you buy and use it.

How does Oracle decide what, when, and how will a feature be supported or not in Essbase?

They set product direction based on what you tell them.

Case in point and the point of this post

Hybrid Essbase – the magical combination of BSO flexibility and ASO power – has been out there for almost two years.   There hasn’t been a lot of real world noise about Hybrid’s glorious success or ignominious failure which is odd given the push many, including Yr. Obt. Svt, have made.

So what’s really going on with Hybrid Essbase?  Has anyone actually for real and for true implemented Hybrid in production?  Is it wonderful?  Awful?  Something in between?  What challenges did you face?  What was amazingly easy and awesome?

You have an opportunity to tell world+dog at Kscope16 and an opportunity to send this feedback right back to Oracle product management via John Booth’s survey:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GotHybrid

Who knows – you might actually get picked for the panel.  Then you can tell Oracle both to their face (I estimate the chances of someone from Essbase product management being in the room to be quite high) and via the survey whether you actually use Hybrid in production, why, what’s holding you back, and what makes it awesome.  And of course you can share your experience with your fellow Kscope16 attendees.

Noting names

Fellow ACEs John Booth, Tim German, Mike Nader, and Yr. Obt. Svt. have all signed on for this.  We’re True Believers in this open relationship with Oracle.  We hope you will too.

Be seeing you.

Kscope 15 days 4 and 5

The day after the night before

I’m going to try to do this in sequential order with some description of the many pictures.  It’s not that I’m lazy, it’s just that I’m so tired it’s not (actually it is) funny.

And with that…

Day 5, Wednesday, June 24 June

AppMan lives!

Proof that a tight integration with Windows cannot be beat.  I don’t think given Oracle’s announcement of Essbase as a Service (Eaas) we’re going to see a return to the Windows development world, but a man can hope.

Really, I miss this thing, and so do many others.  My Ride or Die Girl, Kscope15 conference chairwoman, @EssbaseLady, also known as Natalie Delemar said, “What?  I want that!”  It’s like the Soviet samisdat only for software.

Women In Technology luncheon

Also put together by Natalie as part of her commitment to ODTUG.  (Question:  How does she get by with being a mother, an E&Y Senior Manager, and ODTUG superstar all at the same time?  Discuss.) it was a lot of fun and I didn’t feel the least bit intimidated in being one of the few men.  I never quite understand why my fellow male geeks tread so carefully around subjects like this.  It wasn’t a hanging party for men, it was a chance to discuss what it’s like for women to work and lead in technology.  The reason men were invited to this session was for both to hear a woman’s perspective on work and life and to return the favor with our thoughts.  I think it was a smashing success.

Dudes, time to man up and come next year, it’ll add so much more to  your machismo(and we know of course no one can hear you over your present level of awesomeness; imagine the heights you will achive next year through this meeting alone), grow hair on your chest, and make you even more of a manly man with massive rippling muscles.  And yes, that was a pretty awful attempt at humor, but my fellow X and Y chromosone humans ought to sign up for this at Kscope16 .  The world is composed of both men and women, we both have perspectives to share, and I found it instructive; you would too.

 

Here’s Natalie in her element kicking the event off:

William Hodges presenting on Groovy

Fellow Developing Essbase Applications:  Hybrid Techniques and Practices William Hodges is on stage, Tim German is watching with rapt attention which is more than I can say he did when I was copresenting with him, cf. my last blog post.  TimG, I kid, I kid; you were merely waiting for the awfulness that was my part of the prsentation to finish.

The Wednesday night entertainment

The madness, the madness.  It really was pretty good.

Waiting to greet Kscope attendees to the White Party

The madness begins with fellow board members Dave Schliess, Tim Tow, and Monty Latiolais.

Mia Urman, my Thought Leader and her husband

Mia and I seemingly disagreed with just about everything (well, not everything, but an awful lot of subjects) in her first year on the board.  I have seen the light and now (mostly) agree with her.  I think I just had to catch up to her Awesomeness.  Really, she is pretty awesome and is full of fantastic ideas.  

Did I mention that she really knows how to party?  Oh yes she does.

He lives, he lives, he really lives

Can you guess That Man?  No, not the idiot on the right, the one on the left.  He turns out to not be an army of autonomous robots.  More’s the pity as now my OTN humiliation is complete.

The party is about to begin

OMG, it’s so cool.

Can geeks party?  Oh yes they can

Wait, wait, who is that I see?

Amazingly, it’s my friend and fellow presenter, Tim German.  Tim, we never thought we’d live to see the day.

Was there an after party?  Yup

On the way to South Beach’s Mansion.  We owned that club.  Yes, we ODTUGers did just that.  I’m not sure the club staff will ever get over it.

Opal Alapat dancing on top of a couch

Opal is like Spock’s human counterpart:  so serious, so logical, so smart.  If she could do the Vulcan neck pinch, I’d know she did come from a planet with two suns.  And then you get her dancing and she loses all control.  Awesome, but that preculdes her Vulcanness.

Somewhere on the Twitterverse there is a picture of yr. obt. svt. dancing on top of a table.  Yes, really.  And with only three drinks in me I’m not sure there’s any excuse.

Did someone order drinks?

Or a fire?

Are we not awesome?

It is just possible.

Jessica Cordova getting down

Does that term date me?  Quite likely.
  

Update -- I just had a text conversation with Jessica and the comment on my part is completely incomprehensible to her.  Unfortunately, this means it isn't a joke at all so for those of you who did not have older siblings in the 1970s, the definition is here and it means to dance.  The inimitable James Brown said it best.

Thursday, 25 June

Does anyone look like they are a wee bit tired?  Thursday was the first day I could eat breakfast.  No, not because of a Technicolor Yawn on yr. obt. svt.’s part but because this was the first day I wasn’t 100% booked.  I like Mojo Bars best both for insanely-stupid levels of busyness as well as hiking.  Peanut protein and lots of sugar – what’s not to like?

I cannot exactly remember what I ate as I was a little tired having gone to bed at 3 am and up at 6:30.

Essbase Deep Dive

Here’s 2/3 of the room filling up.  I guesstimate we had about 150 people.

And the distinguished panel

In order from left to right: Steve Liebermensch, Gabby Rubin, and MMIC aka Glenn Schwartzberg.  These Thursday events are an unprecedented opportunity to ask anything, I mean anything, of the product managers that drive the tools we love.

They didn’t make too much fun of me when I called this the Eeeeeessssssbaaaassssseeee Deep Dive session.  Lack of sleep/profound stupidity made me do it.  All sort of kidding aside, I had a pretty difficult time speaking and definitely a large dollop of difficulty in thinking coherent thoughts, let alone moderating the session.

The closing session

A full house; I believe that is the back of Joe Aultman’s head.

Natalie and ODTUG President and Monty Latiolais winding up the conference

Unfortunately this is the end of what is really the best conference I have ever been to, bar none.

Some thougts on Kscope15

Kscope is the yearly highlight of my professinoal life as it is for many others.  I agonize over content from the selection process through my own sessions; hopefully some of what I and many others do helps make that happen for all of the attendees.

Kscope has no counterpart in the Oracle world.  The passion, the knowledge, the people all make Kscope a unique event and one that I love.

ODTUG is responsible in many ways for what I am today professionally and even a large component of who I am as a person.  The spirit of generosity in sharing knowledge, the passion in our work, the people who I call friends who I would never have met otherwise, the investment in and giving back to the community that ODTUG fosters; all of it has profoundly touched many others and me.

I’m really and for true getting misty eyed over writing the above.

Be seeing you.