UTOUG Training Days 2025

A keynote by Larry Ellison highlighted why four clouds are key to Multi-Cloud Databases, while Safra Catz emphasized Oracle's commitment to customers. Andy Mendelsohn unveiled new 23ai features and AI-enhanced SQL, Juan Loaza introduced the Oracle Vector Database and the new Oracle GenDev environment for AI development, and Steve Miranda discussed over 100 AI features in Oracle Applications. My session will integrate key insights from these discussions, focusing on practical AI applications.

Learn how one of the largest payment processing companies migrated its mission-critical databases to the latest Exadata platform with zero downtime. During the migration, we upgraded databases from Oracle 12c (12.1) to Oracle Database 19c. This session will cover technical architecture details, how ultra-high availability was achieved, lessons learned, and, most importantly, how we mitigated risks related to performance.

Numerous challenges were overcome as the databases served a global financial client base. The production database migration to the Exadata environment was completed with zero downtime architecture, using a "live cutover" while continuing to process application data. The Exadata clusters consisted of two sets of ten-node RAC compute nodes across two data centers.

Technologies leveraged include:
- Datapump
- GoldenGate
- Real Application Testing
- 10-Node RAC Cluster
- Global Data Services
- 10-Node RAC Cluster Exadata replicating data to another 10-Node RAC Cluster Exadata

The Oracle AI Panel will answer your questions and discuss how AI will shape our future. We’ll cover practical uses of vector search and the vector database, along with their business impacts. Hosted by Rich, Oracle experts will share their insights on AI's possibilities, benefits, and challenges.

Whether you're new to SQL tuning or celebrating your 10th year, this session offers valuable insights for all skill levels. We’ll begin with a quick introduction to SQL and the Oracle Optimizer, followed by specific examples and tips on various SQL tuning options and methods. The goal is to provide practical takeaways without delving too deeply into any one area. Example code and demonstrations will be included.

Learning objectives include:
- What is SQL tuning?
- Which tools should I use?
- Why Explain Plan may be misleading
- The importance of statistics and histograms
- How to use Tuning Advisor and AWR Top N SQL
- Why SQL Profiles fail
- How to create a SQL Baseline from the cursor cache
- How to create a SQL Patch
- Optimizer tuning techniques
- Why isn’t my index being used? (Index clustering)

In this presentation, we will explore how to leverage Oracle APEX to build a powerful, user-friendly application that dynamically pulls and displays images using external API data. Oracle APEX’s low-code environment streamlines application development, while API integration provides access to a vast library of data and images. Learn how to set up an API connection, manage and display dynamic images, and build intuitive filters for sorting and viewing cards. By the end of the session, you’ll be equipped with the knowledge to create interactive, data-driven applications that access and display external data, enriching the user experience and expanding the capabilities of Oracle APEX.

RAG, or Retrieval-Augmented Generation, is often seen as a way to enhance language models with extra information. But there's far more potential here than simply adding data. This presentation will guide you in transforming a basic RAG setup into something exceptional.

We'll start by exploring the value of RAG, its limitations, and why just attaching information won't cut it. From there, I'll demonstrate advanced techniques that each add value but, when combined, create a truly powerful RAG app. Through live demonstrations in a working application, you'll see these methods in action. Join us to discover the strategies that will take your RAG app from OK to outstanding.