Know who was just ranked No. 1 on Forbes’ list of top-paid CEOs in technology companies in 2007, with a one-year net compensation of almost $193 million?

Here’s a hint: it’s not Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who was knocked down to No. 11 after holding the top spot in 2006.

So, who took Jobs’ place? That would be Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who also ranked No. 1 on Forbes’ list of overall best-paid CEOs (a list on which Jobs ranked No. 120).

The rankings were based on “the overall compensation for the past year for executives, factoring in salary, cash bonuses, vested stock grants, stock gains and exercised stock options.” Nabeel Gareeb of MEMC Electronic Materials and John Chambers of Cisco Systems rounded out the top three of tech CEOs.

It’s interesting to take a look at what the blogosphere has been saying about Ellison’s “victory.” Silicon Valley reporter Sarah Lacy says that “he may not deserve how much he’s making, but he deserves to be one of the most highly paid CEOs in the Valley.”

She goes on to list Ellison’s accomplishments, including that he both “gets where technology is going” and “gets where technology business is going.”

And to all the Ellison loathers out there, Lacy (who seems to question why she isn’t one herself) had this to say: “But shareholders are not electing him president or best friend. They’re paying him to be a good CEO, and he may be one of the only ones worth what he’s being paid.”

CNET News.com blogger Charlie Cooper has a different take on things. He says that a CEO’s success should be measured by their company’s stock performance, and given Oracle’s stock performance over the last 10 years, Ellison is not worth $193 million (even though many readers leave comments criticizing the data he presents).

What do you think is the best way to measure the worth of a tech CEO? Does Ellison (or anyone, for that matter) deserve to make $193 million in a year? Or, do you think such rankings don’t even matter at all?

After nearly eight trips around the Sun, covering just about every technological topic from ABAP to zSeries, it’s my last week at TechTarget and SearchOracle.com. And as my time here comes to an end, I find myself thinking of the tremendous amount of help that IT professionals like you have given me over the years.

I started at TechTarget during the height of the dot com bubble — a time when a rash of ill-conceived and ultimately doomed Internet companies let stock options fly like wedding rice while encouraging employees to wear roller skates to work. Back then, I didn’t even really know what an operating system was, and I thought the Love Bug worm was something you cured with penicillin.

Then the bubble burst and, at first, I feared my newfound career in technology journalism would meet an untimely end. But TechTarget survived the fallout and actually continued to grow at a rapid pace. It soon became clear that my new career would continue — if I could manage to learn more about the world of IT. And that’s where you came in.

From the Oracle DBAs in the trenches who taught me the meaning of ‘SQL Query,’ to the CIOs in the corner offices who schooled me on the necessity of ROI, you were always there, always patient and always willing to help, even if it meant answering embarrassingly basic questions like: Could you explain that to me again like I’m a three-year-old?  
 
For all your help, I just wanted to say thanks. I leave this job knowing that the Oracle user community and larger IT marketplace is filled with unbelievably intelligent people — people who taught me a great deal.   

Remember, SearchOracle.com will remain the number one stop on the Internet for Oracle professionals long after I’m gone. For now, however, please send those Oracle-related tips, comments, story ideas and feedback to news director Barney Beal.

As for me, I’ll be trading in my pen for a meat slicer and an apron. Hopefully my new customers will be as supportive as you’ve been. But somehow I doubt that’s possible.

Take care of yourselves.

– Mark

You’ve read about the best movies of 2007 (which you haven’t seen) and the most embarrassing celebrity scandals of 2007 (which you don’t care about). How about something a tad more relevant?

Here is our look back at your favorites of the year that was 2007:

1. Is Oracle technology too darn expensive? - This year, many IT professionals said they would consider an alternative to Oracle because of the high cost of running Oracle database or business applications.
2. Oracle SQL Developer gets an update - Last January, Oracle unveiled a new version of its free SQL Developer tool and also the SQL Developer Exchange site.
3. Author Mike Ault sizes up the new Oracle Database 11g - This exclusive podcast interview features Mike Ault, a popular speaker at all the major Oracle conferences, discussing Oracle Database 11g’s new SQL replay and memory management capabilities and much more.
4. Oracle shows off Database 11g - Last July, after a nine-month beta test, Oracle unveiled its Database 11g, the long-awaited overhaul of its flagship database management system.
5. Oracle SQL Developer vs. Toad: Users speak out, part two Oracle developers had differing opinions on the best PL/SQL editing and debugging tools.

And here on the blog, the posts that got you the most riled up were as follows:

1. “Database administration is for suckers”?
2. Is Oracle supportive?
3. Does anybody really like SQL?
4. Oracle ACE program “almost completely worthless”
5. Thirty years of Oracle innovation — but is it really a RDBMS?

But wait, there’s more! We also list the most popular tips, expert responses and learning guides of the year. For some interesting data management predictions for 2008, check out SearchDataManagement.com’s compilations.

From all of us here at SearchOracle.com and TechTarget, we wish you a happy and prosperous 2008!

–Tim

“Oracle on Demand,” “software-as-a-service” (SaaS), “utility computing” — whatever buzzword you use, the long-hyped end of software finally seems to be gaining traction. Our recent survey of SearchOracle.com members revealed a surprisingly high 37% of you currently use hosted apps.

Does that concern you DBAs? Is this the beginning of the end of the in-house DBA?

For managers, Oracle’s pitch is compelling:

With more than 1.7 million users, including enterprise customers with the most rigorous requirements, Oracle On Demand simplifies enterprise computing by reducing the need to handle software upgrades, patches, and the day-to-day maintenance required to keep customer solutions available and secure.

. . . not to mention a lower TCO, including no six-figure salaries to those pesky senior DBAs.  It’s the “best of all worlds” as the Oracle site melodramatically puts it.

Unfortunately for DBAs, SaaS is likely to grow in the forseeable future. Oracle’s upcoming Fusion application suite is said to be heavily SOA- and SaaS-enabled. And Oracle is certainly not alone: other hosted apps include SAP’s A1S, IBM, NetSuite.com, SalesForce.com, Workday.com, and many others. Gartner predicts that the industry will be worth $10 billion by 2010, with 30% of software delivered using a SaaS model. It’s already a $400 million business for Oracle.

Worried yet? Perhaps you DBAs should think about moving to Austin, where Oracle’s massive data center for hosted apps is located. The 10,000 Linux servers running 10g and 2.5 petabytes of storage there should keep you busy until this whole SaaS thing blows over . . . or not.

Do you think that Oracle DBAs’ days are numbered because of the growth of On Demand? Or will it never really catch on due to security, reliability and customizability concerns? Do you think DBAs will always be needed, regardless of SaaS? Let’s hear your thoughts.

Cheers,
Tim

Have you made an impact using Oracle in your organization? Have you accomplished any of the following tasks:

• Significantly improved database or applications performance
• Solved a major business dilemma or reduced budget spending
• Automated or eliminated repetitive tasks
• Generally think your Oracle work stands out from the rest of the pack

SearchOracle.com is planning a new case study series designed to spotlight Oracle professionals who have used Oracle in effective and innovative ways in various operating environments and industries, from government to education, healthcare to finance. And we want to hear from you.

If you would like to show off your Oracle accomplishments and how they have benefited your organization, e-mail us. Please include answers to the following questions:

• What was the initial problem you were faced with?
• Which Oracle products are you using?
• What does your setup/configuration look like? Have you brought innovation to your infrastructure?
• What technical benefits have you realized? Have you simplified or automated routine tasks?
• What financial benefits — departmental or company-wide — have you realized?

If you’d like some recognition from your boss, or bragging rights for your peers, send in your nomination today!

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Tim

In case you missed the great discussion in the comments on my post from last week, “Oracle ACE program “almost completely worthless,’” check out some highlights from the fray:

Useless? Not really . . . you get a free pass to OpenWorld. –Laurent Schneider

Oracle may well believe that it is nothing more than a badge for those who advocate Oracle, etc. However, some ACEs obviously see it as a meaningful and well-deserved Oracle accreditation of their amazing skills . . . Now that the “truth is out there,” I would expect any real Oracle pro who has an ACE award to send it back, and do something to rid themselves of the title. Including HJR! –John

I’m always suspicious of these self proclaimed ‘gurus.’ Most of them, in my experience, are your stereotypical glory hunters. The type who has to be the center of attention. “O look at me, I wrote a book” . . . “O look at me, I’m so underutilized at my job that I’ve had time to respond 5,000 times on OTN.” Smug, arrogant, full of their own sense of self importance and quite irritating. –Steve

Last December I received an ACE award. I have no clue who nominated me, or on what basis I was rewarded an ACE award . . . My first reaction when I received this award was: someone is making fun of me, this cannot be true. –Jacco Landlust

In plain language, it used to be a requirement to have technical proficiency to be an ACE, but that requirement has been dropped and transferred to the ACE Director level instead. That is why I called my original piece ‘Devalued.’ It’s got nothing to do with wanting to sneer at the peasants, look down my nose at people, etc. etc. It’s just an observation that when I got my ACE it meant one thing and now it means something else. –Howard Rogers

Thanks to all for commenting on this issue, especially Howard who raised the topic in the first place.

-Elisa

Howard Rogers at Dizwell Informatics claims, with a sort-of apology to everyone he’s “unintentionally” insulting, that the Oracle ACE program, which used to mean something, “has been rendered almost completely worthless.”

Says he:

There’s a bunch of complete nobodies who nominated themselves for starters and got approved despite a paucity of any demonstrated technical skill or community contribution at all. […] In fact, it turns out that you can be a technically incompetent looney and still be an ACE, because all you now have to do to be an ACE is present a lot, write a lot, have OCP certification and be on the beta program … and there’s no mention of anyone, anywhere actually vetting any of that writing or presentation for technical accuracy. […] I am reminded of the fact that there was once a time when, albeit briefly, OCP actually meant something, too.

Ouchy. Sounds like Oracle certifications and awards are undergoing something akin to degree inflation, whereby “degrees are conferred on people who have not learned all they should have learned in order to earn their degrees” – and furthermore, it eventually becomes a necessity to have these credentials as a baseline (just to get hired), so that more and greater qualifications are required in order to stand out from the crowd.

What do you think? Is the Oracle ACE designation effectively meaningless now? Does it say anything about real technical knowledge and ability?

-Elisa

Following up on Mark’s post from last week (“Do Oracle Database innovations really matter?”), check out this article from Computerworld on how DBAs solve problems cheaply. It seems to support the assertion that new features aren’t all that:

Experienced DBAs know that new versions usually pack in more features, meaning that any performance boost is more likely to come from the expensive hardware upgrade accompanying a database upgrade, not the database upgrade itself. And those gains can be limited, if underlying design flaws or operational problems remain.

The article goes on to list some ways you can improve database performance with elbow grease instead of throwing money at the problem, such as fixing bad SQL code (duh) and implementing “intelligent balancing of traffic” for database-backed Web sites.

More links of interest from around the Web . . . Nishant Kaushik of Talking Identity offers an overview of what the Bharosa acquisition adds to Oracle’s access management capabilities, including the addition of contextual and software-based authentication to Oracle Access Manager and improved fraud detection and identity theft protection.

Doug Burns goes over some questions to ask if your manager asks you for workload metrics:

• What do you mean by “workload”?
• How much detail are you looking for?
• Over what time intervals?

And, mostly importantly he says, “Why?” The reason you want the metrics will define your approach to gathering them. (Open questions like this, according to Doug, are what make being a DBA fun.)

Finally, catering to my obsession with all things Google, Andy C charts out which companies have most embraced Facebook. (I’ve started collecting Facebook invitations in lieu of Facebook “friends” . . . I just can’t bring myself to join any social networking sites. Don’t they exist solely so people can waste time at work? IM is bad enough . . . ) Google leads the pack, with almost 52% of employees on Facebook, followed by Yahoo at 34% and Microsoft at 25%. Oracle’s Facebook factor is much lower, just under 6% — only 4,280 Oracle employees out of 74,674. What, Larry Ellison figures he has enough friends already?

Have a good week everybody,
Elisa

I’m happy to announce the debut of Oracle Talk.

Oracle Talk is our new biweekly podcast series all about Oracle database and applications management designed for DBAs, developers and managers of Oracle shops. Each half-hour episode focuses on a specific topic and features recent SearchOracle.com content, interviews with experts and authors and a round-up of Oracle-related news, hosted by yours truly, Tim DiChiara, editor of SearchOracle.com.

In the inaugural episode of Oracle Talk, we explore why database administrators are in such a tizzy about their career choice and what can they do to improve their lot. We also answer some career and certification questions submitted to our experts, as well as rounding up the latest news from the Oracle community and beyond. In future episodes, we’ll be focusing on topics such as the impending release of Database 11g, Oracle security, Oracle vs. SAP and surviving the patching and upgrading treadmill.

Besides Oracle Talk, we have a growing collection of over a dozen podcasts about other topics, which are listed in our podcast library. If you have any comments or suggestions about our podcasting efforts, let us know!

Thanks and have a great week,
Tim

I field the questions that come to our Ask the Expert section—deleting spam and nonsense and otherwise undesirable questions before forwarding the potentially answerable ones on to our panel of experts. I don’t have to answer them, and even I get annoyed when I see the same, often vague questions over and over (“How to back up my database?”) or something that obviously came from a homework assignment. (When you get 10 questions in a row from the same email address, all addressing different “problems,” it looks a little suspicious.)

That’s why I’m working on a collection of FAQ resources for our readers, so our experts won’t have to keep answering the same queries over and over again. One of our first new FAQ offerings is a three-part SQL FAQ assembled by our witty resident SQL guru Rudy Limeback. Rudy revisits the most common questions he’s taken over the past six years, from the most basic duh-type questions, to the homework questions, to genuinely complex and interesting ones. Check out all three parts of the FAQ:

• Part one: Novice questions: These are generally very simple and are asked by beginners who are quite unfamiliar with SQL. Common examples include “What is the difference between…” questions, such as “What is the difference between a candidate key and a composite key?” Other common novice questions depend on circumstances and context, such as “Which is faster, a subquery or a join?”
• Part two: Homework questions: Our experts are usually reluctant to answer these, but Rudy will take a homework question if it can teach something interesting like a subtle nuance of SQL to all readers. For example, “All employees under a given manager” is a common but tough problem that Rudy discusses comprehensively.
• Part three covers serious and complex SQL questions that come up frequently. This is the meatiest part of the FAQ, so dig in and enjoy! You’ll discover how to delete duplicate rows, how to find the first (or last) N rows in a table, how to handle pagination and much more.

If you’ve got a burning SQL question that’s not addressed here, send it to Rudy. He thrives on them.

-Elisa