Happy New Year!

Well I'm currently sitting by the pool in Sharm El-Sheikh, having a week's holiday over the New Year before things start again in earnest in January. It's almost the end of the year, and in fact the end of the decade, and so I thought I'd take this moment to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

Looking forward to 2010, the big news later in the year - hopefully - should be the release of OBIEE 11g. I think we first heard news on this release back in 2007, and it's certainly a well-anticipated release. If I was a betting man I'd expect to see it over the summer, hopefully around the same time that we get to see the 11g release of ODI (the contents of which even now are a bit of a mystery), and with the Windows releases of the 11gR2 database and OWB released earlier in the spring. But you never know, we're certainly not privy to any release dates and we could be saying the same thing this time next year...

Expect to hear some interesting news on Rittman Mead as we go into 2010. Venkat has just put the finishing touches to Rittman Mead India, our new venture based out of Bangalore, with Venkat heading up a team offering support, training and expert services under his guidance. We're about to relaunch our training services, starting with our OBIEE course and with a certification scheme that we'll run internally first and then offer externally for expert-level developers. We're also running another of our BI Forum events in Brighton next May, with the call for papers now open and a special guest presenter (who's not me or Venkat, or indeed anyone from Rittman Mead) running a masterclass on the day before. Who could this be?

If OBIEE 11g gets delivered early enough in 2010, we should also have the Oracle Press book off to the printers by the end of the year at the latest, with our aim being to get the book in the shops no more than six months after the software goes into production. Back in 2007 when I started on the book, OBIEE had only just come out and it wasn't all that clear what products would be in favour, and what would be sunsetted, once the dust settled. We also knew that OBIEE 11g would be out in 2008 at the latest (ho ho) and so we took the decision to hold fire until 11g was out, to maximize the "shelf life" of the book and give us a clear target to write for. Of course in the end 11g isn't going to be out until 2010 which meant we could have got something out for the 10g release, but such is life, and at least we've built up some demand and anticipation for the book when it does come out. Following this, and if the demand is there, I'd also like to do something on the forthcoming "Fusion Apps" release of the BI Applications, which promises to as revolutionary in the packaged apps world as the 11g release of OBIEE has been for standalone analytics.

For me the highlight of 2009 had to be the BI Forum in May, as I'd always wanted to get together a small group of the most enthusiastic and experienced Oracle BI developers, and just chat, network and present on the topics we found interesting. I'd like to say thanks to all the friends and colleagues that presented, made the effort to come along and took part over the two days, and I'm looking forward to hosting the event again in Brighton next year. We'll also try a Training Days event later in the year once OBIEE 11g is out, again watch this space for news later in 2010.

Other than that, have a great New Year, I hope 2010 will be prosperous and successful for you, and I'm looking forward to being back in action in January!