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FROM THE EDITOR
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HE PICTIJRE YOIJ SEE ON THIS
page is of the first cover of Oracle
Magazine-Yolume I, Number I,
June 7987. Yes, we are celebrating
our tenth anniversary this yeat. Ten yearc
may not seem like much in other industries, but in high tech, it's a
veritable lifetime. Companies
and products have come and
gone-where ate you now,
VisiCalc? How about the PC jr?
And who knew in 7987 that
the Internet would be the
domin ant topic of the hightech press in 1996?
Vhat was in the tirst
issue
of
Oracle Magazine? Here's a
sampling of articles in that 72page fledgling publication: New Network
Expands Customer Support (24-hour online
support was introduced June I, 7987);
Oracle Version 5 ,I Released; Oracle
RDBMS Now Available on Vang VS;
Oracle Exceeds First HaIf Forecast (revenues for the first half totalled almost fi45
million); lJniForum: Site of Oracle UNIX
Announcements (at the time, Oracle ran on
more than 20 platforffis, including new
UNIX ports to NCR, Sun, DEC lJltrix,
Sequent, Altos, and Plexus); SQL Declared
Standard Language by ANSI; Double DEC
Awards for Orac\e (Digital Review's Target
Awards gave Oracle first place for "Best
Database Managernent Product" and the
No. I rating in the "Dtgttal News 50").
To see how far we have come since that
premiere issue, you have only to look at
this issue's table of contents. Ve've grown
and changed from a tiny 7Z-page magazrne-style newsletter into a full-fledged
bimonthly magaztne. And Oracle has
changed quite a bit, too. The basic principles remain the same, although the scale is
certainly larger now that Oracle's first-half
(FY96) revenues exceed $t.Z billion. And
Oracle's still winning awards, taking six
1995 DBMS magazine Reader's Choice
awards-Data Replication (Oracle Repli-
cation Server); Database Accounting
(Oracle Financials); Database
Servers
/Host
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DBMS (OracleT); DBMS Connectivity,
Distributed Access, Migration (SQL.Net);
Multim edia/Document Management (Oracle
Media Server); and Parallel Query DBMS
(OracleT Release 7.1).
Vhen you reach any milestone, whether
it's a first birthday or a tenth
anniversary, you tend to look
back with a sense of nostal-
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If you
spend too much time
looking back, however, you
may miss out on what's in
front of you. And in the technology industry, if you blink
you can lose critical ground.
That's what makes it exciting.
Predicting the future is always chancy,
but it's fun. tVhat will be hot in 2005? \fiil
Larry Elliscn's NC provide every home with
a $;OO Internet box? Vhat are the three
biggest software companies in 2005 (and
were any of them around in 199r? How
many people will be on the Internet every
day? \fill it be censored? How, and by
whom? Or will the Internet be pass6 and
will virtual reahty be reahty? Vhat will be
the stze of the largest data warehouse on
the planet? \fiil Apple still exist? \fil you
be reading alI your magazines in print or
online? Vhat will your children be learning
in school and what materials and media
will they use? \7i11 your company have a
woman CEO? How many people at Your
company (the one at which you're working
in 2005) will telecommute? \fil every desktop computer have built-in videoconferencing so you can still relate face-to -face with
your coworkers? How many times will you
change jobs, and what jobs will they be?
You be the Oracle. Send me your
answers to the questions above and your
own predictions for the future. EI
M
JUTIE B. GIBBS, EDITOR
igibbs@ us.orocle.com
phone +41 5.506.3052 ; fox +415.413.2424
oRACLE MAGAZINE r MARCH/APRIL tg95 7