No one at Oracle will ever be nominated for sainthood, and that's probably OK with them. Over the years the company has developed a bad boy image that in some cases is richly deserved, while in others it has been embellished by events. Much derives from the brash doings of founder and longtime CEO (now CTO) Larry Ellison who, from all appearances, may be a charter member of the "never explain, never complain" club. Ellison does what he does, and the outside world might not fully appreciate it but that's fine. [More...]

The healthcare cloud has been growing incredibly, becoming an ever-more-important element of health information technology, or HIT. There are many reasons why the HIT cloud has been becoming more prominent, such as research and development and collaboration. Since the cloud has been expanding so rapidly, this may be a good time to reconsider security -- and that means understanding the threat, reviewing best practices, and heightening awareness of emergent approaches. First, realize the cloud is only getting bigger. [More...]

Oracle has open-sourced GraphPipe to enhance machine learning applications. The project's goal is to improve deployment results for machine learning models, noted Project Leader Vish Abrams. That process includes creating an open standard. The company has a questionable relationship with open source developers, so its decision to open-source GraphPipe might not receive a flood of interest. Oracle hopes developers will rally behind the project to simplify and standardize the deployment of machine learning models. [More...]

If you want to boost sales performance, "there are a few things to think about," said Optymyze SVP Arturo Bentin. "One is, what behaviors are you trying to drive? When you're talking about sales performance, you're talking about a lot of things. You need to think about the metrics and the tools you can use to drive those specific behaviors in your salesforce. Understanding what motivates them is key, as is coming up with programs, whether that's part of their base compensation or gamification." [More...]