OOW: Predictions

I haven't seen too many (ok, none) of these this year, but one today hit home:

Predicting OBIEE 11.1.1.6 by Joe Leva.

I've been lucky enough to hang out (err, stalk, as he would say) with Joe in the recent past, he's a smart dude. Here's his prediction in short:

Prior keynotes have brought us Exadata (and Exadata 2) and Exalogic. The Oracle database is clearly a pillar of their business, it was a good first choice for a machine. The middleware stack is another large area of the Oracle product line, hence Exalogic. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could run OBIEE on the Exalogic? What would we call an OBIEE machine? ExaIntelligence? The Oracle BI Machine?

Now, just in case I’m right on this, how do I support this? The packaged software and hardware in the “machines” is a way for Oracle to capture revenue that would otherwise go to implementation partners. The BI machine is a logical inevitable progression, if it doesn’t come this year it will be next year. The economics demand it.

Now wouldn't that be cool, an OBIEE machine a la Exadata or Exalogic? I'll take 1, or 2.

Do you have any predictions for what will be announced this year? FMW will be big I'm sure. There's a big announcement on September 21st (Wednesday), maybe it's the Exadata Mini(-me)?

Let's hear some more fun predictions...