Machine Learning and Spatial for FREE in the Oracle Database

Last week at UKOUG Techfest19 I spoke a lot about Machine Learning both with Oracle Analytics Cloud and more in depth in the Database with Oracle Machine Learning together with Charlie Berger, Oracle Senior Director of Product Management.

As mentioned several times in my previous blog posts, Oracle Analytics Cloud provides a set of tools helping Data Analysts start their path to Data Science. If, on the other hand, we're dealing with experienced Data Scientists and huge datasets, Oracle's proposal is to move Machine Learning where the data resides with Oracle Machine Learning. OML is an ecosystem of various options to perform ML with dedicated integration with Oracle Databases or Big Data appliances.

One of the most known branches is OML4SQL which provides the ability of doing proper data science directly in the database with PL/SQL calls! During the UKOUG TechFest19 talk Charlie Berger demoed it using a collaborative Notebook on top of an Autonomous Data Warehouse Cloud.

Both Oracle ADW and ATP include OML by default at no extra cost. This wasn't true for all the other database offerings in cloud or on-premises which required an additional option to be purchased (the Advanced Analytics one for on-premises deals). The separate license requirement was obviously something that limited the spread of this functionality, but, I'm happy to say that it's going away!
Oracle's blog post yesterday announced that:
As of December 5, 2019, the Machine Learning (formerly known as Advanced Analytics), Spatial and Graph features of Oracle Database may be used for development and deployment purposes with all on-prem editions and Oracle Cloud Database Services. See the Oracle Database Licensing Information Manual (pdf) for more details.
What this means is that both features are included for FREE within the Oracle Database License! Great news for both Machine Learning as well as Graph Databases fans! The following tweet from Dominic Giles (Master Product Manager for the Oracle DB) provides a nice summary of the licenses including the two options for the Oracle DB 19c.
The #Oracle Database now has some previously charged options added to the core functionality of both Enterprise Edition and Standard Edition 2. Details in the 19c licensing guide with more information to follow. pic.twitter.com/dqkRRQvWq2
— dominic_giles (@dominic_giles) December 5, 2019
But hey, this license change effects also older versions starting from the 12.2, the older one still in general support! So, no more excuses, perform Machine Learning where your data is: in the database with Oracle Machine Learning!
Rittman Mead at UKOUG TechFest 19

Like every year, December for the Oracle community means UKOUG! This time is special since the event, named TechFest19, will be hosted at The Grand Brighton Hotel, near our base office!

Let's talk about the important stuff first: we are organising a Techfest party featuring "The Chaps" on Monday 2nd Dec between 7 and 10:30 in our office at Platf9rm, Hove Town Hall. We'll be having few drinks and while enjoying the live music, if you are interested register yourself here!

Now on the main topic, the Techfest! Rittman Mead will be well represented this time with four talks:
Data the Missing Ingredient
Monday 2nd at 14:15, Location: Stage 4
Jon Mead, our CEO, will introduce you to the concepts of Data Management, Engineering and Governance, how they should be addressed across a wide range of projects and which Oracle tools are there to help you.
Become an Equilibrista: Find the Right Balance in the Analytics Tech Ecosystem
Tuesday 3rd at 11:00, Location: Stage 2

Do you want to understand how to avoid the "Excel Chaos" in your organization? Let me show you how you can balance Centralized and Self-service analytics, taking the best of both worlds but still using a unique tool: Oracle Analytics Cloud!
Is it Corked? Wine Machine Learning Predictions with OAC
Tuesday 3rd at 15:45, Location: Stage 2
Do you love Wine? And maybe you don't dislike Analytics? Then join me in understanding how Oracle Analytics Cloud can be used for data-science! We'll be analysing a Wine dataset and using OAC to create a predictive model scoring wine quality! If you are a business analyst looking to start your path into Machine Learning, this session is a kickstarter!

Picking a Good Wine for <$20 Using Oracle Autonomous, Machine Learning and Analytics Cloud
Monday 2nd at 09:00, Location: Stage 2
Using the same dataset as the talk above, Charlie Berger, Sr. Director of Product Management, will show you how to build a predictive model by performing Machine Learning directly within the Oracle Autonomous Datawarehouse, all accessed by a notebook interface. I'll then show you how we can integrate such model within OAC and show the main drivers as well as the model outcomes!
During the event, few of the Rittman Mead folks will be around. If you see us in sessions, around the conference or during our talks, we'd be pleased to speak with you about your projects and answer any questions you might have.
OAC v105.4: Understanding Map Data Quality

Last week Oracle Analytics Cloud v105.4 was announced. One of the features particularly interested me since it reminded the story of an Italian couple willing to spend their honeymoon in the Australian Sydney and ending up in the same Sydney city but in Nova Scotia for a travel agency error. For the funny people out there: don't worry, it wasn't me!
The feature is "Maps ambiguous location matches" and I wanted to write a bit about it.
#OracleAnalytics 105.4 update just about to go live and deploy on your environments. Check-out some of the new features coming. Here is a first list of selected items: https://t.co/Megqz5ekcx. Stay tuned with whole #OAC team (@OracleAnalytics,@BenjaminArnulf...) for more examples pic.twitter.com/CWpj8rC1Bf
— Philippe Lions (@philippe_lions) October 8, 2019
Btw OAC 105.4 includes a good set of new features like a unified Home page, the possibility to customize any DV font and more options for security and on-premises connections amongst others. For a full list of new features check out the related Oracle blog or videos.
Maps: a bit of History
Let's start with a bit of history. Maps have been around in OBIEE first and OAC later since a long time, in the earlier stages of my career I spent quite a lot of time writing HTML and Javascript to include map visualizations within OBIEE 10g. The basic tool was called Mapviewer and the knowledge & time required to create a custom clickable or drillable map was....huge!
With the raise of OBIEE 11g and 12c the Mapping capability became easier, a new "Map" visualization type was included in the Answers and all we had to do was to match the geographical reference coming from one of our Subject Areas (e.g. Country Name
) with the related column containing the shape information (e.g. the Country Shape
).

After doing so, we were able to plot our geographical information properly: adding multiple layers, drilling capabilities and tooltips was just a matter of few clicks.

The Secret Source: Good Maps and Data Quality
Perfect, you might think, we can easily use maps everywhere as soon as we have any type of geo-location data available in our dataset! Well, the reality in the old days wasn't like that, Oracle at the time provided some sample maps with a certain level of granularity and covering only some countries in detail. What if we wanted to display all the suburbs of Verona? Sadly that wasn't included so we were forced to either find a free source online or to purchase it from a Vendor.
The source of map shapes was only half of the problem to solve: we always need to create a join with a column coming from our Subject Area! Should we use the Zip Code? What about the Address? Is City name enough? The deeper we were going into the mapping details the more problems were arising.
A common problem (as we saw before about Sydney) was using the City name. How many cities are called the same? How many regions? Is the street name correct? Data quality was and still is crucial to provide accurate data and not only a nice but useless map view.
OAC and the Automatic Mapping Capability
Within OAC, DV offers the Automatic Mapping Capability, we only need to include in a Project a column containing a geographical reference (lat/long, country name etc), select "Map" as visualization type and the tool will choose the most appropriate mapping granularity that matches our dataset.

Great! This solves all our issues! Well... not all of them! The Automatic Mapping capability doesn't have all the possible maps in it, but we can always include new custom maps using the OAC Console if we need them.

So What's New in 105.4?
All the above was available way before the latest OAC release. The 105.4 adds the "Maps ambiguous location matches" feature, which means that every time we create a Map View, OAC will provide us with a Location Matches option

If we click this option OAC will provide as a simple window where we can see:
- How many locations matched
- How many locations have issues
- What's the type of Issue?

The type of issue can be one between:
No Match
in case OAC doesn't find any comparable geographical valueMultiple Matches
when there are multiple possible associationsPartial Matches
when there is a match only to part of the content

We can then take this useful information and start a process of data cleaning to raise the quality of our data visualization.
Conclusion
Maps were and are a really important visualization available in OAC. The Maps ambiguous location matches feature provides a way to understand if our visualization is representative of our dataset. So, if you want to avoid spending your honeymoon in the wrong Sydney or if you just want to provide accurate maps on top of your dataset, use this feature available in OAC!
OOW19 Review: Oracle Analytics Deep Dive

In my previous blog I outlined the global news regarding Oracle like the Always Free Tier, the new datacenter plan and the set of new tools for Data Science. Today's blog is dedicated to all the news announced regarding Oracle Analytics in any of the versions: Cloud, Server or Applications.

Oracle Analytics Server
OAS is the long awaited replacement of OBIEE 12c on-premises and promises functional parity with OAC. Current official ETA is Fiscal Year 2020 and it will be available to customers as a free upgrade. With OAS all customers still on-premises will experience the following benefits:
- Almost 1-1 feature with OAC
- Complete compatibility with OAC
- Simplified cloud migration and better support for hybrid deployments
A related announcement for on-premises customers regards licensing: there is only a single license to purchase OAS which includes all features within it, no separate option for Mobile or Self-Service Data Visualization needed!
Oracle Analytics for Application
This represents the new incarnation of BIApps, completely redesigned specifically for Fusion Apps. As his predecessor, OAX (this is the acronym) it's a packaged, ready-to-use solution with pre-built ETLs and Analytics content like RPD, dashboards, analysis, KPIs. Under the covers uses Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse and Oracle Data Integrator Cloud. OAX is also extendible, by bringing additional datasets in ADW and extending the semantic model and catalog.
Oracle Analytics Cloud
Several enhancements were announced, especially during Gabby Rubin's (VP of Oracle Analytics Product Management) Strategy & Roadmap Session. New features will be available in most of the areas of the tool, including the core of the centralized reporting: the RPD.

Data Preparation
New options will be available in the Data Preparation/Enrichment phase such as:
- Custom Enrichments based on pre-existing set of values. E.g. enriching
PRODUCT_ID
with fields coming from a standard Product dimension. This is an interesting idea to enable standardization of dimensions across reporting without forcing people to write SQL or to know where the standard information is coming from. - Force Enrichments/Masking: as Administrators, we could enforce some transformations like the credit card obfuscation of fields that may contain sensitive data.
Natural Language Generation
The Natural Language view is already present in the current version of OAC, there is a plan to enhance this visualization by adding more options in the settings panel for grouping and trending analysis.

Spatial Analytics in OAC
A few weeks ago I wrote about Oracle Spatial Studio, a tool designed to provide advanced visual Spatial Analytics. This tool will remain and progress over time, OAC will not cover all the specific use-cases of Spatial Studio. However OAC will enhance its spatial capabilities, like:
- Providing accurate information about row geo-location: e.g. how many rows were correctly located, how may errors and menus to fix value to location association.
- Provide spatial functions in the front-end: an end-user will be easily able to calculate the distance between points in a map by writing a simple Logical SQL statement. This option will probably appear on the RPD first (check the twitter thread below)
Yeah!Now you can natively perform #spatialanalytics on #oac! #geospatial functions are available in the RPD and can be exposed to #OracleDataVisualization! pic.twitter.com/g5q3Lf9CiG
— Francesco Tisiot (@FTisiot) September 16, 2019
As you can see, calculating the distance will be just a matter of having the correct dataset and writing a GeometryDistance
function.
Connectivity and Security
One of OAC's missions is to become the Analytics Platform on top of any type of datasource. The plan in the future is to expand the list of connectors and security/configuration options like SSL or Kerberos. There is also a roadmap to extend the Data Gateway capabilities to query non-oracle databases.
Modeling capabilities
In OAC we were used to either the classic RPD approach or the self-service Data-Sets. The future reserves some news in both approaches:
- A new cloud web-based Modeler with the objective of functional parity with the Admintool, so capable of handling more complex designs that the current light data-modeler. I believe this will be also an effort to adapt the RPD development process to the current standards of concurrent development, versioning and storage format.
- A new Self Service Data Model solution to build light self service models allowing end-users to evolve datasets into proper models sharable and optimized for reporting.
I like the idea of allowing both top-down (centralized) as well as bottom-up (self-service) approach to data modeling. This provides clients the flexibility on the analytical approach while still allowing to enforce centralized rules (e.g. unique source of truth) when needed.
Unified User Experience and Layout Customizations
As of now the old "Answers and Dashboards" and the new "Data Visualization Projects" were almost completely separated products with each one having its own home page and layout. In the next releases we'll see that the two worlds will start combining, with a unique home and a similar look and feel.
In other news, highly requested by end-users is the possibility of customize almost any option of the layout: from font type and size to colors of any object visible in a project.
Machine Learning Integration
As discussed in the previous OOW review post in the future OAC will be able to use models built in other tools like Oracle Machine Learning in the Autonomous Data Warehouse or Oracle Data Science. This provides an end-to-end Data Science story from Data Analyst to Data Scientist all with a simple, secure, highly configurable and performant toolset.

As you can see a lot of news coming in various aspects of the tool, from on-premise functional parity, a new packaged solution for Fusion Apps and a lot of features enhancing OAC functionality and customization options.
What do you think? Is this the right direction? Do you feel there is something missing?