The Conference for Oracle Performance

Join the world's top Oracle performance analysts at the fifth annual Hotsos Symposium, the conference dedicated to issues of Oracle system performance.

The list of speakers and abstracts can be found at speaker list. The schedule of speakers and topics can be seen at schedule view. Symposium attendees may download the presentation materials. Training Day attendees may download the zip file of extra materials.

To sign up for the Hotsos Symposium 2007 and Training Day, please click Register Now for Symposium 2007.

How Hotsos Symposium is Different

Hotsos Symposium is the only conference in the Americas devoted to Oracle system performance. The combination of topic focus, small audience size, and large speaker list make the Hotsos Symposium an unsurpassed networking opportunity.  Our first commitment is quality. 

Hotsos Symposium features only presenters who take great care to show you how to distinguish for yourself between reliable information and bad advice. 

Presentation Materials

Each Hotsos Symposium attendee will receive a complimentary bound copy of the presentation materials onsite at time of registration check-in. Presentations, additions or revisions submitted by presenters after our presentation deadline will be available online either as a zip file of all materials or individually by clicking on an abstract title in the speakers list.  Please note there will be no bound addendums or revisions printed and distributed at the Symposium. 

Presentation materials are available to attendees only.

Kenneth R. Jacobs Vice President Product Strategy Server Technologies Division Oracle Corporation

Since helping to establish the first Oracle office in Washington, DC in 1981, Mr. Jacobs has been a prominent spokesperson for Oracle and an advocate inside the company for customers' interests. He has held a number of technical and management roles for Oracle, including consulting, support, product management and product marketing.

Mr. Jacobs has helped guide the development of the Oracle Database product over the years, and he holds several patents for innovative database technology. His early work with a number of U.S. Department of Defense clients laid the groundwork for Oracle's leadership position in database security. From 1985-1993, he represented Oracle on the ANSI SQL Standards committee, and he subsequently represented Oracle on the Transaction Processing Council for two years.

Mr. Jacobs is also often a featured speaker at Oracle conferences and events. Known as "Dr. DBA" to thousands of Oracle Database administrators, he hosts an on-line radio program on Oracle's E-Business Network (/ebusinessnetwork/drdba), where he discusses technical and business issues relating to developing and deploying database applications.

Special Interest Groups

On Sunday before the Symposium begins, there are two SIGs scheduled. The Hotsos Software and the OAUG Database SIGs will meet from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Salons.

Speakers and Abstracts

This year's presenters include Jonathan Lewis, Cary Millsap, Neil Gunther, Steven Feuerstein, Graham Wood, Toon Koppelaars, Stephan Haisley, and many others. Topics range from deeply technical to motivational, in subjects including application and business instrumentation, Oracle database internals, SQL optimization, capacity planning, the arts of technical communication, application and system architecture design, and much more.

Training Day

This year's Training Day speakers will be Cary Millsap and Michael Erwin.

Morning Session - Preventing Performance Problems

Presented by Cary Millsap/Hotsos Enterprises, Ltd.

In 2003, Cary Millsap and Jeff Holt published a new method for diagnosing and repairing Oracle system performance problems efficiently (Optimizing Oracle Performance: O'Reilly). After solving the important diagnostic problem, their research turned to the subject of preventing such problems from occurring in the first place. The ultimate goal is a method through which you can always understand what your next performance problem will be so that you can diagnose and repair the problem before it ever actualized as an end-user experience. This half-day session summarizes the progress of their research so far.

Topics include:

• How workload influences performance
• What your targets should be
• How you can watch them

Cary Millsap is a co-founder of Hotsos Enterprises, Ltd., where he serves as an author, teacher, consultant, and designer/developer of the Company's educational curriculum and software products. He is the author of Optimizing Oracle Performance (O'Reilly 2003), for which he and co-auther Jeff Holt were named Oracle Magazine's 2004 "Oracle Author of the Year". Prior to co-founding Hotsos in 1999, he served for ten years at Oracle Corporation as one of the company's leading system performance experts. At Oracle, he founded and served as vice president of the 80-person System Performance Group. He has educated thousands of Oracle consultants, support analysts, developers, and customers in the optimal use of Oracle technology through commitment to writing, teaching, and speaking at public events.

Afternoon Session - Diagnosing & Avoiding RAC Performance Problems

Presented by Michael Erwin/Hotsos Enterprises, Ltd.

For the past 27 years, Mike has worked on clustering technology into high performance solutions. During the past twelve years, he has focused on optimizing the performance of Oracle Real Application Clusters and GRID by using the techniques and method pioneered by Cary Millsap and Jeff Holt. In this half-day session, the goal is to impart and summarize over a quarter of a century of knowledge, observation, lessons learned and the general realities around using cluster technology with Oracle's RDBMS.

Topics include:

• Why do customers really buy RAC? 
• Differences with RAC
• Why is the number three more than just a number?
• Concurrency, latency, and you
• RAC CPU channel resource utilization realities
• Network Engineers versus Database Administrators
• Using Method R to diagnose architectural issues via system metrics that your system administrators will not authorize you to view

Prior to joining Hotsos in 2005, Mike served for nine years at Oracle Corporation as one of the company's leading performance and system architectural engineering experts. At Oracle, he wrote and taught several internal and customer courses, co-founded the RAC Pack, directed the highly successful North American Performance Architecture & RAC Consulting Practice and developed the RAC Accelerator as well as the Oracle 11i Apps on RAC consulting offerings before being asked to start the North American Fusion-Middleware Team. 

Hotel/Venue

The event will be held at Hotsos Symposium 2006 site, the beautiful Omni Mandalay Hotel at Las Colinas. The facility is just 15 minutes from the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), and 20 minutes from Dallas Love Field (DAL).  To secure reservations at the special Hotsos rate or to find more information on the Omni Mandalay please click on the following link. Space is limited so please book early.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How is Hotsos Symposium different from standard Hotsos courses?

A: The following table highlights some of the key differences.

Q:  Are the presentation materials included in the cost of registration?

A:  Yes.

Q:  Will the presentation materials be available online as well as in hard copy?

A:  Yes, however, only registered Symposium attendees will be able to download the presentation materials.

Q:  Does the host hotel offer a special rate for Symposium attendees?

A:  Yes, the Omni Hotel offers a rate of $149 per night, excluding taxes and fees.  To help ensure that you receive the discounted price, please remember to inform them when you make your reservation that you are attending the Hotsos Symposium.

Feedback from Past Hotsos Symposium Events

• I just wanted to say thanks for all the effort that went into this year's Symposium. It was a particularly well organised event and both the agenda and the extra-curricular fun were top-notch. I had a great time and hope I'll be able to make it again next year.

• I attended the recent Hotsos Symposium...absolutely the best Oracle conference that I've been to...and I hope to return next year. Aside from the excellent presentations and location, I also liked the fact that it wasn't crawling with thousands of people.

• Of the few seminars I can attend (have to pay from my own pocket), this is the best.
• Being the first Oracle Conference I've attended, I was impressed at the ability to interact with the speakers.
• Overall probably the highest quality event I've ever attended in terms of the useful and fascinating information involved.
• I'm impressed by the amount of expertise you have gathered at this symposium. As far as I'm concerned it's taking the place of Apps World and OAUG.
  

Discussion Groups

Have a question about the Hotsos Symposium 2007? Chances are good that your question has already been answered. Hotsos discussion groups are your gateway for answering your questions about the Hotsos Symposium 2007.

REGISTRATION

To sign up for the Hotsos Symposium 2007 and Training Day, please click on the following link:

Register Now for Symposium 2007

If you have problems with this link or questions during the registration process, please contact Rhonda Boswell at rhonda.boswell@hotsos.com.

Fees

Symposium:

• $1095, if registering on or before January 5, 2007
• $1195, if registering on or before February 15, 2007
• $1350, if registering after February 15, 2007

Training Day:

• $500

Symposium 2007 Registration Cancellation Policy:

• 100% refund if cancelled on or before January 5, 2007

• 50% refund if cancelled between January 6, 2007 and February 15, 2007

• Cancellations submitted February 16, 2007 and after will not be refunded.

Agenda

This year's agenda includes 3 full days (not counting the full-day Training Day event) of presentations, panels, and keynote addresses on system performance topics.