The latest version of the Oracle Cloud Platform released June 13 features a range of built-in autonomous capabilities, including the Oracle Mobile Cloud Enterprise, Oracle Data Integration Platform Cloud, and Oracle API Platform Cloud.
These new features builds on the software giant’s introduction last fall of its Autonomous Database, a self-monitoring system that automatically finds and applies patches and regularly tunes itself for optimum performance.
The new Mobile Cloud Enterprise makes it easier for developers to add features such as chatbots for customer interaction via popular services such as Facebook Messenger and Amazon Alexa. Oracle said it’s easier because MCE takes care of the time-consuming task of integrating these messaging platforms with the chatbot.
“We also use natural language processing to understand the user’s intent as part of our dialog engine so the developer doesn’t need to code for every type of end user,” Siddhartha Agarwal, vice president of product management at Oracle, told eWEEK.
“We can help manage the conversation as it goes along because the chatbot understands the sentiment of the conversation. Also, it will hand off to a human if the customer doesn’t understand something or the customer is, say, getting ticked off.”
In an enterprise setting Agarwal said the chatbot’s integration with either Software as a Service or on-premises applications helps it work more effectively. “There is intelligent interaction between you and the system so if you say, for example, I need a new laptop, the system shows the three laptops you are eligible to procure and walks you through the transaction,” he said.
The Mutual Madrid Open ATP Tennis Tournament used the Oracle Cloud to develop a chatbot it calls MatchBot that uses AI to engage in “natural” conversations with fans online related to information about the event, players and results as well as information about hospitality services.
“With this new technology, we were able to provide visitors with an amazing experience—a pleasant, simpler, and faster way to get the information they wanted about the tournament, Gerard Tsobanian, president and CEO of Mutua Madrid Open, said in a statement.
Oracle is also tackling big data in this latest release by simplifying and automating the creation of so-called data lakes and data warehouses, the huge repositories of operational data and customer transactions that companies rely on for insights into buying trends and customer satisfaction.
Oracle’s Data Integration Platform Cloud uses AI to stream and transfer large data volumes. Agarwal said Oracle is removing a lot of the steps developers typically have to take to build a data lake, such as knowing how to stream all the data, cleanse it, set up permission zones and directories.
“You need a lot of integration tools. We give you one tool to do all of that from configuring the data lake to cataloging the data,” said Agarwal. “We land the data in the right security zones and we understand the meta data coming through and tag it so you have easier access to customer insights.”
Oracle also updated the Oracle API Platform Cloud and the Oracle Developer Cloud. The API Platform Cloud supports both Oracle and third-party clouds for agile API design and development. Oracle said it’s designed to help with hybrid deployments across Oracle Cloud, private and third party clouds covering every aspect of the API lifecycle. The system continually “learns” usage patterns and recommends allocation limits and configurations.
“We’ve created an API gateway and enabled that gateway to run in our public cloud or you can have it run locally,” said Agarwal.
The Oracle Developer Cloud is a complete development platform that’s included with all Oracle Cloud Services. It’s designed to automate software development and delivery cycles, and help teams manage agile development processes with an easy-to-use web interface and integration with popular development tools.