Insights into DBA challenges and update on Toad from Julie Hyman

Hi, everyone. This is John Pocknell with Product Marketing at Quest Software So we're here at Oracle Openworld 2019. We're really excited to be here. I'm joined today by Julie Hyman, who's the product manager for our Toad product line. And here we're talking about Toad for Oracle and Toad Data Point and Toad DevOps toolkit-- and Toad Edge. So Julie, first of all, you've had quite a few customer conversations over the last day and a half, right? Oh, yeah. A lot. What sort of things are you hearing? What sort of challenges are you hearing about? So what I'm hearing mostly from customers is just concern about change, right? And their environment. So I'm hearing the change that they're going to cloud, right? Right. So they're going to cloud a lot. And so they want to know how that's going to affect-- are they going to be able to use the same tooling that they've always been using? There's still a little background anxiety around DevOps. How does database fit into DevOps? How does that work with schema changes? How does the DBA fit into that whole process? So those two things are the main concerns, I think, that I keep hearing mostly about. But really it's just anxiety about change. And I think some of that's about an autonomous database-- that's the big thing here-- and how is that can affect the DBA. So it's how the roles are changing and how that changes the processes And then from my perspective, how that changes the tooling. All right, cool. Great. So, well, Toad for Oracle has been known for not standing still and resting on its laurels, right? Right. That's right. Always new stuff coming out. I know you've got a new release coming out in November, I think it is. That's right. That's right. Just talk to us a bit about what the main things are that people should be looking out for in the new releases, and-- Sure. --how it's going to help people. I'll actually start by talking about what we released this year. Because another anxiety point people are talking about is sensitive data protection, right? How are they going to fit in with the new regulations with GDPR and all the ones coming up? And so earlier this year, we did have a release that addressed that with our first foray into that with a sensitive data protection add-on that you can get for Toad for Oracle. And then the release we have coming out in November you mentioned? We have done what I think is great because we put it right into our base product. So it's there available for any Toad for Oracle user. No matter if they've been on-- as long as they're on maintenance, they get it. They don't have to further invest in Toad. But it's a utPLSQL integration. So we have a fantastic code testing module that already helps the developers and QA engineers come up with great unit tests for their PLSQL code objects. But now we actually took utPLSQL, which is a great open-source framework. Steven Feuerstein was behind that as well. And we integrated that right into Toad. So now my Toad developers can do their unit tests. There's tutorials built into the applications, so they can learn the best way to do it. And they can get that code coverage in their databases. And I think that relieves some of that database DevOps anxiety that they have out there. Great. So no excuses for not testing your code anymore, right? That's right. You're just going to upgrade-- That's right. --to the version of Toad. [INTERPOSING VOICES] --PLSQL, a code is code, right? And code needs unit tests in order to fit into that framework-- Quite right. --of DevOps. Great. Yeah. Great. So, Julie, one other thing that we hear sometimes as well, what you mentioned-- cloud-- before. And we hear about a lot of customers migrating to the cloud, and they've used code for many, many years. Maybe not quite sure whether they can keep using Toad once they have got a database in the cloud. That's right. Can you just dispel any myths that may be around whether or not they can keep using Toad? That's right. So, and as you mentioned before, Toad has kept up with all the latest trends. We've been around forever. We're the tool of choice for developers and DBAs on Oracle. But we work on-prem Oracle and we work cloud Oracle. It makes no difference to Toad. So you can connect Toad to Oracle in the cloud, even if it's a multi-tenant situation. Your Toad for Oracle-- the one you've been using, the one you're used to-- will work with those as well. So all myths dispelled. As you guys move to the cloud, Toad's going to be right there with you. Great. Well, thanks for sharing that with us, Julie, and thanks for spending some time with us. So there you have it, in all you need to know about the latest version of Toad and how it can help-- even if you're in the cloud. If you want more information, learn more about the Toad for Oracle products, go to our website to learn more. Thanks for listening.