Oracle has announced the beta release of Oracle Code Assist, an AI-powered programming assistant optimized for Java and application development on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). The tool aims to enhance the development of applications for OCI and is available through the Oracle Beta Program. This beta version includes Java-specific optimizations that help developers build new Java applications and update legacy applications to improve performance and security.
Oracle also plans to release optimizations for NetSuite SuiteScript next year to assist with building extensions and customizations using NetSuite’s native scripting language. Oracle Code Assist can be deployed as a plugin for JetBrains’ IntelliJ IDEA IDE, offering developers suggestions in multiple programming languages. This supports a wide range of modern programming environments.
In conjunction with this release, Oracle has introduced new features for the OCI Kubernetes Engine (OKE). These enhancements include support for Ubuntu Linux images, better container security, improved logging analytics for OKE workloads, and cluster node health checks. The new security features help developers identify and resolve security issues more efficiently by expanding monitoring to the container level.
The updated health checks ensure that worker nodes are healthy and up to date. These developments come as part of Oracle’s broader strategy to support AI workloads and cloud-native applications on OCI. The new OCI Kubernetes Engine features aim to simplify the deployment and management of such workloads.
Enterprises are seeking increasingly powerful compute capabilities to support their AI workloads and accelerate data processing. Enhanced efficiency can lead to better returns on investments in AI training and optimized user experiences for AI inference. At the Oracle CloudWorld conference, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) announced the first zettascale OCI Supercluster, powered by NVIDIA, to help enterprises train and deploy next-generation AI models using over 100,000 of NVIDIA’s latest-generation GPUs.
OCI Superclusters offer flexible deployment options across on-premises, public cloud, and sovereign cloud environments. Set for availability in the first half of next year, the Blackwell-based systems can scale up to 131,072 GPUs with RoCEv2 networking to deliver an astounding 2.4 zettaflops of peak AI compute to the cloud. Oracle also previewed liquid-cooled bare-metal instances to power large-scale training and real-time inference of trillion-parameter models within the expanded 72-GPU domain.
This year, OCI will provide an instance connecting eight GPUs in a single bare-metal instance via NVLink and NVLink Switch, scaling to 65,536 H200 GPUs with NVIDIA ConnectX-7 NICs over RoCEv2 cluster networking. These instances will be available to order for customers looking to deliver real-time inference at scale and accelerate their training workloads. Oracle has also announced the general availability of GPU-accelerated instances for midrange AI workloads and visualization.
Oracle’s edge offerings now provide scalable AI solutions accelerated by NVIDIA GPUs, even in disconnected and remote locations.
Oracle’s new AI-powered programming tools
NVIDIA-powered OCI Superclusters are driving AI innovation.
For example, foundation model startup Reka is using the clusters to develop advanced multimodal AI models for enterprise agents. “Reka’s multimodal AI models, built with OCI and NVIDIA technology, empower next-generation enterprise agents that can read, see, hear, and speak,” said Dani Yogatama, co-founder and CEO of Reka. NVIDIA received the 2024 Oracle Technology Solution Partner Award in Innovation for its full-stack approach to innovation.
At this year’s Oracle CloudWorld, the focus was squarely on enhancing developer and enterprise capabilities through innovative applications of generative AI. Oracle Chairman and CTO Larry Ellison revealed several strategic updates and new products aimed at bolstering multicloud, distributed cloud, AI, application development, and security. Oracle introduced a new generative AI-powered developer assistant within its Fusion Data Intelligence service, part of the Fusion Cloud Applications Suite.
This assistant is designed to streamline the configuration process and accelerate the integration of third-party data sources. Oracle introduced “GenDev,” a strategic update for AI-centric application development. This utilizes technologies in Oracle Database 23ai, such as JSON Relational Duality Views, AI Vector Search, and APEX.
Oracle made its first generative AI agent, the RAG Agent, generally available. This agent enhances capabilities by providing out-of-the-box RAG features, reducing manual processes, and offering self-check mechanisms to minimize inaccuracies. The company announced a beta version of Oracle Code Assist, an AI-powered programming assistant optimized for Java, to aid in developing applications for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI).
Oracle has started accepting pre-orders for 131,072 Nvidia Blackwell GPUs in the OCI Supercluster to support large language model training and other use cases, with availability expected in the first half of 2025. Oracle and AWS partnered to offer Oracle database services on AWS infrastructure, allowing access to Oracle Autonomous Database and Oracle Exadata Database Service. Oracle introduced generative AI features to its managed data analytics and database service, Oracle HeatWave.
Updates include multi-lingual support, optical character recognition (OCR), LLM inference batch processing, JavaScript support, and automatic vector store updates. Oracle’s new intelligent data lake, part of the Data Intelligence platform, will help enterprises consolidate data from various sources. The data lake will feature tools like Apache Spark, Apache Flink, and Jupyter Notebooks for processing and visualization.
Oracle added a zero trust security feature to its cloud platform, ZPR, which prevents data exposure due to network misconfigurations by separating network security from the underlying architecture. Oracle enhanced its Fusion Cloud suites with AI-based updates and a new sustainability app within the enterprise performance management (EPM) suite. Updates in the Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM) suite include the Dynamic Skills feature to track skill requirements and user experience (UX) enhancements for better AI utilization.
Oracle’s announcements at CloudWorld 2024 illustrate a significant push towards leveraging AI to improve enterprise efficiency and productivity, ensuring that they remain competitive in a rapidly evolving technological landscape.
