I won't deny that it has been a challenging and tough journey, but today, I'm glad to be able to declare that the book "Getting Started with Oracle Cloud Free Tier" has been published and available to purchase!
How time flies!
Looking back, it's been almost a year since Jonathan Gennick at Apress first approached me to see if I was keen to write a book on the then recently-announced Oracle Cloud Free Tier. I was excited about what Oracle was doing with this new offering, and even more eager to share what I knew about the Oracle Cloud, so I quickly said, "Yes!"
There was a lot of ground to cover and we had aimed to publish the book ahead of Oracle OpenWorld (OOW) 2020. Fortunately, I was able to rope in Luc Demanche as a co-author. Luc focused on the infrastucture-related topics, while I tackled areas closer to my heart, software applications, including the longest chapter written for readers who are totally new to Oracle Application Express. It was tough compressing as much information as I could about such a great platform in only one chapter.
It was also particularly daunting to venture into other web application development platforms like Flask for Python developers, and React for JavaScript developers. I wanted to demonstrate that the Oracle Cloud wasn't just for the APEX geeks. There's something for everyone!
More than just being knowledgeable about the Oracle Cloud, Luc was also a seasoned author. This is his second book, and his experience and cheer-leading helped contribute greatly to the successful completion of this new adventure. I am greatly indebted to him. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank Jonathon again for the opportunity, and to his team of editors and project managers, who helped guide us along the editorial process. And last but not least, a special thank you to Christoph Ruepprich, who sacrificed his time to help ensure that what we wrote was technically sound.
Oracle Groundbreakers APAC Virtual Tour 2020
In other news, I'm honoured and glad to be participating in the upcoming Oracle Groundbreakers APAC Virtual Tour happening next month, October 2020. I will be presenting my session "Store Your Treasures in the Cloud", that will provide a detailed walkthrough on integrating Oracle Cloud Object Storage with APEX application. And yes, you can certainly do this with Always Free-only resources.
Born and bred in Singapore, there's a warm fuzzy feeling knowing that I'll be speaking in a region closer to home. Especially so this year with COVID-19 disrupting my travel plans. As one of my favourite singers 阿兰 would say, "无论我们飞得有多高，有多远，永远不要忘记自己的家乡，不要忘记自己的梗。"