Oracle announces OCI advancements, unveils AI coding assistant

Oracle has announced new advancements to expedite application development and deployment on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). Oracle Code Assist, an AI-powered coding assistant designed to enhance developer productivity, is now accessible through Oracle's Beta Program. Additionally, Oracle has upgraded its OCI Kubernetes Engine (OKE) to better support AI workloads at scale.

The Oracle Code Assist tool, available as a plugin for JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA or Microsoft Visual Studio Code, delivers intelligent suggestions to developers. This tool aims to aid in the creation and optimisation of applications developed in modern programming languages such as Java, Python, JavaScript, SuiteScript, Rust, Ruby, Go, PL/SQL, C#, and C.

"These new capabilities turbocharge application development, empowering developers to leverage AI to help reduce the time spent on mundane tasks inherent to software development," stated Sudha Raghavan, senior vice president, Developer Platform, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. "Thousands of Oracle engineers are using Oracle Code Assist in their daily work to create boilerplate code, build and run unit tests, generate documentation, and receive answers to coding questions."

Oracle Code Assist offers several key features:

• Java optimisation: Assists in developing new Java applications and updating legacy applications to improve resilience, performance, and security.
• NetSuite SuiteScript optimisation: Facilitates the development of extensions and customisations in NetSuite SuiteScript. This feature is expected to be available to NetSuite customers within the next year.

To enhance the deployment and management of AI workloads and other cloud-native applications on OCI, Oracle has introduced several improvements to its OCI Kubernetes Engine:

• Ubuntu support: Simplifies the deployment and management of AI workloads by allowing developers to deploy GPU-based tasks directly as Ubuntu images.
• Oracle Cloud Guard Container Security enhancements: Extends monitoring capabilities to identify security issues at the container level, providing a secure runtime environment through automated enforcement of security policies.
• OCI Logging Analytics integration: Improves usability and observability for OKE workloads by enabling Logging Analytics.
• Node health checks and cycling: Allows cluster operators to monitor worker node health and take necessary actions based on the data collected.

Several organisations have already begun leveraging these new capabilities for their operations. Nomura Research Institute (NRI), a provider of consulting services and system solutions, uses OCI and Oracle Alloy to support its managed cloud solutions for hundreds of financial services organisations in Japan.

"We're looking forward to using Oracle Code Assist and its Java optimisation to accelerate our ability to update legacy applications and build new applications faster," said Takahiko Inaba, managing director, head of AI, NRI.

Inworld, an AI platform for games, moved its models to OCI to handle increased demand. "After our demands grew 100x overnight from a viral streamer, we sought a managed solution and migrated to OCI," explained Igor Poletaev, vice president of artificial intelligence, Inworld.

Telecommunications provider 8x8 uses OCI Kubernetes Engine and OCI Functions for its Kubernetes microservices and employs OCI Logging Analytics for real-time visibility across its cloud-native environment. "Using OCI Kubernetes Engine and OCI Logging Analytics, we have significantly reduced the daily management complexities for our DevOps teams," said Mehdi Salour, senior vice president, global network and DevOps, 8x8.

GeneDx, a leader in medical genetics, migrated its core platforms to OCI to optimise cloud infrastructure, which has increased efficiency and led to cost savings. "Managing critical pipelines across three different clouds added complexity and increased costs, leading us to consolidate onto OCI," stated Neil Davis, head of engineering, GeneDx. He noted that OCI Kubernetes Engine simplified their operations, allowing the development teams to focus more on scaling and enhancing the patient experience.