After months of labour, the arrival of new family members for a couple of the authors the Implementing Oracle API Platform Cloud Service book as finally been published. The book has been included into Packt’s Expert series so, earns(?) the privilege of having photos of the authors on the cover.  The book can be purchased directly from Packt (go here) or from book retails such as Amazon (here).

 

It has been an interesting experience. Whilst working as part of a team of four authors lightened the writing load, a lot more energy went into communication so things were lined up. If you want a challenge, why not read the book and try to work out who wrote which chapters!

The project really kicked off as a result of publishing the ICS book (here) and having had about 6 months downtime from writing the idea of another books started to look appealing. Given that the Oracle practise part of Capgemini UK are winning a lot of business relating to API / digital solutions. Add to that, Luis wrote a book  about Oracle’s earlier product with Andy Bell and several other Oracle Aces it seemed like a good thing to do.

The initial shape of the book was fleshed out on a train journey across Sweden and with the relationship we’ve had with Packt, the book agreement was nailed down in no time.

The writing proved a bit more challenging as we’ve all been on the move, and the opportunities for all of us to discuss the book and its progress together have been rarer than had been expected.  Whilst working on accounts using API Platform have helped, as the approaches to expressing ideas got a solid road testing with the work being done, and with a growing team and new customers in addition to the existing customers it has kept us all very busy.

But the book is here, and having been taken through a peer review with several Oracle Aces (thankyou Arturo  & Rolando) who also know the product as well as a member of the Oracle A-Team (Ricardo) it certainly has been checked with sharp critical eyes.

With the rate of change in the cloud, the question begs of course will the book be out of date in three months?  Well there is innevitable change and cloud based solutions change is quicker. But the book focuses on the why as much as it does how to navigate through. We expect some screens to change a bit and improve, but the fundamental detailks aren’t going to change. This means that the book’s core holds true, and we think will remain fundamentally true for a few years.

To Andy, Luis & Sander – thankyou for taking this journey with me.