The unstoppable rise of Oracle Application Express

By Dermot Murray, VP of Ideation

When I joined Inoapps, way back in 2008, one of the Oracle tools we used extensively to deliver our bespoke developments to customers was a little-known tool called Oracle Application Express (APEX).  At the time, the tool was in its infancy, but provided a neat and effective way to rapidly develop powerful applications.  Over the next few years, we used the tool to build some clever extensions to Oracle E-Business Suite, which formed the basis for our current Industry Products offerings today.

But still APEX was Oracle's ‘best kept secret’.  We were often challenged as to why we used APEX over other tools like Oracle Application Framework or Oracle Application Development Framework. The answer was that we could build beautiful apps in a fraction of the time and a far lower cost.  Yet APEX remained the poor relation of Oracle's development tools.

However, recent months have seen the unstoppable rise of Oracle APEX to become arguably the most powerful development platform in the Oracle portfolio.  The depth and breadth of functionality, the ongoing roadmap of new features and functions, and the capability of the tool to deliver Cloud based solutions at speed, make it a very compelling offering.

This is further underlined by the extraordinary way the Oracle APEX team has risen to the COVID-19 challenge by creating the Therapeutic Learning Tool, which they’ve gifted to the US Government. The tool enables physicians and patients to record the effectiveness of COVID-19 drug therapies and use this real-world data to quickly ascertain the most effective treatments. The speed at which Joel Kallman and his team were able to develop and deploy the tool at this extraordinary time is a real testament to his team, and APEX itself.

Moreover, the fact that the Oracle APEX community is holding a 24 hour virtual summit (happening as I write) with over 500 attendees from around the world, shows the power of the community that the tool has engaged.

We’ll certainly continue to use APEX for all our custom development, as well as for the ongoing development of our Product suite. It has been truly uplifting to see the ongoing rise of this fantastic tool and the dedicated team that build it. It has been a long time since anyone has questioned why we use APEX, and we look forward to seeing where the journey takes us all in the future.