About OraPub and Oracle Performance

Our Team

Real People. Real Optimization. Real Solutions.

No other company on this planet can provide both predictive analytics and performance tuning for Oracle systems like OraPub. Why? Because OraPub's founder and Oracle ACE Director, Craig Shallahamer, literally wrote the books on these subjects.

Now that OraPub is powered by Viscosity North America, we continue to be a one-stop location for specialized training in machine learning and Oracle database performance tuning. Our company is designed to help Oracle professionals get the answers and skills they need through engaging training and useful resources.

We cross-train Oracle DBAs to develop and deploy machine learning for their existing monitoring and alerting systems. Our training and services provide an immediate return on investment.

Our online training is uniquely structured for the working professional. Every one of our instructors encourages dialogue throughout every class to ensure students can immediately apply the course content.

With a combined amount of many years of experience specializing in Oracle performance and data analysis, our instructors' passion and contagious energy for teaching Oracle managers, developers and DBAs makes the learning process valuable – and fun!

Join us on the journey of discovery and answer the big questions every Oracle professional faces.

Viscosity speakers and instructors are adding to what OraPub offers.

Craig Shallahamer is still the main presenter and instructor at OraPub, but we are adding many more soon. Here is just a small list of people who will be teaching webinars and LVCs, as well as presentations and recordings.

We are also the only company in the world that has FIVE Oracle ACEs!

We have the expertise you need from our training and consulting.

Craig Shallahamer is the founder of OraPub and is now an Applied AI Scientist with Viscosity North America. He has over 30 years of experience in consulting, training and tool development in analytics (machine learning) and Oracle database performance tuning for literally hundreds of companies around the world, including Oracle Corporation. Craig is also an Oracle ACE Director. He is the author of two best selling books, Oracle Performance Firefighting and Forecasting Oracle Performance. He has served on several user group boards and has managed conference DBA tracks for several years.

Charles Kim is a co-founder and CEO of Viscosity North America, an Oracle ACE Director, and a VMware vExpert. Charles is an Oracle Certified DBA, a Certified RAC Expert and a Certified Exadata Implementation Specialist. Charles specializes in Exadata, RAC, and Virtualization (VMware and Oracle VM) and has authored over 9 books. Charles holds certifications in Oracle, VMware, Red Hat Linux, and Microsoft and has over 23 years of Oracle experience. Charles sat on the panel of Oracle experts at VM World and Oracle OpenWorld for virtualization and Linux. Charles was one of the founding members of the virtualization SIG that launched in 2011 at Oracle OpenWorld. Charles is currently on the board of the Utah Oracle User Group (UTOUG).

Jerry Ward is COO and Head of Applications at Viscosity North America. He serves on the board of the Emerging Tech Special Interest Group at multiple Oracle conferences across the country. Jerry has worked with Oracle technology since 1991, including Oracle database version 6+ and Oracle Applications version 9+. He is passionate about what tech can do for communities, and he leads emerging tech sessions and conversations targeted around travel, hospitality, pharmaceuticals, finance and more.

Rich Niemiec is the current Chief Innovation Officer for Viscosity North America. Rich is an Oracle Ace Director, a world renowned IT Expert, and was a co-founder and the CEO of TUSC, a Chicago-based systems integrator of Oracle-based business solutions started in 1988. Rich has architected and tuned many Fortune 500 systems over the past 25 years. His experience in data processing ranges from teaching to consulting, with emphasis on database administration, performance tuning, project management and technical education. Rich is one of six originally honored worldwide Oracle Certified Masters and has advised Oracle Development from time to time. In 2017, he authored the Oracle “Oracle12c Performance Tuning Tips & Techniques,” an update of his previous four Oracle best sellers. Rich was inducted into the Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame in 1998.

Gary Gordhamer is a Managing Principal Consultant at Viscosity North America. He has spent much of his career focusing on the enterprise application landscape and business process digitization. His technical experience ranges from Oracle E-Business Suite, middleware, database and related technologies for the past 29 years. His professional background covers many industries, including healthcare, manufacturing, utilities, and government. Gary is an Oracle ACE Pro, and a frequent presenter at Oracle OpenWorld and user group conferences.

Sean Scott is an Oracle ACE Director, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Certified Architect Professional, and Oracle Autonomous Database Certified Specialist. He's a Managing Principal Consultant with Viscosity North America, where he designs highly available and scalable databases, leads database modernization and migration projects, and coaches database teams on their journeys toward DevOps and automation. Sean is a featured speaker at user group conferences and events around the world and author of the new Apress book, "Running Oracle on Docker" now available.

Erik Espinoza is the founder and CEO of the Viscosity North America Guatemalan office. Partnering with Viscosity in 2014 as a consultant, he assisted in roles from Senior Software Engineer to Solutions Architect to now the Director of Apex and Development for all of Viscosity. Erik had the opportunity to work for Xerox at age 19, which took him on a life-changing training course in the U.S. He grew and developed his English speaking ability, his American business culture, and, most notably, his programming knowledge. He left Xerox in a leap of faith to consult with a start-up company in Guatemala that helped provide him with experience and reaching new clients in consulting, including Tigo. This opportunity led him to connect to Viscosity North America.

Emanuel Cifuentes is a Solution Architect for Viscosity North American. He started professional software development at age 16, right out of high school. He has worked on all kinds of software for the banking industry that gave him a good understanding of privacy and security. He then moved on to a start-up environment to develop web and mobile applications. The start-up was involved with geolocation, tracking, and was really focused on usability. A few years ago, he started consulting for Viscosity North America in subjects related to Oracle, specifically the Oracle Database and Oracle APEX. He has been involved in many projects in the food, oil and gas and healthcare industries.

Diego Fion is a Senior Software Architect for Viscosity North America with over 10 years of experience in information technology with web platforms. He has successfully architected, designed, and led the development of commercial applications in the fields of the geo-positioning and geo-tracking industries, the health industry, and the oil and gas industry. He is an expert Javascript developer with experience in several Javascript libraries and frameworks.

Julio Ayapan is a Senior DBA for Viscosity North America and an Oracle ACE Associate. He is also a computer engineer and has a master’s degree in IT project management. Starting as a DBA in 2012, he has been working with multiple virtualizations, software development and database technologies related to different industries, such as telecom, banking, manufacturing, print media and retail. Having expertise in various RDBMS systems, he has become an Oracle Certified Professional in 11g and 12c, and became an Oracle Certified Expert for Data Guard and RAC and Grid Infrastructure administration. He is an expert in many areas of database administration, analytics, and operating systems, including high-performance tuning, high availability, replication, backup, and recovery, and recently in cloud technologies, becoming an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Certified Architect and a Microsoft Azure Certified Database Administrator.

Luis Flores is a Senior Software Engineer for Viscosity North America. He has been working around the application development space since 2013. He started working on Oracle Application Express in 2018 and has always looked for the best ways to leverage all their functionality in a client's favor to develop great and easy-to-use applications.