Glassy amorphous oxides are fascinating materials in that their amorphous nature provides for  enormous functionality.  Amorphous SiO2, in particular, forms the backbone of fiber optics technologies that conform the vast optical  network that supports the internet.   In their thin film form transparent amorphous oxides, such as SiO2 or HfO2, are building blocks of photonics devices.  I will describe the synthesis and characterization of amorphous oxides  and showcase how it is possible to tailor their functionality for the engineering of multilayer dielectric  structures for advanced photonics applications as in ultra-high intensity near infrared lasers and the ultrastable optical interferometers of gravitational wave detectors.  The state-of-the-art of multilayer dielectric structures for these two applications and their future demands will be discussed.