In this release, Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Grid Control (Oracle Grid Control), the flagship product in Oracle Enterprise Manager's family of products, provides service management features that better align IT resources with business objectives through new, extended monitoring of non-Oracle products that work in conjunction with Oracle-based grids (see today's related announcement). Oracle Grid Control enables administrators to streamline complex processes and automate manual tasks while tracking performance and managing systems through an intuitive Web-based console.

"By focusing on the performance of business services, the automation of grid infrastructures, and the extended management coverage of non-Oracle IT infrastructure, Oracle Grid Control offers customers a unique solution that helps customers realize the exceptional benefits of Oracle grid computing today," said Jay Rossiter, vice president of System Management Products, Oracle.

"By extending the management and monitoring capabilities beyond Oracle products to encompass third-party infrastructure products, Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Release 2 offers end users a comprehensive solution to monitor and manage components from the operating system to the application layer," said Tim Grieser, vice president of Enterprise System Management Software Research, at IDC.

Alignment of Business Objectives and IT Through Service Management
In the latest release, Oracle Grid Control introduces unique service management features such as service modeling, graphical service topologies and service dashboards that provide the right information to high-level decision makers and lines of business managers so they can better understand service level quality and effectively make planning decisions. IT administrators can more easily manage service level agreements (in real-time and from a historical perspective) and their impact on business performance. The Service Dashboard provides a distinct approach for IT to illustrate its relevance to a business, enabling organizations to budget more effectively.

Automated Software Management and Resource Provisioning
New software provisioning functionality in Release 2 increases the reliability of deploying new systems while decreasing labor costs. The new release enables organizations to store certified software images (i.e. operating system, application server, database and Oracle Real Application Clusters installations and configurations) in an image library and automatically deploy new systems by directly referencing the library. Deployed software is then kept current with reference-based patching. This allows customers to respond quickly to changes in resource demands and offers customers the ability to make sure that each deployment is tested and is in compliance with corporate standards. In addition, Oracle Grid Control coordinates the deployment of multi-tier applications and patches by managing these complex operations across multiple nodes and tiers.

Oracle Grid Control's new "bare metal" provisioning functionality can save organizations running Linux time and costs by enabling administrators to provision Linux servers and keep the Linux operating system in sync with a reference image directly from Oracle Grid Control. Oracle Grid Control allows customers that have standardized their grids on Linux to provision and keep current their technology infrastructure, reducing the need for third-party system management tools.

Extended Product Support Enables Increased System Management and Performance
Oracle Grid Control features increased support for IT infrastructure products including application servers, firewalls, operating systems, load balancers and storage components. With improved insight into every aspect of performance, Oracle Grid Control allows users to more effectively detect and resolve issues in a grid computing environment. Release 2 delivers monitoring and diagnostic capabilities for non-Oracle products with new Management Plug-Ins, encompassing: BEA WebLogic (version 7.0 and above); F5 Networks BIG-IP Server Load Balancer (version 9.0 and above); IBM WebSphere (version 5.0 and above); and, NetApp(r) fabric-attached storage systems. Additional plug-ins, including Check Point Software's VPN-1(r) Pro with integrated firewall functionality and Juniper Networks Firewalls, among others, are planned.

Augmented Management Capabilities
Oracle Grid Control continues to meet the systems management demands of organizations through numerous additional new features:

* Complete Oracle Real Application Clusters provisioning - enables administrators to convert a single Oracle Database into a clustered database with Oracle Real Application Clusters. New instances of Oracle Real Application Clusters can now be deployed automatically for immediate support and added capacity of a production application;
* IT compliance and configuration policies - enables administrators to reduce costs and risks associated with IT audit and compliance by proactively monitoring configuration and performance of critical assets;
* Reference-based patching - provides a lights-out solution to patching Linux servers, eliminating the single biggest barrier to rapid application deployment;
* Service and System Dashboards - provide a single view of the overall status (availability, performance, and load) of key business services and applications as well as the status of the IT systems and infrastructure supporting those applications;
* Topology Visualization - delivers a visual representation of the IT systems and services, as well as their relationships. This feature provides an integrated view of Oracle Fusion Middleware environment and simplifies the administration of Oracle Real Application Clusters;
* Root Cause Analysis - enables administrators to quickly pinpoint and understand the impact of performance, availability and capacity problems throughout the entire application infrastructure stack;
* Extended service protocol support - enables application administrators to monitor availability and performance of any application or service with support for over 20 new application protocols, including custom scripts; and,
* Enterprise Reporting - allows IT managers to proactively publish specialized management information to users, managers and executives.

Availability and Pricing
Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Release 2 is generally available today on all supported Linux platforms.

With Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Release 2, Oracle has introduced new packaging designed to provide added deployment flexibility and broader purchase options for customers in all stages of grid adoption. These new options for Oracle and non-Oracle infrastructure components extend the value of Oracle Grid Control beyond the Oracle product set. New capabilities offered for non-Oracle products are fully integrated in the managed environment enabling customers to take full advantage of Oracle Grid Control across the entire application and service stack.

New Management Packs include:
* Configuration Management Pack for Non-Oracle Systems ($3,000 per processor); and,
* Provisioning Pack ($3,000 per processor); and,
* Service Level Management Pack ($3,000 per beacon and + $100 per test).

System Management Plug-Ins to support partner products include:
* Hosts ($1,500 per processor);
* Non-Oracle Middleware ($1,500 per processor);
* Network Devices ($1,500 per Network Device); and,
* Storage ($1,500 per terabyte).

Terms, conditions, and restrictions apply.

About Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g
Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g, an industry-leading family of management products, is the complete solution to manage Oracle environments. Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Grid Control (Oracle Grid Control), the Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g flagship product, manages business service levels together with the centralized management for the complete Oracle IT infrastructure, including systems running Oracle and non-Oracle technologies. With a broad set of administration, configuration management, provisioning, end-to-end monitoring, and security capabilities, Oracle Grid Control helps reduce the cost and complexity of managing grid computing environments.

About Oracle
Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) is the world's largest enterprise software company. For more information about Oracle, visit our Web site at http://www.oracle.com.

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The following is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decision. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for Oracle's products remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.