As Published In July/August 2004

Oracle JDeveloper 10g Released

The production release of Oracle JDeveloper 10g, Oracle's Java and Web services development environment, is now available. The latest release features Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF), a productivity layer that simplifies development by enabling developers of all skill levels to create J2EE applications and Web services.

Developers can also take advantage of the latest service-oriented-architecture (SOA) development methodologies to assemble more-efficient applications from a set of shared business services. With SOA, developers can create more-flexible applications that evolve with changing business requirements.

Did You Know? Open Source, Grid, and Clustered Projects Occupy Developers More than 1.1 million developers in North America are spending at least some of their time working on open source development projects. Well over a half million are spending some of their development time working on 64-bit architectures, and almost half that many developers are actively pursuing grid computing projects. Clustered-computing developers number just under a half million, accounting for 17 percent of North American developers overall. Source: Evans Data Corporation North American Developer Population Study CRM a Quick Win for Most Companies Successful implementations of customer relationship management (CRM) applications yield returns ranging from 16 percent to more than 1,000 percent. Technology-related savings account for 7 percent of the average return, while increased productivity and business-process enhancements account for 51 percent and 42 percent respectively. Fifty-eight percent of companies achieved return on investment for their CRM investment in one year or less, 35 percent experienced payback within one to three years, and 8 percent did so after three years. Source: IDC Study, "The Financial Impact of CRM" IT Security is on CFOs' Minds Chief financial officers (CFOs) are concerned about their companies' ability to protect and sustain business operations in the event of a significant disruption. Thirty-seven percent of them perceive disaster recovery to be their firms' biggest vulnerability, followed by security of information systems at 24 percent. Source: Robert Half Management Resources

"Oracle JDeveloper simplifies the development of our J2EE application, with its visual approach to development and its productive and open framework," says Les Morton, project team leader at Associated Wholesalers Inc., an early adopter of Oracle JDeveloper 10g. "This tool helps us accelerate our development cycle, providing a higher ROI for IT projects at our company."

Oracle Database 10g Costs Less to Manage, Says Study

An independent study from Progressive Strategies, Inc., a New York-based technology analysis and consulting firm, shows significant manageability savings with Oracle Database 10g compared to Microsoft SQL Server 2000. The study found that Oracle DBAs perform typical administrative functions in 30 percent less time, with 20 percent fewer steps for the same set of standard administrative tasks.

For three months, Progressive studied the manageability of Oracle Database 10g and Microsoft SQL Server 2000, measuring common DBA tasks of both Oracle and SQL Server DBAs. The study found that Oracle takes 50 percent less time and has 56 percent fewer steps than SQL Server for backup and recovery tasks. In performance diagnostics, query tuning, and system optimization, Oracle Database 10g is more than 76 percent faster and 38 percent less complex to maintain. Overall, the study found, businesses can save approximately US$32,600 per DBA per year by using Oracle Database10g in place of Microsoft SQL Server 2000.

According to Progressive, "Oracle Database 10g is a technically advanced, highly scalable RDBMS with built-in self management features that make it easier to manage and more cost-effective than Microsoft SQL Server 2000. Small and midsize businesses, large enterprises, and ISVs should consider Oracle Database 10g as a viable solution and a strong competitor to Microsoft SQL Server 2000 for the Windows environment."

Oracle Data Mining Releases New User Interface

Oracle Data Mining (ODM), an Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition option, provides data mining functionality embedded in Oracle Database 10g that enables data analysts and application developers to mine data, find hidden patterns and insights, and build advanced business intelligence applications. The new ODM user interface (UI), now available on OTN, replaces the ODM Release 9.2 Data Mining for Java (DM4J) UI. The new UI offers wizards for automating data mining steps and eliminates the previous reliance on Oracle JDeveloper. It also provides data-transformation and model-building functionality and visualization of data and results, and it can generate Java and PL/SQL code to automate data mining and build advanced business intelligence applications.

APIs Ease Web Conferencing Integration

New XML-based APIs from Oracle enable integration of Oracle Web Conferencing with applications and business flows. There are four categories of Oracle Web Conferencing APIs: scheduling services, reporting services, request conference services, and recording services.

Scheduling services provide the ability to schedule a conference, start an instant conference, update or delete a conference, join a conference, and list upcoming conferences. Reporting services provide the ability to get details about finished conferences and their attendees. Request conference services enable external participants to request a Web conference session with a host and can be used to provide live help capabilities from a Web site or an application. Last, recording services provide the ability to get the playback URL of a recording.

The APIs use XML messages and HTTP/HTTPS protocol for integration. All interfaces are defined as Web-based services and are implemented as a set of servlets that can be accessed via a URL.

Tools Simplify Portlet Development

Oracle has a set of tools that allow developers to build and test portlets, ensuring that they are interoperable with several portal platforms. Most recently, Oracle released a developer's preview release of a portlet verification tool, called WSRP Portal. The tool tests portlets against the Web Services for Remote Portlets (WSRP) developed by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS). The production release of WSRP Portal will be part of Oracle Application Server 10g Release 10.0.4.

Oracle Establishes Enterprise Grid Alliance

Web Locator Oracle JDeveloper 10g Oracle Database 10g cost-savings study New user interface for Oracle Data Mining Oracle Web Conferencing APIs: Integration services guide Oracle Web Conferencing integration APIs and samples New portlet development tools Enterprise Grid Alliance Download Oracle Database for 64-bit architecture Oracle Linux benchmark Oracle Application Server

Oracle has established the Enterprise Grid Alliance (EGA), a consortium of leading vendors and customers focused on improving grid computing tools and standards to meet the needs of developers and users and fostering understanding and adoption of enterprise grid computing. The consortium—which initially includes HP, EMC, Cisco, Sun Microsystems, and others—will focus exclusively on the needs of enterprise users and will promote open, inter-operable solutions that should benefit businesses immediately.

"Grid computing is an outstanding proposition for enterprises," says Dr. Donald R. Deutsch, Oracle's vice president for standards strategy and architecture and president of the EGA, noting that research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) indicates that one in seven companies plans to move to grid computing in the next two years. "But enterprise grid deployments have different requirements than noncommercial or more academic implementations. The existing grid community hasn't addressed their needs adequately, and the EGA will," says Deutsch.

Oracle for the Opteron Processor

To meet the growing demand for 64-bit computing technology, Oracle9i Release 9.2.0.4 (with upcoming plans for Oracle Database 10g) on Linux is now available on AMD's 64-bit architecture, the AMD Opteron processor. Oracle's Platform Technologies Division carried out this initiative, using a scalable, highly automated infrastructure.

The demand for solutions that run well on high-performance, scalable, and reliable hardware platforms while reducing the cost of IT is driving the demand for 64-bit computing, says Gopal Lakshminarasimhan, director of Platform Technologies at Oracle.

"Sixty-four-bit computing provides better performance to end users," says Lakshminarasimhan. "It allows a computer to simultaneously handle 64 bits of data, with the benefit of increased scalability." For example, data warehousing applications will be able to provide better results with 64-bit computing.

Oracle Sets Another Linux Benchmark

Oracle set a new world-record TPC-C performance benchmark* for Oracle Database 10g running with Linux-based symmetric multiprocessing (SMP). Using NEC's Express5800/1320Xd with 32 Intel Itanium 2 processors at 1.5GHz with a 6MB L3 cache running on Novell's SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9, Oracle Database 10g achieved 609,467 tpmC (transactions per minute), with a price/performance ratio of US$6.78/tpmC.

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"This benchmark confirms, beyond a doubt, the value of Linux in the enterprise," says Richard Sarwal, vice president of Server Performance at Oracle. "NEC, Oracle, Intel, and Novell have worked together to enable Linux to scale on large SMPs, providing companies with low-cost computing options, even at the high end of the market."

Oracle Application Server Customer Base Exceeds 20,000

The Oracle Application Server customer base has surpassed the 20,000 mark, demonstrating continued customer recognition of Oracle's performance and price. New customers include Ann Taylor, BMC Software, British Telecom, Deutsche Post World Net/DHL, and Motorola.

Ann Taylor, a leading women's specialty retailer in the United States, uses Oracle Application Server to run its J2EE-based human resources self-service application. "Oracle technology has demonstrated significant business value and is being used in all Ann Taylor stores," says Victor Horsa, director of financial administrative systems at Ann Taylor. "The product has proven so reliable and easy to use that we recently extended our use of it for other business functions."

*Source: Transaction Processing Council (TPC), www.tpc.org. As of April 6, 2004: NEC Express5800/1320Xd server, 609,467 tpmC, US$6.78/tpmC, available September 1, 2004.