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AT ORACLE: Briefs
Oracle XML Data Synthesis Eases Information Integration
Many organizations need to access multiple data sources in order to gain a complete picture of their business. Oracle XML Data Synthesis (XDS) is designed to solve the problem of accessing disparate information sources—such as packaged applications, databases, Web services, and files—and integrating the information in real time. Oracle XDS provides an easy-to-use declarative framework to plug in and query across information sources. Instead of writing custom applications to access information
from disparate information sources,
customers can use Oracle XDS to build their information integration applications. The benefits are similar to what SQL provides when it comes to reading data from databases. Oracle XDS was designed to employ both emerging and standards-based technologies such as XML, XQuery, JDBC, Web services,
and J2EE Connector Architecture.
With a uniform method of querying heterogeneous data sources, developers gain productivity, by eliminating the need to deal with the complexities of accessing different data sources and then writing logic to synthesize the information for these data sources, says Nirav Chanchani, principal product manager at Oracle.
Oracle XDS is deployed on Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE (OC4J). A technology preview is currently available for download on Oracle Technology Network.
Paris: Next Stop for Oracle Business Intelligence Warehouse Builder
Under pressure to derive more knowledge from existing data? Need high-quality information at the right time? Book a direct flight to Paris.
That's the code name of the next
release of Oracle Business Intelligence Warehouse Builder, and it packs more than a dozen new features that enable high-quality business intelligence.
"Paris integrates data profiling
into the ETL (Extract, Transform, and
Load) process," says Paul Narth, senior
group manager for Oracle Business Intelligence Warehouse Builder. "Besides assessing your data quality and providing statistics such as Six Sigma ratings, Paris generates cleansing rules in the ETL process to improve the quality
of your data. Additionally, the new Dependency Manager allows you to proactively uncover and fix the ripple effect of changes before they break
your system, saving you time and effort while improving metadata quality."
Other new features in Paris focus
on enabling the Oracle Business Intelligence solution—integrating Oracle Online Analytical Processing (OLAP), Data Mining, Discoverer, and BI Beans. Scheduled for the end of 2004, the new version of Warehouse Builder also delivers support for right-time data warehousing, Change Data Capture (CDC), and Experts.
"Experts offer extensibility and
reuse of Warehouse Builder functionality inside or outside the development environment," says Narth. "Similar to macros, directed task flows encapsulating best practices can be offered to users without their having to learn the product."
Rapid Adoption of Oracle Database Standard Edition One
Thousands of customers have purchased Oracle Database Standard Edition One, taking advantage of a first-class database at an economy price. Oracle Database Standard Edition One is US$149 per user and includes everything necessary to build and deploy business-critical applications on single servers of one or two processors.
"Because Standard Edition One requires hardly any administration, with its new fast installation and automated management features, it's an attractive database for small to medium-size businesses as well as departmental systems with limited IT resources," says Valerie Ashe, Oracle principal product marketing manager. "It's part of the complete Oracle Database family, offering the
reliability, security, and scalability of
an enterprise database to tackle small companies' biggest challenges."
Some of the many Oracle Database Standard Edition One customers include Apollo Forest Products, a 126-employee forestry company in British Columbia; Lyceum Business Services,
a 15-employee professional services high-tech firm in Maryland; and Aria Systems, a 24-employee professional services high-tech firm in Pennsylvania. Edward Popow, CTO and principal of Aria Systems, touts Standard Edition One's full database capabilities at a
low entry price.
"Oracle Database Standard Edition One gives us the power and capabilities of an enterprise-level product at a small-business price," says Popow. "We looked at all the products in the marketplace and considered SQL Server, MySQL, and DB2. Ultimately, we didn't believe that any software products other than Oracle's could deliver the capability we needed at its price."
Dozens of Extensions Available for Oracle JDeveloper
As Oracle JDeveloper continues to gain momentum with developers, a growing number of Oracle JDeveloper extensions are available. These extensions—developed by Oracle, third-party partners, and the open source community—range from coding utilities to application monitoring, product integration, and more. To date, more than 36 extensions are available that expand the functionality of Oracle JDeveloper.
Currently, 17 commercial partners
are providing extensions to Oracle JDeveloper, in areas such as testing and profiling tools, UML modeling tools, and database-to-Java/XML integration. Oracle enables partner companies to integrate their products inside JDeveloper by using Oracle JDeveloper's Extension SDK, allowing developers to use both products from a single user interface.
"We want to create the best-integrated Web services and Java development environment but also allow it
to be customizable for specialized tasks, niche technologies, specific vendor products, and newer specifications and standards," says Rob Cheng, product director at Oracle. "If you have a need and Oracle JDeveloper doesn't address it yet, you can add an Oracle JDeveloper extension to address it right now."
New Excel Add-In for Oracle Database
With the Oracle Business Intelligence Spreadsheet Add-In, end users can display and navigate Oracle OLAP data from within Microsoft Excel. By treating Oracle OLAP data as Excel data, users can combine the analytic capabilities of Oracle OLAP with standard Excel functionality. Using a wizard-driven interface, users can create Oracle OLAP-based
calculations or select data from an
Oracle database simply by choosing
from a list of values.
"The Business Intelligence Add-In makes it easy for end users to access, manipulate, analyze, and share Oracle OLAP data directly within Excel," says Nichelle Rhone-Alford, product director at Oracle. "This is a huge step, because the analytical power of Oracle OLAP is now available to a whole new
user community."
Because all data is centrally stored in an Oracle database, Excel users can ensure that they are accessing the most-current data while benefiting from the performance, scalability, reliability, and security of Oracle Database.
The Oracle Business Intelligence Spreadsheet Add-In will be packaged with the OLAP option of Oracle Database 10g.
Oracle Support's Global Standardization Effort
With hundreds of thousands of customers worldwide, Oracle Global Product Support needs to stay ahead of the technology curve to keep customers happy. Over the past year, Support focused on an initiative to globalize and standardize. Previously, each country had its own tools and tracking systems. Now, Support is a consolidated organization with eastern and western hemispheres, with support engineers operating as a global solution network sharing common processes, tools, and systems. The new system runs on an all-English-language backbone, with 27 local languages supported during local business hours. Support engineers
collaborate across organizations and share responsibility for service requests (SRs), so that critical issues can receive attention around the clock.
By grouping specialized engineers in standard skill clusters, Oracle has improved accuracy and quality of service. Instead of having knowledge about just a single product, support engineers now have skills on product sets, which allows them to help customers troubleshoot across the Oracle product stack.
"Customers now benefit from faster resolution, due to access to a larger pool of engineers with skills that cross over products," says Dan Roy, director of global communications for Oracle Global Product Support.
Support also relies on automation—primarily through Oracle MetaLink—to improve service. Now 91 percent of SRs are filed on the self-service, customer-facing application, which includes a growing solutions knowledge repository, technical repositories, and the ability for customers to electronically file and track SRs.
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Did You Know?
Grid Computing Adoption Rises by 75 Percent in Six Months
Grid computing adoption rose by more than 75 percent in the first half of 2004. In June of this year, 37 percent of database developers were implementing or planning to implement a grid computing architecture. Thirty-four
percent of companies were focusing their database development work on business intelligence (BI) platforms, including OLAP, data mining, and real-time analytics, and one out of three database developers planning to use grid technology indicated that BI software is the expected
target for the new computing architecture.
Source: Evans Data Corporation Database Development Survey Summer 2004
Developers Say Users Are Biggest Security Problem
One in four developers believe that social engineering and users who disregard security policies represent the biggest hurdle to computing security. Another 15 percent cite lack of qualified personnel, and 11 percent say security solutions are too complex or difficult
for users. Just 1.3 percent of developers say security impedes application performance.
Source: Evans Data Corporation's Security Development Survey
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