As Published In November/December 2005

Partner News

Oracle and Partners Offer Low-Cost Clusters

Four IT leaders—Dell, EMC, Microsoft, and Oracle—have created low-cost clustered database solutions for medium-size businesses. Designed to support 500 to 1,000 users, this new offering brings the benefits of grid computing to a wider audience. Oracle's contribution is Oracle Database 10g Standard Edition. Its Oracle Real Application Clusters provides availability and reliability, and Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control automates memory, storage, and backup/recovery management.

The Dell PowerEdge 2850 server in the solution has an Intel Xeon processor with Intel Extended Memory 64 Technology and takes just two rack units of space. It is complemented by the EMC CLARiiON Storage System—either the entry-level AX100, which handles 3 to 12 disk drives with up to 250GB apiece, or the CX300, which handles 5 to 60 drives and uses high-performance Fiber Channel technology. Both EMC storage systems have a Web-based management interface, hot-swappable drives, and customer-replaceable power supplies, cooling fans, and processor modules.

Integral to the package is Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition, which includes the Microsoft .NET Framework for application development. The entire package is available through Dell.

Web Locator Low-cost database clusters Wipro Technologies 170 Systems DLT Solutions Oracle and Accenture Oracle Spatial Partners NEOS

Wipro Technologies Builds Identity-Management Practice

Driven by regulatory compliance and increasing integration requirements, identity and access management (IAM) is a growing practice for many system integrators (SIs) and represents a substantial business opportunity; IDC expects the global IAM market to reach US$3.5 billion in 2008. To meet this demand, Oracle partner Wipro Technologies, an SI in Bangalore, India, is building an IAM practice around Oracle Identity Management.

Oracle Identity Management provides Web access, identity administration, user provisioning, federation of identities, and Web services integration across disparate operating systems, directories, application servers, and applications. The suite of products includes Oracle COREid Access and Identity, Oracle COREid Federation, Oracle COREid Provisioning, Oracle Internet Directory, Oracle Single Sign-On, and Oracle Web Services Manager.

"We are seeing an increasing number of enterprise-level initiatives in the identity-management space within our customer base. Oracle Identity Management is key in delivering these initiatives," says K.R. Sanjiv, vice president of e-enabling at Wipro. "By combining our world-class identity and access-management-domain expertise and global delivery models with Oracle Identity Management, we are delivering customers a strong offering that meets their requirements of compliance, risk management, and competitiveness in a very effective manner."

Oracle Partners Ink Agreement to Serve Public Sector

Two Oracle Certified Advantage Partners, 170 Systems, of Bedford, Massachusetts, and DLT Solutions, of Herndon, Virginia, have joined forces to expand Oracle-based business solutions to public-sector agencies. The agreement means that DLT Solutions will offer 170 Systems' solution for financial-transaction optimization, known as 170 MarkView, on its U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) schedule.

Partner Spotlight Oracle and Accenture Sign Major Global Alliance Agreement Building on a nearly 15-year relationship, Oracle and Accenture have recently signed a new and unique alliance agreement—the first of its kind for Oracle—that expands the strategic relationship and enhances the service and value the companies deliver for their joint clients. Accenture COO Stephen Rohleder and Oracle President Charles Phillips are executive sponsors of the global alliance, which Phillips calls "instrumental to our corporate partnership strategy." The main focus of the agreement is to increase the value delivered to joint clients through the development of innovative industry and functional solutions. Accenture and Oracle deliver these high-value offerings to help clients achieve high performance from their Oracle solutions. The new agreement provides a strong framework for future joint development, teaming, and mutual success—one that builds on an already strong history of collaboration. The agreement will help bring the best of both companies to bear for their joint clients. This includes Accenture's deep industry experience and more than 17,800 Oracle-skilled professionals, combined with Oracle's full stack of technology and enterprise solutions. Accenture delivers Oracle solutions using the Accenture Strategic Delivery Model, which industrializes systems integration, technology, and outsourcing services. Accenture was also recently awarded the 2005 Oracle Titan North America Partner of the Year Award, Applications, based on the strength of teaming with Oracle, tremendous growth of its practice, excellence in marketing, and development of new and innovative solutions for their clients.

"It is of tremendous benefit to public sector customers that two of Oracle's top partners are working together to further increase the value and breadth of Oracle solutions to government agencies," says Dennis Morgan, vice president of channel sales with Oracle Public Sector.

Combining business process automation and imaging technologies, 170 MarkView integrates with enterprise-resource-planning systems, including Oracle E-Business Suite and Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise, resulting in cost reduction and improved efficiency and visibility. Enterprises use 170 MarkView in a range of industries in more than 40 countries. DLT Solutions, one of Oracle's largest worldwide resellers, delivers technology solutions to businesses as well as federal, state, and municipal governments. 170 MarkView, through DLT Solutions, is available under Federal Supply Schedule Contract Number GS-35F-4543G.

Oracle Spatial at Work in U.S., U.K.

Two Oracle partners are using Oracle Spatial as the foundation for leading-edge geospatial deployments that demonstrate how it can provide a foundation for multiple applications to interoperate and make use of common geospatial data.

San Francisco-based Farallon Geographics worked with the government of King County, Washington, to design and build a homeland security public safety portal. Farallon created and implemented a data model using Oracle Spatial to manage and serve geodata sets for geographic information systems from more than 30 jurisdictions within the county. Previously, each jurisdiction maintained its own isolated geographic database. Farallon also developed a Web service for GIS maps, which provides real-time and mobile access to data and simplifies automatic updates. All geospatial processing occurs within the central Oracle Database, and the portal enables cross-referencing on a single map between geographic information and nonspatial data.

Oracle partner Laser-Scan, headquartered in Cambridge, England, is working with Oracle to help the nation's renowned national cartographic agency, the Ordnance Survey, migrate the data for OS MasterMap, an intelligent digital map built on Oracle Spatial that includes 440 million features covering the entire nation. Data quality is assured with Laser-Scan tools, which can perform an estimated 90 to 95 percent of geospatial data correction automatically, and standard Oracle Database technology allows users to easily integrate geospatial and business data.

NEOS Offers Conversion Path for Character-based Applications

Oracle partner, NEOS is offering a conversion path for character-based applications using Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF). The NEOS Vgo4Oracle product and Evolution Services leverage Oracle ADF to enable the effective conversion of character-based applications to a pure J2EE-compliant architecture.

With Vgo4Oracle, business logic in Oracle Forms applications can be converted to Java code. The user interface for the applications is converted to JSF pages that leverage Oracle ADF Faces components to render the user interface and manage connectivity and messaging. Companies that rely on character-based applications running on mobile platforms have had limited options for migrating their applications. "Leveraging Oracle ADF Faces components allows us to build a pure J2EE application while also providing a stable, efficient, and scalable overall architecture," says Ernst Renner, CEO of NEOS.

Oracle PL/SQL Programming By Steven Feuerstein and Bill Pribyl O'Reilly Media ISBN: 0-596-00977-1 The best-selling PL/SQL book for 10 years running, Oracle PL/SQL Programming is now available in a comprehensive fourth addition that adds valuable new chapters and covers the very latest Oracle version, Oracle Database 10g Release 2. Packed with the syntax, best practices, and code examples you"ve come to expect, this edition covers new ground on a host of features, including the PL/SQL compiler, regular expressions, and many more. Coauthored by the world's foremost PL/SQL authority—and frequent Oracle Magazine contributor—Steven Feuerstein, this classic reference delivers brand-new chapters on security, I/O (file, e-mail, and Web), and globalization and localization. Experienced developers will find important new and revised information. If you're new to PL/SQL, this book is your invaluable companion on the road to mastery. Expert Oracle PL/SQL By Ron Hardman and Michael McLaughlin Oracle Press ISBN: 0-07-226194-3 This book is a must-have reference guide if you want to push your PL/SQL skills to the next level. Oracle Magazine contributor Ron Hardman teams up with fellow PL/SQL expert Michael McLaughlin to show you how to write dynamic PL/SQL programs, interface with Oracle databases, execute complex calculations, and handle error conditions by using advanced techniques. You'll learn the latest on the PL/SQL Toolkit, Java integration, code threading, and a lot more. The book explains how to use Oracle Text with PL/SQL Server Pages to perform theme/gist extraction, highlighting, stemming, and fuzzy and wildcard searching. Expert Oracle PL/SQL provides real-world examples, previously undocumented tricks, syntax samples, and unique solutions. Readers will become experts at developing robust, high-performance enterprise applications with PL/SQL. Browse for these and other Oracle books at oracle.com/technology/books/10g_books.html.