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AT ORACLE: Oracle News Briefs
Oracle Warehouse Builder 10g Release 2 Manages Data Lifecycle
Oracle Warehouse Builder 10g Release 2 brings new data quality, integration, and administrative features to the database design and extract, transform, and load (ETL) tool that helps customers manage the lifecycle of data and metadata from design to deployment and maintenance. The easy-to-use tool enables users to rapidly design, deploy, and manage data integration projects and business intelligence (BI) systems. The new release includes enhancements to name and address cleansing and deduplication. It also includes the ability to design relational and online analytical processing (OLAP) database structures, making it easy to store data in a common Oracle Database repository and offer users a choice of BI tools. Other enhancements include support for targeting non-Oracle databases, allowing users to choose where their data is ultimately stored.
The tool's pricing model has also been updated. The core database design and ETL capabilities of Oracle Warehouse Builder 10g Release 2 are now included with Oracle Database 10g Release 2 Enterprise Edition, Standard Edition, and Standard Edition One at no additional cost.
New options and connectors are also available. The Oracle Warehouse Builder Enterprise ETL Option supports multienvironment deployments typical of enterprise data warehouse projects by enabling improved performance and scalability of ETL processes. The Oracle Warehouse Builder Data Quality Option promotes a comprehensive and systematic approach to data quality by offering data profiling, data rules, data cleansing/autocorrection, and data auditing in one tool. Oracle Warehouse Builder connectors enable customers to extract data quickly and easily, and in some cases, target data to and from their core customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning applications, including Oracle E-Business Suite and Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise.
"With the proliferation of data, and a growing demand for better-quality systems, organizations now more than ever require tools that help them rapidly design data structures and efficiently integrate data from disparate repositories," says Ray Roccaforte, vice president of Oracle's data warehousing and BI platform. "Oracle Warehouse Builder 10g Release 2 represents a major investment by Oracle in data integration, and by including core capabilities with Oracle Database 10g at no extra cost, organizations of all sizes can easily turn raw data into quality information to help meet their users' requirements."
New Oracle Data Miner Release Includes Code Generator
Oracle Data Miner Release 10.2.0.2, a graphical user interface for Oracle Data Mining Release 10.1 and above, adds Oracle Data Miner PL/SQL Code Generator. The code generator produces PL/SQL code that contains all the steps in a mining activity, including data preparation, data transformations, and modeling operations. Users can generate PL/SQL code from one or more mining activities with a wizard in Oracle Data Miner or with an extension to either Oracle JDeveloper or Oracle SQL Developer.
Oracle Data Miner helps data analysts mine their Oracle data to find patterns, relationships, and anomalous activities and to discover valuable new insights. Data analysts can mine data with Oracle Data Miner's easy-to-use wizards that guide them through the data preparation, data mining, model evaluation, and model scoring process. Oracle Data Miner PL/SQL Code Generator then creates PL/SQL packages that can be integrated into automated business processes.
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Did You Know?
Ajax, REST on the Move
Web services with Web 2.0 interfaces are coming on strong. Close to half of 400 developers surveyed in spring 2006 are working with Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax) or plan to do so in the coming year; the same survey found a 37 percent increase in respondents implementing or considering Representational State Transfer (REST), with 25 percent of those surveyed saying they are considering REST-based Web services instead of SOAP-based services. Thirty percent of survey respondents say the ability to reuse a service is the greatest cost advantage provided by Web services.
Source: Evans Data Corporation
Peers Are Trusted Influencers of IT Purchasing Decisions
A survey of more than 2,300 IT and business professionals in 2006 showed that 77.6 percent turn to experienced peers as a source of information when conducting purchasing research, followed by online information sources at 77.4 percent. (Respondents could choose more than one answer.) When it comes to the information sources they trust most, experienced peers ranked first, at 1.63 on a scale of 1 through 6 (with 1 being most trusted), followed by online information sources at 2.74. Other sources, in order of trust, were paid research (3.29), trade magazines (3.91), print-based catalogs and buyer's guides (4.25), and vendor salespeople (4.69).
Source: ITtoolbox 2006 IT Purchasing Cycle Survey
Away from Work, Yet Available
The majority of 278 respondents to an online survey conducted in 2006 feel obligated to remain available to their employers 24/7 through the use of portable electronic devices. Fifteen percent said they're absolutely obligated to be available, 22 percent feel obligated, and the largest group—44 percent—feels somewhat obligated. Most of the survey respondents work in information technology in the United States.
Source: Info-Tech Research Group
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Oracle Delivers Comprehensive Compliance Management Framework
Oracle is bundling, at no additional cost, the Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology (COBIT) 4.0 framework with Oracle Internal Controls Manager, a compliance management tool used to document, test, and certify internal controls and monitor ongoing compliance. COBIT is the IT governance public domain framework and the most widely adopted standard for IT controls and audit-ability under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This bundle provides customers with a single application that manages compliance control requirements for IT.
Previously, companies had to create separate connections between the control frameworks in IT and finance. COBIT gives users a single connection and allows them to implement best practices in application and general IT controls while enabling them to meet the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission framework control objectives. By partnering with the Information Systems Audit and Control Association and members of the global IT audit industry to embed COBIT 4.0 in Oracle Internal Controls Manager, Oracle is able to offer users direct access to the premier comprehensive risk and audit control framework for IT processes. COBIT emphasizes regulatory compliance, helping organizations increase the value attained from IT and simplifying the implementation of the COBIT framework. Additionally, it presents activities in a streamlined and practical manner that facilitates continuous improvement in IT governance.
"Companies need to align best practices in IT management with the business to achieve more-efficient operations," says Chris Leone, Oracle group vice president of application strategy. "We continue to recommend that enterprises use COBIT to bolster their IT governance procedures and to improve the controls they have in place."
Oracle SQL Developer 1.1 Enhances Database Development Productivity
Oracle SQL Developer 1.1 provides users with the ability to create master/detail reports, add charts, manage snippets, and set additional user preferences for customizing the environment. This latest release of Oracle SQL Developer, a free graphical tool for database development, also features a redesigned object browser with new filtering capabilities and updates to the SQL Worksheet and data grid.
Oracle SQL Developer enhances productivity and simplifies database development tasks by providing a graphical interface for browsing, creating, and updating database objects, and running SQL statements and scripts. The tool has been widely embraced by the user community, with the first release hitting the 100,000-download mark within two months of production. This second release includes many enhancements requested by the user community.
Oracle recently launched the Oracle SQL Developer Exchange, where users can share code, from small snippets to more-complex reports. The exchange also provides an environment for customers to enter feature requests and to rate requests placed by others.
New Oracle Application Express Release Eases Application Deployment
Oracle Application Express Release 2.2. supports the reuse of Web applications, enabling users to package applications and dependent objects such as table, seed data, and images into a single file and install the application into other Oracle Databases running Oracle Application Express.
Oracle Application Express, a free tool that enables users to build, deploy, and manage secure Web applications using a Web browser, also includes component-level export; an item finder that allows users to search within applications; and an Access Control Wizard to control access to applications, individual pages, and page components.
The Web-based tool is integrated with all editions of Oracle Database 10g and Oracle9i Database Release 2. The tool enables users with limited programming experience to rapidly develop scalable Web applications that can be deployed to tens, hundreds, or thousands of users.
"Thousands of users have turned to Oracle Application Express to build secure Web applications that can take advantage of the performance, reliability, and scalability of Oracle Database," comments Michael Hichwa, vice president of software development at Oracle. "We're committed to providing users with an easy-to-use tool featuring a broad range of capabilities that enable users to develop and deploy Web applications efficiently."
Oracle Acquires Intellectual Property Assets of Sigma Dynamics
Oracle has acquired the intellectual property assets of Sigma Dynamics, a provider of real-time predictive analytics technology, in order to enhance its Oracle Business Intelligence Suite and Oracle Fusion Middleware offerings. Sigma Dynamics' Real-Time Decision software combines customer insight and business requirements to make the best recommendation in each customer interaction and operational decision by intelligently adapting to continuously changing information. Key decision applications include real-time offer management, field service optimization, predictive call routing, and fraud detection. This technology, combined with Oracle Business Intelligence Suite and Oracle Fusion Middleware, will allow businesses to leverage the insight contained in both historical and real-time data sources to drive better decisions.
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