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AT ORACLE: Briefs
Deploy Linux Faster with Oracle Validated Configurations
Customers looking to deploy Oracle solutions on Linux can turn to the Oracle Validated Configurations program for pretested, validated, and supported architectures, including software, hardware, storage, and networking components. Available for download from Oracle Technology Network, the configurations help speed deployment and reduce expensive testing, enabling customers to achieve shorter time to market and lowered infrastructure costs while helping improve performance, scalability, and reliability.
Oracle Validated Configurations are a result of the company's real-world testing environment and provide documented best practices, including details on what to deploy, how to deploy, and the most-robust hardware and software combinations. As a result, Oracle Validated Configurations can lead to faster problem resolution and reduced support costs.
"The Oracle Validated Configurations process enables Oracle to act as a trusted advisor and work with customers and partners to define and share best practices for secure, reliable, and efficient Linux production deployments," says Monica Kumar, director of product marketing, Oracle.
Oracle Retail Merchandising System Certified with Oracle Fusion Middleware
Oracle has certified Oracle Retail Merchandising Planning and Optimization applications with Oracle Fusion Middleware 10g. The certification enables retail customers to protect, extend, and evolve their investments in Oracle Applications using Oracle's standards-based middleware products.
The certification makes it easier for organizations to integrate their Oracle Retail applications with other packaged and custom applications by using a service-oriented architecture (SOA). Additionally, as the underlying SOA platform for Oracle Fusion Applications, Oracle Fusion Middleware will help customers move more easily to Oracle Fusion Applications. Retailers will benefit from the ability to integrate multiple systems in a secure manner and adjust their processes and policies to react to market changes.
"Choice is paramount for retailers," says Duncan Angove, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Retail. "Oracle's retail customers have a significant need to integrate their diverse IT environments. Certifying Oracle Retail solutions with Oracle Fusion Middleware is a key milestone in meeting current customer needs and providing a path to Oracle Fusion Applications."
Oracle Improves Enterprise Single Sign-On in Oracle Identity Management
Oracle has enhanced its best-in-class family of identity management offerings with enterprise single-sign-on capabilities, which increase user convenience, improve security, reduce the number of help desk calls and associated costs, and assist in compliance with password policies. Single-sign-on support, which was previously available for Web-based applications, is now also available for client/server, custom, and host-based mainframe applications. Oracle Enterprise Single Sign-On Suite includes five distinct components.
Oracle Enterprise Single Sign-On Logon Manager allows individuals to securely use a single login credential for all desktop, client/server, and legacy applications. Oracle Enterprise Single Sign-On Password Reset enables strong password management for Microsoft Windows through secure, flexible, self-service interfaces. Oracle Enterprise Single Sign-On Authentication Manager allows organizations to use a combination of tokens, smart cards, biometrics, and passwords for strong authentication throughout the enterprise. Oracle Enterprise Single Sign-On Provisioning Gateway enables organizations to directly distribute single login credentials to Oracle Enterprise Single Sign-On Logon Manager, based on provisioning instructions from Oracle Identity Manager. The final component, Oracle Enterprise Single Sign-On Kiosk Manager, allows users to securely access enterprise applications even at multiuser kiosks and distributed workstations.
Oracle Enterprise Single Sign-On will be available in the second half of 2006. Oracle Enterprise Single Sign-On Suite is US$60 per user. Oracle Enterprise Single Sign-On Password Reset is available separately for US$7 per user.
Open Source Edition of Oracle TopLink Unveiled
TopLink Essentials, the first compliant implementation of the Java Persistence API (JPA), is now available. Oracle, along with Sun Microsystems, was the Enterprise JavaBeans 3.0 (EJB) specification colead and delivered the JPA—an API for creating, removing, and querying across lightweight Java objects—as part of the specification. The official open source reference implementation for the Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 5 Software Development Kit (SDK), TopLink Essentials is also available from Oracle as a standalone implementation.
The new JPA is the standard for object-relational persistence introduced in the EJB specification, which provides a simplified approach to mappings and application use of persistent entities with capabilities suitable for mission-critical enterprise applications. The JPA can also be used for Java persistence outside of EJB 3.0. TopLink Essentials integrates easily with third-party frameworks, such as Spring, helping provide developers with the flexibility to use the development environment and tools of their choice.
"The contribution of TopLink Essentials to the Java Enterprise Edition 5 SDK is consistent with our efforts to raise the state of the art within the developer community and provide developers with technology that makes their jobs easier," says Steven G. Harris, vice president, Oracle Fusion Middleware.
Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise Release 9 Delivered
Oracle has delivered the first product of PeopleSoft Enterprise Release 9—PeopleSoft Enterprise Learning Management. Other product families of PeopleSoft Enterprise Release 9 are scheduled for delivery throughout the remainder of the calendar year.
PeopleSoft Enterprise Release 9 leverages Oracle's Fusion Middleware and delivers Oracle Fusion capabilities to PeopleSoft Enterprise customers. It includes enhanced Web services functionality, Oracle BPEL Process Manager, Oracle Business Activity Monitoring, and Oracle XML Publisher. "This release is the culmination of a year-long project to integrate core components of the Oracle Fusion Middleware family with PeopleSoft applications," says Doris Wong, general manager of PeopleSoft Enterprise applications. Using Release 9, customers can deploy portable and flexible business processes across hetero-geneous IT environments and applications, resulting in less complexity, lower costs, and less maintenance time.
PeopleSoft Enterprise Release 9 also includes many enhancements across its product families that improve business processes and industry capabilities and address customer requirements. For example, the release includes new capabilities for managing compliance requirements, plus new talent management features such as integration of applications and systems that store human resources data for a single enterprisewide system.
With a continued focus on improving customers' overall ownership experience, PeopleSoft Enterprise Release 9 improves upon the implementation, use, and support of Oracle Applications. Release 9 contains hundreds of modifications that simplify and improve the user experience in addition to easing deployment and the integration of systems with PeopleSoft Enterprise applications.
This release supports Oracle's efforts to enable its customers to maximize the value of their application investments. Oracle's new Applications Unlimited program will continue this effort, by providing ongoing enhancements to the current Oracle Applications beyond the delivery of Oracle Fusion Applications.
Oracle Acquires Demantra, Portal Software, and Telephony@Work
Oracle recently acquired Demantra, a leading global provider of demand management, sales and operations planning, and trade promotions management solutions. The acquisition will enable Oracle to provide customers with a comprehensive solution for the extended enterprise that enhances demand visibility with powerful analytics for more-accurate demand-driven planning, forecasting, and modeling.
Oracle has also purchased Portal Software, a leading global provider of billing and revenue management solutions for the communications and media industry. Portal offers a billing and revenue management solution with a modern, object-oriented architecture built on Oracle technology that can bill and manage all communications services, including wireline, wireless, broadband, cable, Voice over IP, Internet Protocol Television, music, and video.
Oracle has also acquired a provider of IP-based contact center technology, Telephony@Work, to further extend its On Demand and customer relationship management offerings.
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Did You Know?
Oracle Holds Market Share Lead
Two independent analyst companies recently published 2005 market share figures for relational database management systems (RDBMSs). Both showed Oracle on top by a wide margin. Gartner's research showed that Oracle had a 48.6 percent share of the market, followed by IBM, with 22 percent, and Microsoft, with 15 percent, based on revenue from licenses, updates, subscriptions and hosting, technical support, and maintenance. IDC, which bases its revenue numbers on licenses, maintenance, and subscriptions, showed that Oracle held a 44.6 percent share, followed by IBM, at 21.4 percent, and Microsoft, at 16.8 percent.
Source: Gartner and IDC
SOA on the Rise; Flexibility Seen as Benefit
Businesses and governments worldwide expect to increase the percentage of applications run on service-oriented architectures (SOAs) by an average of 20 percent over the next three years, according to consulting and outsourcing firm Capgemini. The top reasons for using SOA are innovation, compliance, and the speed of change. The top benefits from using SOA were seen as business flexibility, lower software integration costs, and better alignment of IT and business goals. The biggest obstacles to using SOA are lack of understanding, difficulty in justifying ROI, and shortage of needed skills.
Source: Capgemini
Middleware Market Growing; Oracle Growing Fastest
Worldwide application integration and middleware software revenues totaled US$8.5 billion in 2005, up 7.1 percent over 2004, according to Gartner. At 8.7 percent, Oracle's market share of the middleware market was third, after IBM (37.2 percent) and BEA Systems (14.5 percent) and ahead of Microsoft (4.7 percent). Oracle's market share grew the most, rising 39.6 percent from 2004 to 2005; IBM's market share rose 6.7 percent, BEA's 6.0 percent, and Microsoft's 13.4 percent.
Source: Gartner
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