The rapid growth of "connectedness", the Internet, corporate intranets and extranets call for new messaging requirements for supporting a broad range of user and message types.  Oracle Email gives large enterprises, service providers, and online commercial applications an open, secure, massively scalable, distributed architecture that can accommodate explosive growth in both the number and type of messages while providing highly reliable messaging services. 

Highly Flexible, Scalable Architecture 
Oracle Email is designed to grow to almost any size while maintaining its performance and ease of administration. You can customize your Oracle Email system based on the number of messages you need to store, how many users will access the system under peak loads, and how many messages will be sent and received over a time period. Oracle Email's unique N-tier Internet computing architecture allows you to support thousands of users on a single piece of hardware, if necessary.  You have the option of creating a two-tier system with a single host supporting a few thousand users, or a three-tier system where the protocol access servers are separated from the message database supporting several thousand users. This architecture allows you to add hardware at any tier, virtually expanding to support an unlimited number of users. 

Oracle9i Database-based Message Store 
Oracle Email provides true unified messaging by storing all messages -- including email, voice mail, and fax -- in the same Oracle9i Database. This eliminates the need to synchronize message stores and the chore of administering multiple stores that each contain different message types. Oracle Email users can access and manage all messages from the interface of their choice, including a web browser, phone, PDA, and fax. The Oracle9i Database, the world's leading information management platform, enables Oracle Email to offer unmatched data availability, data integrity, low recovery time, and fault-tolerance capability. Oracle Email takes advantage of Oracle9i's Real Application Clusters, multithreading, parallel processing, high availability support, and high performance so thousands of users can run with rapid response times. 

Open Standards-Based Messaging 
Oracle Email lets users access their messages with the messaging client of their choice. Messages can be accessed using any Internet Message Access Protocol version 4 (IMAP4)- or Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3)-compliant client such as Netscape Messenger, Microsoft Outlook Express, or Eudora Pro Lite.  Oracle Email provides directory services using the light-weight directory access protocol (LDAP) standard compliant Oracle Internet Directory. 

Email Web Client
The Oracle Email web client provides Internet access to Oracle Email through a standard web browser. Browser-based clients provide all of the advantages of internet computing: increased reliability because no dedicated client is needed; decreased support and administration costs due to the system being maintained in a professional data center; and increased message access as there are no local message storage requirements. Users can access and manage all aspects of their Oracle Email account (including calendar and to-do's) through the browser-based interface, with appropriate functionality also available via the wireless web using WML and the Oracle Collaboration Suite Wireless infrastructure. 

Extended Server Side Rules
Oracle Email extends the server side rules previously available in Oracle9iAS Unified Messaging.  Rules now execute additional actions and can be applied to a wider range of mail events, including sending, relaying, deleting, and expunging a message from the system. These rules include a PL/SQL API that enables customers to write their own customized actions for rules. The server side rules also provide integration with Oracle9i's Advanced Queue to mail-enable even more scalable, sophisticated e-business applications. A virus cleanup tool based on these rules is included with the product. This tool uses server side rules to delete or move suspicious incoming messages or messages that have already entered the email system to another queue or folder for inspection. 

Integration With Other Applications 
PL/SQL and Java programmers can create custom application interfaces to integrate Oracle Email with other applications.  Oracle Email Application Programming Interfaces enable applications to directly manipulate stored messages as well as create MIME-standard outgoing messages.  Combined with server side rules, applications integrated with Oracle Email have a powerful means to efficiently process and manage an increasing number of messages. 

Enhanced Administration Features 
Oracle Email simplifies administration and management by integrating with Oracle's Enterprise Manager, allowing consolidated, web-based management of the total Oracle environment as well as integration into existing system monitoring infrastructures. For the hosting market, Oracle Email supports multiple domains with delegated administration on the same system. Oracle Email also supports Simple Network Management Protocol MIBs for system monitoring and alerts. 

Oracle Collaboration Suite: The Messaging Solution 
Oracle Email is a highly scalable, open standards-based solution for providing messaging services (voice, email and fax) to meet the current and future needs of growing companies, large enterprises, and service providers. Oracle Email uses the power and scalability of the Oracle9i Database to store and process messages of all types. Furthermore, customers can mail-enable their mission critical applications by integrating them with Oracle's customizable, flexible messaging system using Oracle Email's PL/SQL application programming interfaces. 
 

KEY FEATURES

Oracle Email  Open standards support  POP3  IMAP4  SMTP  ECTF  LDAP  Reliable, scalable, N-tier distributed architecture  Customizable web client  Extended server-side rules  Oracle Text integration  PL/SQL and Java integration with other applications  Oracle9i Database Message Store  Built on Oracle9i  Oracle9i Database Real Application Clusters  High availability features  Platform to build integrated business solutions

Highly Scalable Protocol Servers  Multi-threaded architecture  Load balancing  Multiplexed connection pool  Customizable to speed delivery of high priority messages  Administration Tools  Oracle Enterprise Manager Integration  Web-based single point of administration  Monitoring charts  Automation of repetitive tasks  Security  SSL support  Wallet management  X.509 certificate support