Posts Tagged ‘Oracle Fusion Middleware’


Premier Support Extended for Fusion Middleware 10gR2 (10.1.2)

April 29th, 2010 by Robert McMillen • No Comments »

Just noticed that Oracle has decided to extend Premier support for Fusion Middleware for an additional year. 

For those who want the basics, Oracle is extending Premier support for one additional year. 

Are you confused about when Premier, Extended and Sustaining support dates occur for your Oracle Software? 

It’s easy to end that confusion.  You can find out more about Oracle’s support policies for Fusion Middleware and other products by visiting this page Lifetime Support Policy: Oracle Fusion Middleware Products and viewing the available pdf files.

With this change, Extended Support for Fusion Middleware  10gR2 is no longer needed or available.  When this year of support ends, the choices are to upgrade to a newer version or move to Sustaining support, which is available indefinitely.

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Oracle BPM 11g Preview at Oracle Open World 2009

October 13th, 2009 by Mark Peterson • 4 Comments »

I think the wait was worth it. After BEA’s AquaLogic BPM (formerly Fuego) was purchased by Oracle, the product became part of the Oracle Fusion Middleware suite. But instead of being in the lime-light of Fusion, for the past year it was hardly mentioned. The Marketing story focused on SOA, Tuxedo, WebCenter and WebLogic. For BPM pure-plays, BPM has its own story, a good story; one with business centered not IT centered values.

Well there it is! It re-appeared in a General Session at Oracle Open World 2009 with all the other Fusion Middleware products. The product development team must have been busy. They took Aqualogic BPM apart and re-assemble it with more features and benefits for the business than ever before. Eduardo Chiocconi and Mariano Benitez demonstrated the new version of BPM at the Moscone West Exhibit hall. The product has been integrated with JDeveloper and Enterprise Manager. It is part of the Fusion middleware product suite and seems to have more capability than before.

For businesses, the need for a rich user-experience has been achieved. The BPM studio is integrated with the ADF development environment; a JSF-based technology. You can develop UIs from studio or import ADF projects and use them in interactive BPM activities. This segmentation of the business process from the UI should also allow the UI to take advantage of externally developed UIs; something that was lacking before in BPM. This segmentation may make it easier to integrate legacy UI applications, perhaps even UIs not based in ADF.

BPM 11g has also improved on the type of roles available for activities. You can now specify interactive tiers for approval or review activities. For instance, if the CFO needs to approve purchases over $100,000, then the work-item can be escalated without coding specialized escalation processes to route the purchase orders based on these rules. These rules of who and when people need to review or approve work can change. BPM now handles this without the need for re-writing and re-deploying the new processes. An administrator can simple re-configure the user-roles.

BPM 11g has many other features as well. It has a state-of-the-art rules engine. It can handle most business rules and conditional requirements without the need to integrate third-party rules engines. It has a new milestone activity switch to enhance business activity monitoring and instance processing by the workspace. It also has integrated Oracle BAM to enhance the ability to obtain information about the business process.

BPM 11g adds these features on top of the 10g BPM feature set, so the return for implementing BPM is improved. I was only able to get a glimpse of the new Oracle BPM 11g, but from this glimpse I am excited about the possibilities. Oracle 11g will not be available for download until Feb 2010. I am looking forward to getting my hands on the new version and feel at this time, the wait will be worth it.

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Oracle spotlights BPM in Fusion Middleware Story

October 12th, 2009 by Mark Peterson • No Comments »

After hearing the Fusion Middleware story many times now, I am so relieved and happy to see Business Process Management (BPM) in the spot light once again.  During the Oracle Open World 2009 General Session “Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g Foundation for Innovation” we heard about SOA, the Enterprise 2.0 Portal and Tuxedo; but what is that? We were given a demo of the new Oracle BPM 11g application development environment. We got to see swim-lanes, process models, simulations and dash-boards. They showed how you can obtain process model metrics and key performance indicators for your process.  They made significant improvements over the way BPM integrates with applications and systems.

I feel this completes the Oracle’s Fusion Middleware Story. BPM spans the entire Fusion product suite and needs to be in the spot-light. No other application takes a holistic view of the enterprise and provides a coherent platform to integrate business application the way the business needs them.  We’ve heard many times that it’s not about IT anymore. That is certainly true. It should be about Business Processes and BPM solutions needs be part of the strategy.

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What Oracle is doing Right (Part 2)

September 9th, 2009 by Robert McMillen • No Comments »

I’ve been on vacation and working on several projects so my blogging has slowed down…  But no fear I’ve got lots of topics I want to explore including this one which I started but will now attempt to continue!

So what else do I think that Oracle is doing right?  I’ve already mentioned in my previous post about their drive to maintain their leadership in their software products.

The second area where I think Oracle is doing the right things is in how they are handling their acquisitions.

It’s no secret that Oracle has spent over $25 billion acquiring many new companies during the past few years.  The list includes such luminaries as PeopleSoft, J.D. Edwards, Seibel, Hyperion, BEA and now Sun Microsystems.

What has amazed me is that given the difficulties of acquisitions Oracle continues to maintain a stellar record in assimilating the new products and enhancing them while maintaining good end-user relations.  Acquisitions are notoriously difficult for many non-technical reasons.  Every company has a different culture and often the customers have bought into the culture as much as into the product.  Add in the loyalty of key staff and there are always “unplanned” departures of key personnel.

The bottom-line is that successful acquisitions are extraordinarily difficult to pull off.  Even more so when you string a number of them together as Oracle has done.

Many of Oracle’s acquisitions were done under hostile circumstances but in retrospect they have been mostly positive for those companies and certainly positive for Oracle’s bottom-line.

Somehow Oracle has fine-tuned their ability to do these acquisitions better than other companies I’ve watched.  As we often hear on TV, “Do not attempt this at home!”.

The benefits to us who rely on Oracle products is significant.

New products expand Oracle’s ability to deliver better solutions while adding new functionality to existing products.  For example, the acquisition of PeopleSoft greatly influenced the development of the Fusion Applications as Oracle worked to improved the clunky E-Business Suite interface.  The acquisition of BEA has greatly improved the capabilities of Oracle’s Fusion Middleware.  These are only a few of the areas where existing Oracle clients are benefiting.

For those companies being assimilated there are also benefits because of Oracle’s deep-pockets, integration abilities and depth of software development talent.  A great example of Oracle’s effort to improve the benefits for acquired products is shown in their introduction of their Applications Unlimited program.  Their clear support policies in the Lifetime Support Policy are also a great benefit.

In summary, congratulations to Oracle for their successes in acquiring new technologies and complementary products.  We are all benefiting from their efforts in this area.

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What Oracle is Doing Right

August 3rd, 2009 by Robert McMillen • No Comments »

For a change of pace I thought it would be good to  mention a few of the things I think that Oracle is doing right.   Over the last several years I continue to be impressed with what I see coming out of Oracle related to their product directions and new products.  Here’s my take on the things I see Oracle doing right.

The first one I’ll note is that Oracle is doing a great job at maintaining a Leadership Role in software innovation.  It’s obvious if you look at various evaluations such as the “Magic Quadrant” by Gartner that Oracle’s products are consistently in the top right quadrant where market leaders are found.  Here are a few Oracle products that I’ve had the opportunity to work with.

  • E-Business Suite R12 – R12 is more evolutionary than revolutionary but it significantly improves on what was a solid release in 11i by expanding the international capabilities of this massive applications suite.  With over 224 separate modules, R12 is mind-boggling in it’s scope of capabilities.  Oracle gets some dings for the bugs that were found in the first year  but they’ve quickly addressed the core issues in the releases leading up to release 12.1.  While there is an improved user interface the real changes are beneath the surface and which improve the productivity of everyday users.
  • 11g Database – there are many people who are better qualified to speak on this product than I but as one who has been working with the Oracle database since the last legs of version 6 I’m amazed that  Oracle continues to add useful and valuable capabilities to this workhorse of a database system.  In the areas of performance, operating systems supported, scalability and reliability the Oracle database keeps most of the world’s business working smoothly.  Yes the management interfaces are not as slick as they could be but the newer versions of Oracle Enterprise Manager tend to overwhelm me with information.  The power of PL/SQL remains a constant in the middle of all of the changes we have seen over the years.  Each new release allows more parameters to be changed on the fly rather than requiring downtime.  Recently introduced capabilities that I think will change the future of data management include Real Applications Testing, Active Data Guard, Database Vault and Total Recall.  There’s much more and I’ll probably get dinged in my comments for leaving it out but enough said.
  • Fusion Middleware 11g – Just released and while most of us are still trying to digest it all let me summarize it as a significant statement of Oracle’s capabilities to innovate dozens of products and continually integrate them in ways that architects, developers and management can better deliver business solutions that evolve more and more quickly.  The introduction of better technologies from the BEA acquisition has positioned Oracle to be the dominant player in this market.
  • JDeveloper 11g – This IDE has to compete with dozens of other great Java IDE’s like Eclipse and Aptana but still is a stand out.  This product offers all the bells and whistles including the ability to interact with all areas of the database and middleware environments that Oracle offers.  Additionally the capabilities of the Application Development Framework simplify the development of very robust user interfaces incorporating the best Web 2.0 goodies.  Using JDeveloper I can do Use Case design, write code, test, develop a database design and still not delve all of its capabilities.
  • Fusion Applications – Though not yet  released this coming Applications Suite will introduce an innovative User Interface that is a mash-up of the best of Web 2.0 and what Oracle has learned from it’s product acquisitions (such as PeopleSoft).  Built on Oracle Fusion Middleware capabilities this application will bring Service Oriented Architecture and more industry-standards to the underlying technology stack.    The focus on improving user productivity already seen in the UI will be much appreciated by those who do the real daily work of running the details of a business.
  • Miscellaneous - Kudos to Oracle for supporting the Open Source community by releasing versions of products that they have developed (see here).

Ok, it’s time to take a rest from this area of adulation and move to the second item I think Oracle has done well.  I’ll cover that in the next post.

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Collaborate 2009 in the Rear View Mirror

May 7th, 2009 by Robert McMillen • No Comments »

Today is the final day of the OAUG Collaborate 2009 conference in Orlando and here are some final thoughts as I look back at the last 5 days.

First, Orlando is a great location for the conference.  Great weather, easy access and plenty of restaurants and lodging.

The attendance was down but I can only speculate how much.  Someone said about 40% but that’s a guess.  It was clear that organizations are not spending money as freely to send individuals.

The quality of the sessions I attended was excellent.  In almost all of them I walked away with new information and something I wanted to explore even more.  The presenters were readily available for questions after their presentations.  And there was a good mix of non-Oracle and Oracle presenters.

The exhibitors were here in full force and there didn’t seem to be a drop-off in their participation.

The opportunity to network and meet other attendees was great and getting to hear others experiences with various applications/products was also valuable.

Oracle’s products and product strategy continue to be impressive even in a down market.  Fusion Applications, EBS 12.1, Fusion Middleware 11g with Weblogic, JDeveloper 11g, …  all of these are impressive products.

Collaborate seems to be a better value for me than Open World because there is more end-user interaction and the ability to have more discussions about the good and the bad of working with Oracle products and organization.  The independence of OAUG makes a difference.

Lastly, the efforts of OAUG will save Oracle customers lots of money because of the decision to not charge the additional 10% for licenses on those products moving to Extended Support in the next year (Database 10g, EBS 11i and others). That alone should save organizations enough to send at least one person to the next Collaborate.

Next year, Collaborate 2010 will be in Las Vegas.  In the coming 12 months there’s much to look forward to with new product releases, like the Fusion Applications, making their entrance.  Stay tuned and make your plans for next year!

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AIA Technology Review

February 29th, 2008 by Robert McMillen • No Comments »

It is important to note that Application Integration Architecture (AIA) is a product from Oracle and is available in Releases. The current release is 2.01. Release 2.1 is planned in the next several months.

Here’s a graphic looking at what AIA consists of and how it relates to the SOA Suite.

This shows all of the capabilities of the Oracle Fusion Middleware including SOA. Built on it are the AIA components of Enterprise Business Services, the AIA LifeCycle Management and Enterprise Business Objects provided by the Foundation Pack. There are actually other components but this diagram is just providing an overview.

At the top you can see the Process Integration Packs which rely on both the Foundation Pack and the underlying Fusion Middleware including SOA.

This next diagram shows more detail on how Application Integration Architecture enhances the underlying SOA layer.
AIA provides Industry Reference Models and the supporting Enterprise Objects that are built using BPEL and XML using the SOA Suite. Using JDeveloper, these models and objects can be customized and enhanced.

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AIA Sub-Components

February 29th, 2008 by Robert McMillen • No Comments »

The Application Integration Architecture (AIA) is a product from Oracle and is available in Releases. The current release is 2.01. Release 2.1 is planned in the next several months.

Here’s a graphic looking at what AIA consists of. I’m going to focus on the bottom of the diagram initially.


Starting at the bottom, we reiterate that the Fusion Middleware SOA Suite is the foundation. Then on top of it is the Foundation Pack. Above it are two possible layers. One is a custom integration written within an organization using the Foundation Pack.

The other layer is a set of Process Integration Packs (PIPs) which Oracle has already created using the Foundation Pack layer.

A PIP is a pre-built specific integration between two applications. Oracle has released and continues to release new PIPs each quarter. The reason for PIP’s is that Oracle now has a number of applications they own and they realize that customers are wanting better ways to integration the information between them. Many customers have PeopleSoft, Siebel and the E-Business Suite installed. They want ways to ensure that changing customer information in one application is reflected in the others.

To make things a bit more confusing there are two types of PIP’s.

The first helps share information between two specific applications. This type of PIP is industry-agnostic but requires two specific applications like Siebel and E-Business Suite.

The second type of PIP is designed for vertical industries like Telecommunications.

To see the current list of both types you can visit here.

What you see is several PIP’s for integrating Siebel CRM and the E-Business Suite.

These are only the beginning as Oracle works to provide seamless sharing of information among the many applications they now own.

Now let’s drill down into the AIA Foundation Pack to see what it offers. That’s going to be of great interest to organizations wanting to do their own custom integrations while leveraging the capabilities Oracle provides.

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