Drive 50% of IT spend to innovation.
Efficient Enterprises do more with Dell.
Organizations build on
Oracle Exadata for enterprise
online transaction
processing applications
BRING
BUSINESS
ONLINE
Complete
Power
SPARC hardware
and the Oracle Solaris
operating system: High-performance
engine for mission-critical apps
Put Business
Intelligence
on the Map
Map geographies and
business information
together to see results
MAY/JUNE 2011Oracle development
PL/SQL Developer by Allround Automations.
PL/SQL Developer is the Oracle development tool that gives you
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FEATURED CONTENT
VOlUME XXV - ISSUE 3
CONTENTSSince its introduction in 2008, Oracle Exadata has delivered
high-performance data warehousing through a combination of hardware and
software optimized to work together. The latest Oracle Exadata releases
add something new: extreme performance for online transaction processing
(OlTP) applications. The combination of Oracle Exadata and OlTP means
faster applications, rationalized database servers and storage, better use of
IT resources, and a better bottom line. Find out how Sogeti and Australian
Finance Group are benefiting from running their OlTP applications on
Oracle Exadata. —
By David Baum
/30
For world-class companies, social
networking and enterprise social computing
aren’t about the latest tabloid gossip—
they’re about connecting employees,
partners, customers, and projects more
effectively, efficiently, and productively.
Read how Balfour Beatty has weaved social networking into the
fabric of its enterprise computing platform with Oracle WebCenter
Suite 11
g
. —
By David A. Kelly
SPARC processor–based hardware has
been powering IT solutions for more
than 20 years. Designed to scale up
and known for consistent reliability
and availability under large workloads,
SPARC processors power big systems—
for companies with big challenges. See
why Eagle Investment Systems and SunGard trust their
mission-critical applications to the SPARC/Oracle Solaris platform.
—
By Diana Reichardt
Complete Power / 36
Social by Design /42
BRING
BUSINESS
ONLINE
Smart Scan Meets Storage Indexes / 35
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4
DEPARTMENTS
VOlUME XXV - ISSUE 3
EVENTS
/ 11 Find out about upcoming technology and industry events.PARTNER NEWS
/ 22BOOK BEAT
/ 22COMMUNITY
BULLETIN
/ 25 Java.net Grows Up New infrastructure embraces the needs of the community.—Sonya Barry
BUSINESS
INTELLIGENCE
/ 49 Putting Business Intelligence on the Map Map geographies and business information together to see results.—Mark Rittman
ANALYST’S
CORNER
/ 72 The SPARC/ Oracle Solaris Platform Evolution Hardware and software optimization improves performance and availability.—Diana Reichardt
At Oracle
/ 11
Community
/ 22
Technology
/ 49
Comment
/ 72
RESOURCES
/ 13 Your guide to Oracle Webcasts, podcasts, blogs, and moreBRIEFS
/ 16 The latest product newsARCHITECT
/ 26 Software Architecture: It’s a Lot of Talk Communication takes up a big chunk of a software architect’s day.—Bob Rhubart
ORACLE ADF
/ 53 Implement Contextual Events Use Oracle Application Development Framework’s Contextual Events feature for interregion communication.—Frank Nimphius
INTERVIEW
/ 19 The Social Connection Andy MacMillan, vice president of Enterprise 2.0 product management at Oracle, talks about Oracle WebCenter Suite 11g.—Caroline Kvitka
UP CLOSE
/ 28 Strength in Numbers A spirited user group community emerges in latin America. —Jeff EricksonBPM
/ 57Build Process-Oriented Applications
Model, implement, and execute a business process for requesting, approving, and applying salary raises.
—Lucas Jellema
PEER-TO-PEER
/ 29 Database Centric liron Amitzi, Toon Koppelaars, Fernando Martin Garcia—Blair Campbell
ORACLE
EXADATA
/ 35 Smart Scans Meet Storage Indexes Understand how Oracle Exadata uses storage indexes to speed I/O.—Arup Nanda
Up Front
/ 6
FROM OUR
READERS
/ 6 Readers tell us what they think.FROM THE EDITOR
/ 7 Get to the Right People—Tom Haunert
MASHUP
/ 8 News, views, trends and tools.ASK TOM
/ 67 On Deferring and Bulking Up5
ORACLE MAGAZINE MAY/JUNE 2011
EDITORIAL
Editor in Chief
Tom Haunert tom.haunert@oracle.com Senior Managing Editor
Caroline Kvitka caroline.kvitka@oracle.com Contributing Editor and Writer Blair Campbell
Editor in Chief, Oracle Technology Network Justin Kestelyn justin.kestelyn@oracle.com Technology Advisor
Tom Kyte Contributors
Marta Bright, Jeff Erickson, Fred Sandsmark, Rich Schwerin, leslie Steere
DESIGN
Senior Creative Director Francisco G Delgadillo Design Director Richard Merchán Contributing Designer Chris Strach
Production Designer Sheila Brennan
EDITORIAL BOARD
Ian Abramson, Karen Cannell, Andrew Clarke, Chris Claterbos, Karthika Devi, Kimberly Floss, Kent Graziano, Taqi Hasan, Tony Jambu, Tony Jedlinski, Ari Kaplan, Val Kavi, John King, Steve lemme, Carol McGury, Sumit Sengupta, Jonathan Vincenzo, Dan Vlamis
SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
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Copyright © 2011, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or other wise reproduced without permission from the editors. ORACLE MAGAZINE
IS PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” BASIS. ORAClE EXPRESSlY DISClAIMS All WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPlIED. IN NO EVENT SHAll ORAClE BE lIABlE FOR ANY DAMAGES OF ANY KIND ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF OR RElIANCE ON ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED HEREIN. The information is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for Oracle’s products remains at the sole discretion of Oracle. Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Oracle Magazine (ISSN 1065-3171) is published bimonthly with a free subscription price by: Oracle, 500 Oracle Parkway, MS OPl-3C, Redwood City, CA 94065-1600. Periodicals Postage Paid at Redwood City, CA, and additional mailing offices. • POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Oracle Magazine, P.O. Box 1263, Skokie, Il 60076-8263.
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PRODUCT INDEX
PRODUCT NAME PAGE PRODUCT NAME PAGE PRODUCT NAME PAGE
Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 17 Oracle Database Firewall 18 Oracle SOA Suite 49 MySQl 14 Oracle Demand Signal Repository 22 Oracle Solaris 13, 14, 36, 72 Netra SPARC T3-1 17 Oracle Design-to-Release Integration Pack 18 Oracle SQl Developer 16 Netra SPARC T3-1BA ATCA 17 Oracle Enterprise Manager 16 Oracle SQl Developer Data Modeler 16 Oracle Application Development Framework 53 Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center 13 Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database 13 Oracle Application Integration Architecture 18 Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse 16 Oracle Tuxedo 18 Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 49 Oracle Essbase 23 Oracle VM 14 Oracle Clinical Trial Payments Integration Pack for
Siebel Clinical
18 Oracle Exadata 13, 14, 23, 35 Oracle WebCenter Suite 19, 42
Oracle Cloud File System 17 Oracle Exalogic 13, 18 Oracle Weblogic Server 16 Oracle Coherence 16 Oracle Fusion Middleware MapViewer 49 PeopleSoft Mobile Inventory Management 18 Oracle Communications Converged Application Server,
Standard Edition
17 Oracle GlassFish Server 17 SPARC Enterprise M-Series 36
6 FROM OUR READERS
Your corrections, your opinions, and your requests:
Here’s your forum for telling us what’s right and
wrong in each issue of
Oracle Magazine,
and for
letting us know what you want to read.
PRAISE FOR UNCOMMON INLINE SAVINGS Thank you for publishing “Preprocess External Tables,” by Arup Nanda (March/April 2011, bit.ly/g8lEIv). I have been using external tables for a while, but I never realized I could do the uncompression inline, saving not only disk space but time. It was there in the manuals, but with so many things, it was very easy to overlook. I would like to see more of these little gems, which are invaluable to users and make my job easier.
Vikky Williamson
BUILDING BLOCK BLISS, BLUNDER I appreciate the series of articles you’ve started with Steven Feuerstein on Pl/SQl (“Building with Blocks,” March/April 2011, bit.ly/i9rSxd). I have been using Oracle Application Express for a few years, and Pl/SQl is a very important part of what I do. Most of what I have learned about Pl/SQl has been “as needed,” with no formal structure to my training. It truly is nice to add this type of information dissemination, which reinforces what I have learned and puts it all in a much more scalable context.
Steve Brown
Your article about Pl/SQl is nice and easy to follow, especially for a Pl/SQl beginner. I want to give a minor correction to the following paragraph:
Update all employees in department 10 with a 20 percent salary increase.
DECLARE l_dept_id
employees.department_id%TYPE;
BEGIN
UPDATE employees
SET salary = salary * 1.2 WHERE department_id = l_dept_id;
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line (SQL%ROWCOUNT); END;
I think the line in the declaration should be:
employees.department_id%TYPE := 10;
Habib Amaluddin
The editors reply: Good catch, Habib. We have made the correction at bit.ly/i9rSxd.
NO LIMITS
Thanks for publishing the useful article “Using Oracle Essbase Release 11.1.2 Aggregate Storage Option Databases,” by Mark Rittman and Venkatakrishnan Janakiraman (September/ October 2010, bit.ly/hHoi3h).
It has been specified that Oracle Essbase aggregate storage option (ASO) databases can support up to 20 dimensions, and the dimension members can count into the millions. Is there any limit on the dimension members that we can have for a given dimension? I have a dimension that has up to 20 million members.
Venkata Reddy
Mark Rittman replies: There are no technical limitations as such on the number of sions (and the number of members per dimen-sion) supported by an ASO cube. One of the
big advantages of an ASO cube is that it can support dimensions that are extremely large, like yours (dimensions with millions of members). Having said that, a cube with 20 dimensions can become considerably large even for an ASO cube. So, careful design and capacity planning are required. A sample benchmark using an ASO cube is located at bit.ly/fUSNrY. This benchmark shows a cube with 15 dimensions, with 1 dimen-sion having millions of members.
WHAT ISN’T AN ARCHITECT?
What is your definition of a software architect or enterprise architect? I’ve called myself one—and think that I fill that role—but I wear so many hats in a very small shop (four regulars occasionally supplemented by two or three more). DBA, lead developer, systems analyst, and “person who has the best knowledge of all our applications and how they fit together” are all titles that have been applied to me.
John Flack
The editors reply: The many-hatted role of architects is one that Bob Rhubart covers regu-larly in his Architect column. See page 26 in this issue for a discussion of how software architects spend their time.
Send your opinions about what you read in Oracle
Magazine, and suggestions for possible technical
articles, to opubedit_us@oracle.com. letters may be edited for length and clarity and may be published in any medium. We consider any com-munications we receive publishable.
7 FROM THE EDITOR
ORACLE MAGAZINE MAY/JUNE 2011
Get to the
Right People
Oracle WebCenter Suite helps
connect people to job roles, projects,
and each other.
A
recent cover story in TIME Magazine— “Your Data for Sale” (March 21, 2011; ti.me/hExh9C)—discussed, among other things, how personal information is being captured and sold.The article made several good points about personal information data mining, privacy, public records, internet security, personal freedom, and more. Looking specifically at TIME’s discussion of the value of information and actions taken based on that information, however, I took away a few key points:
Personal information from random indi-•
viduals has measurable, monetary value to data-mining organizations and advertisers. Not all mined personal information is •
accurate.
Organizations generate and direct adver-•
tising and offers to people based on a minimum of mined data.
The advertising and offers based on inac-•
curate data mining don’t always go to the right people. Or, to look at it another way, sometimes the people targeted aren’t who the data miners and advertisers thought they were.
Get Personal and accurate Of course personal information gathered from miscellaneous public records and Web browsers and sold for profit is very different from corporate information. An organiza-tion’s corporate information is not for sale on an open market, and the information about the people in the organization—and the information for which those people are responsible—must be current and accurate.
In my own work on Oracle Magazine, I’m fortunate that much of the current informa-tion I need is available in digital form in press
releases, white papers, Web pages, user docu-mentation, and so on. But a lot of what I do involves scheduling content six months to a year in advance, so I need more than current information: I need to identify and connect with the subject matter experts who will have information updates in six days, six weeks, and six months. Finding and connecting with the right subject matter experts and ensuring that any lost expertise on a project’s virtual team gets replaced can be the most challenging and time-consuming aspects of a magazine project. Getting, keeping, and meeting with the right people as an ongoing virtual team is the key to magazine project success.
With a focus on the power of connecting people—socially—to business processes, the “Social By Design” feature (page 42) discusses enterprise social computing built on Oracle WebCenter Suite. One particular component of Oracle WebCenter Suite, the Oracle WebCenter Spaces feature, makes connecting experts to experts particularly easy. Oracle WebCenter Spaces includes
Home Space, which hosts a user’s personal •
pages and appropriate business role pages Business Role Pages, which connects users •
to business roles and keep roles updated Group Spaces, which organizes users •
around a single project goal
Group Spaces puts and keeps the right people on a project in the same virtual meeting room. And unlike personal informa-tion data mining and its generated adver-tising, with Oracle WebCenter Spaces, the right information consistently gets to the right people and projects.
tom Haunert, editor in chief tom.haunert@oracle.com
LEARN more about Oracle WebCenter Suite 11g
bit.ly/egEYXA bit.ly/gV6K8U
NEXT STEPS
8
MashUp
News. Views. Trends. Tools.As an experienced Oracle professional, you’re well suited to climb the IT ladder—maybe. Increasingly, employers look beyond stellar resumes for dynamic interests (no, all-night hacking doesn’t count) beyond work. Need to pump some vitae into your curriculum? Check out Contour GPS, the world’s smallest and lightest GPS video camera. Mount this 5.3-ounce high-definition cam to your helmet and capture a complete 1080 pixel A/V story, along with location, route, speed, and altitude, of your next amazing venture. Gravity sports—skiing, snowboarding, mountain biking, surfing—all play really well, but you could also tour your corporate campus or neighborhood and spice up that stale blog while proving there’s life outside the cubicle. US$349.99; includes integrated omni- directional microphone, wide-angle lens, 2 GB microSD card (expandable to 32 GB for up to eight hours of video), and Storyteller video/mapping application for downloading, editing, and adding text to your video and posting it on contour.com. bit.ly/omagcontour
EXTRACURRICULAR VIDEO
Are green supply chains becoming the norm? It looks that way, according to an IFS North America December 2010 survey of more than 200 North American manufacturing executives at companies with
revenues of US$100 million or more.
TIME DRAIN
“Compliance used to be the heart
of every successful organization,
every successful career. Now, though,
compliance is no longer a competitive
advantage. We need to be nudged away
from conformity and toward ingenuity.”
— Seth Godin, author of Poke the Box (The Domino Project, 2011)
Summer’s almost here—time to get in shape. Your smartphone can help.
Nike+ GPS
Runners can map their routes, record their pace, track their progress, and challenge others online. Set a music playlist for extra encouragement. US$1.99 (iPhone).nikeplus.com
Endomondo
This app tracks time, distance, speed, and altitude for running, hiking, cycling, skiing, and more. Pairs with some Bluetooth heart rate monitors. Free (Android, iPhone, Design a workout routine based on your fitness level, goals, and the equipment at your gym. Tracks progress and adjusts as your fitness Verbal and visual instructions take you through three different flow yoga routines at three difficulty levels and three durations. Substitute your own music and track your progress. US$2.99(iPhone).
pocket-sports.com
Cash is so passé. Now anyone—from Girl Scouts hawking cookies to growing businesses—can accept
credit cards by pairing a Square card reader with a smartphone or iPad. To get started, provide Square, Inc., with details about your-self and your bank. Then the Square team will send you a free Square card reader. Or opt for the definitely not-square “Double Happiness”
Square card reader (above) from designer Vivienne Tam (US$10; proceeds go to charity). Square will take 2.75 percent of your swiped transactions and 3.5 percent plus US$0.15 for keyed-in transactions; there are no other fees. The service is available in the U.S. for U.S.-issued credit cards. Square works with a variety of Apple iOS and Google Android devices. Download at the Apple App Store or Android Market. squareup.com/app.
Source: IFS North America
30 MINUTES OF YOUR DAY
That’s how much time 25 percent of IT professionals spend logging in to work Websites and databases each day. Source: Quest Software, quest.com
35 percent of U.S. technology companies outsource services or manufacturing to companies outside the country, down from 37 percent in 2010 and 62 percent in 2009. Source: BDO Technology Outlook Survey, bdo.com
Part of green supply chain
Have a green supply chain initiative
Expect to be in a green supply chain initiative in the next few years
Do not expect to have a green supply chain
38%
30%
26%
6%
ONSHORING ON THE RISE
11 EVENTS
ORACLE MAGAZINE MAY/JUNE 2011
Technology Events
Conferences and sessions to help you stay
on the cutting edge
2011 DoDIIS Worldwide Conference
May 1–5, Detroit, Michiganncsi.com/dodiis11
This Department of Defense Intelligence Information Systems (DoDIIS) event is a meeting of the worldwide defense intelligence com-munity. This year’s theme is “Collaborative Intelligence in Defense of the Nation.”
CMS Expo Learning and Business
Conference
May 2–4, Chicago, Illinois
cmsexpo.net
This event for content management system (CMS) professionals includes more than 80 training sessions in tracks including business, technical, and creative foundations.
Gartner Business Intelligence
Summit
May 2–4, Los Angeles, California
bit.ly/hGxQXv
This conference features more than 100 sessions and how-to clinics focusing on frameworks and best practices for business intelligence, analytics, and performance management.
DOAG Applications Conference
and Exhibition
May 3–5, Berlin, Germany
bsc.doag.org/konferenz/2011
In partnership with Oracle Applications Users
Group, German Oracle User Group (DOAG) pres-ents three days of keynotes, expert papers, and networking opportunities.
IHRIM 2011 Conference and
Technology Expo
May 15–18, National Harbor, Maryland
ihrim.org/Events/2011Spring/Index.htm
The International Association for Human Resource Information Management (IHRIM) annual conference includes educational oppor-tunities and technical sessions for human resources and human resources management systems professionals.
North America CACS
May 15–19, Las Vegas, Nevadabit.ly/fSZMpU
Sponsored by the Information Systems Audit and Control Association, the North America Computer Audit, Control, and Security (North America CACS) Conference for IT audit, control, security, and governance professionals presents strategies to address their challenges from busi-ness, managerial, and operational perspectives.
Oracle Spatial User Conference 2011
May 19, Washington DCgita.org/events/oracle2011
learn to use Oracle Exadata Database Machine to maximize Oracle Spatial performance, exploit spatial analysis in business solutions, and
incor-JavaOne and
Oracle Develop
May 10–11, Hyderabad, India
Connect with Oracle and Java developers at JavaOne and Oracle Develop. These colocated con-ferences feature two days of keynotes, sessions, and hands-on learning focused on Java and its various platforms, Oracle Database, and development trends such as rich enterprise applications and SOA. OTN Night is among the many networking opportunities. Register at bit.ly/fwA0oy.
ORACLE USER GROUPS
FullCircle 2011: OWAM (Oracle Work and Asset Management) Users Group Conference
May 3–6, Madison, Wisconsin fullcircle2011.eventbrite.com
Paris Java User Group Meetings May 10 and June 14, Paris, France parisjug.org
UKOUG Quick Start Masterclass for Fusion Development with Oracle JDeveloper and Oracle ADF May 11, Reading, England ukoug.org
New England Java Users Group Presentation on Scala May 12, Burlington, Massachusetts nejug.org/events/show/124
UKOUG UNIX SIG Meeting May 12, West Midlands, England ukoug.org
Northeast Ohio Oracle Users Group Training Seminar (with Quest’s Steven Feuerstein and Oracle’s Sue Harper) May 16–17, Cleveland, Ohio
neooug.org
Northern California Oracle Users Group Quarterly Conference
May 19, Redwood Shores, California nocoug.org
Rocky Mountain Oracle Users Group Quarterly Educational Workshop May 20, Broomfield, Colorado rmoug.org
Greater Cincinnati Oracle User Group Meeting
May 25, Cincinnati, Ohio gcoug.org
Austin Java Users Group Meetings May 31 and June 28, Austin, Texas austinjug.org
UKOUG Scotland Conference and Exhibition
June 8, linlithgow, Scotland ukoug.org
Eastern Canada Regional User Group (ECRUG) Annual Conference June 13, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada ecrug.com
New England Oracle Applications User Group Conference
June 13, Worcester, Massachusetts neoaug.org
GETTY
IMA
GE
12 EVENTS
porate mapping into applications. The event includes a variety of technical training ses-sions on Oracle Spatial and the Oracle Fusion Middleware MapViewer feature.
EMEA Harmony
May 19–20, Helsinki, Finlandougf.fi
Presented by Finnish, Estonian, latvian, and Russian Oracle user groups, this event hosts more than 300 delegates and focuses on Oracle technology, middleware, and business intelli-gence. Tom Kyte is a keynote speaker.
ACORD LOMA Insurance
Systems Forum
May 22–24, San Diego, California
acordlomaforum.org
Hosted by the Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development (ACORD) and lOMA, this event for insurance industry information professionals features sessions on operational efficiency, customer experience, talent management, and strategic management.
ASTD 2011 International Conference
and Exposition
May 22–25, Orlando, Florida
bit.ly/fQer6R
Some 8,000 workplace learning and develop-ment professionals from more than 70 countries will attend this event, sponsored by the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD). More than 230 educational sessions are offered.
Compliance Week 2011
May 23–25, Washington DCbit.ly/gMIxom
This conference for corporate financial, legal, risk, audit, and compliance officers covers topics including reporting, Wall Street reform, and ethics.
IASA 2011 Educational Conference
and Business Show
June 5–8, Nashville, Tennessee
bit.ly/e1PCAj
Sponsored by the Insurance Accounting & Systems Association (IASA), this conference features three topic-based “Super Sessions,” 80 technical sessions, and seminars on statutory accounting and risk-focused examinations.
Defense Intelligence Information
Enterprise (DI2E) Conference and
Technology Demonstration
June 7–9, Dallas, Texasncsi.com
This event brings together program offices, devel-opers, and users to focus on establishing a fully integrated and seamless enterprise in providing the best intelligence, counterintelligence, and security information for defense organizations.
4th Annual Nursing Informatics
Symposium
June 16–17, Redwood Shores, California
nocalhimss.org
Presented by the Northern California Chapter of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, this two-day education program at Oracle headquarters covers diverse nursing informatics (NI) topics, including prepa-ration for the NI certification test.
Oracle HCM Users Group
Global Conference
June 19–23, Orlando, Floridaohug.org
This conference features breakout sessions for Oracle E-Business Suite and Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise applications; special interest group meetings for defense, education, public sector, and other verticals; and opportunities to network with human capital management (HCM) experts.
Gartner Security and Risk
Management Summit
June 20–23, National Harbor, Maryland
bit.ly/hFUpYf
This summit features four complete programs —each with a full agenda—on security, risk management, business continuity management, and the chief information security officer role.
Oracle Retail Crosstalk
June 21–24, Washington DCbit.ly/emzjqa
leading retailers will discuss strategies for generating business value, exchange ideas and best practices, gather product knowledge, and network. Attendees are business and IT execu-tives from specialty, grocery, hard line, depart-ment, and discount stores from around the world.
ODTUG Kscope11
June 26–30, Long Beach, California
kscope11.com
Presented by Oracle Development Tools User Group (ODTUG), Kscope—formerly Kaleidoscope—features full-day symposiums on business intelligence, Oracle Application Express, MySQl, and more, as well as hundreds of training sessions and hands-on labs.
Retail World Australia
June 27–28, Sydney, Australiaretail-world.com.au
Get insights from influential retailing leaders and learn about innovative supplier solutions to develop effective strategies for retail success.
Oracle Events
Don’t miss ODTUG Kscope (formerly Kaleidoscope) in Long Beach, California, June 26–30.
13 RESOURCES
ORACLE MAGAZINE MAY/JUNE 2011
What’s New at Oracle
The latest videos, podcasts, blogs, and more
VIDEOS
Single Point of Contact and Support Across the IT Stack
bit.ly/hxwEQu
International Data Corporation’s Matt Healey examines Oracle’s unique position to deliver com-plete stack support from a single organization with aligned terms, delivery systems, and personnel.
Oracle Exadata and Oracle Exalogic Experts Maximize Performance
bit.ly/ACS_Exa-Video
Find out how to get maximum performance, high availability, and faster return on your Oracle Exadata and Oracle Exalogic investment with deployment and mission-critical support services from Oracle Advanced Customer Services.
Why Use Oracle Exadata with Oracle Linux
bit.ly/e6qp02
Executives from Bank of America, linkShare, and Johns Hopkins University discuss the business challenges they faced and why they chose to use Oracle linux and Oracle Exadata as the solution.
Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database
bit.ly/fjvFn2
See how Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database delivers predictable microsecond response time and solid reliability for existing and new Oracle Database applications.
TechCast Live: Java and Oracle, One Year Later
bit.ly/gRSi2E
Ajay Patel, vice president of product development at Oracle, discusses the changes in Java and Oracle since the Sun acquisition.
TechCast: Inside the Java Community Process
bit.ly/hTMjTt
Patrick Curran, Java Community Process (JCP) chair, describes how the JCP’s governance model has evolved, addresses common misper-ceptions, and explains why developers should get involved.
Behind the Scenes for Oracle’s Own Oracle Database 11g Upgrade
bit.ly/hkCVDV
Oracle CIO Mark Sunday discusses Oracle’s expe-rience in upgrading to Oracle Database 11g and how the company decided when the time was right to upgrade.
Oracle Exadata On Demand: Extreme Performance and Scalability
bit.ly/hOAyVq
Gene Eun, director of product management for Oracle On Demand, provides an introduction to Oracle Exadata On Demand.
PODCASTS
Hotwire Competes with Innovative Analysis Using Oracle Exadata
bit.ly/9qaP6G
Kolin Ohi, business intelligence architect at Hotwire, discusses how Oracle Exadata has enabled the company to be more innovative in its data use.
America’s Cup Comes to San Francisco
bit.ly/9qaP6G
Ian “Fresh” Burns, a member of the winning team of the 33rd America’s Cup and design coordinator for ORAClE Racing, discusses the location for the next America’s Cup, the new sailboats, and how the team plans to use technology.
Oracle Solaris and Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center
bit.ly/gPGCvk
Mike Barrett, principal product manager for Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center, discusses how the solution can manage Oracle Solaris and many other assets in the datacenter.
Oracle Solaris Virtualization
bit.ly/gPGCvk
Duncan Hardie, product manager for Oracle Solaris virtualization and networking at Oracle, discusses the built-in consolidation and virtual-ization features and benefits of Oracle Solaris.
WEBCASTS
Best Practices for Ensuring Your Oracle Application Upgrade Goes Smoothly
bit.ly/ijMMt6
Jim Wajda, vice president of financial systems at HDR, talks about how his company used Oracle On Demand as a best practice to ensure a successful upgrade and platform migration to Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise applications.
Lower Costs and Optimize Storage for Oracle E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, and Siebel Infrastructure
bit.ly/dZ7xiY
Watch this four-part series focused on the storage optimization benefits for Oracle
Oracle
Direct
For Oracle product information, call the number for your region.
COUNTRY PHONE NUMBER
14 RESOURCES
E-Business Suite and Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise and Siebel applications to learn how Oracle Partitioning and Oracle Advanced Compression can cut your storage costs threefold.
Boost Linux Performance with Enhancements from Oracle
brighttalk.com/r/XmS
Chris Mason, director of linux kernel engineering at Oracle, talks about the enhancements in Oracle’s Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel for Oracle linux.
Best Practices for Speeding Virtual Infrastructure Deployment with Oracle VM
bit.ly/i0PX0X
Hear how the Oracle VM blade cluster reference configuration addresses the key challenges associ-ated with deploying a virtualization infrastructure.
Game-Changing New Technology for Datacenter Storage
bit.ly/iiBloM
learn about the storage performance, scal-ability, and value that Oracle’s new StorageTek T10000C tape drive delivers.
Private Cloud Database Consolidation
bit.ly/goagIc
learn how to use Oracle technologies to consoli-date multiple applications on clustered server and storage pools to achieve extreme performance.
RESOURCE CENTERS
Oracle GoldenGate Resource Kitbit.ly/ijeCj5
This comprehensive resource kit includes white papers, podcasts, videos, and more to get you up to speed on Oracle’s real-time data integration and transactional replication solution.
Oracle Data Integration Resource Kit
bit.ly/f9I3qv
This resource kit includes analyst reports and
white papers about data integration and Oracle Data Integrator 11g.
IT Strategies from Oracle
bit.ly/eRCXkD
This library includes guidelines that will help you better plan, execute, and manage your enterprise architecture and IT initiatives. It offers best prac-tices for practitioners as well as reference architec-tures containing proven technology patterns.
MySQL on Windows Resource Center
mysql.com/why-mysql/windows
This resource center contains articles, white papers, screencasts, and presentations to support MySQl developers on Microsoft Windows.
WHITE PAPERS
Cloud Computing: Hackett Study Identifies Emerging Best Practices and Experiences of Early Adopters
bit.ly/dSlY4X
This report on key findings from the Hackett Group’s cloud computing study discusses why building a cloud-based architecture from the bottom up delivers significantly greater benefits than bolting cloud services onto a traditional, integrated IT architec ture.
Best Practices and Guidelines for Deploying the Oracle VM Blade Cluster Reference Configuration
bit.ly/hbzySJ
Get insight on best practices for optimizing vir-tualization infrastructures when deploying the Oracle VM blade cluster reference configuration.
MySQL—Powering the Online Media and Entertainment Industry
bit.ly/hNQ3cL
This white paper explores the key trends in the media and entertainment industry, their technical implications, and how MySQl can deliver.
MySQL Enterprise Edition: Database. Management. Support.
bit.ly/dYGIJy
learn how you can confidently deploy MySQl as part of a cost-effective cross-platform solution for delivering internet-based applications.
CONSULTING
Oracle Consulting Upgrade Services
bit.ly/hjmRYx
If your organization is planning or considering an upgrade, take advantage of the Oracle Consulting Upgrade Assessment service and receive a tailored upgrade evaluation report.
Oracle Exadata Start-Up Pack
bit.ly/OracleExadata_startups_Omag
This service from Oracle Consulting and Oracle Advanced Customer Services delivers a suite of services that maximizes the value of your Oracle Exadata technology investment.
ORACLE UNIVERSITY
Oracle Solaris 11 Express Trainingbit.ly/gDDUOh
Start using Oracle Solaris 11 Express now to get early access to Oracle Solaris 11 technology. Oracle University’s What’s New in Oracle Solaris 11 Express one-day seminar shows you how to use the new key features of Oracle Solaris 11 Express. learn how to implement the new packaging system, improve data management, and more.
“[With Oracle Exadata] we were able to cut our ETL time in
half. We’ve now allowed [our] business intelligence and sales
teams and internal analysts 24/7 access to the database. . . .
Before, we had to lock them out during our nightly load.”
—Kolin Ohi, Business Intelligence Architect at Hotwire, in the Hotwire Competes with Innovative Analysis
Using Oracle Exadata podcast (bit.ly/9qaP6G)
OVERHEARD
Oracle Blog Center oracle.com/blogs Oracle Consulting oracle.com/consulting Oracle Events and Webcasts oracle.com/events
16
Product Resources
TUTORIALS
Oracle SQL Developer 3.0 Oracle By
Example Series
This tutorial series provides an introduction to Oracle SQl Developer 3.0 and shows you how to manage your database objects, use the Query Builder feature to graphically and intuitively build your queries, develop in and debug Pl/SQl using Oracle SQl Developer, use the DBA Navigator feature, and more.
bit.ly/fgnxSd
Database Synchronization with
Oracle GoldenGate
This tutorial series covers synchronizing Oracle Database with Oracle GoldenGate on many different platforms and databases.
bit.ly/gSSTrI
Developing an Oracle ADF
Application with Oracle Enterprise
Pack for Eclipse
Besides providing a tour of major com-ponents in Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse 11.1.1.7.0, this tutorial shows you how to build a basic Oracle Application Development Framework application.
bit.ly/dTFbME
Oracle Coherence Server
Lifecycle Management with Oracle
WebLogic Server
This tutorial provides a brief overview of how to manage Oracle Coherence servers from Oracle Weblogic Server.
bit.ly/hlAZuG
DOWNLOADS
New Downloads
Oracle SQl Developer 3.0 Early Adopter 4
bit.ly/eLBVK6
Oracle Data Access Components for Microsoft Entity Framework and lINQ to Entities
Java Platform, Standard Edition
Oracle Database 11g Release 2 Oracle Database, Express Edition
Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g
Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g
Oracle JDeveloper 11g
Oracle SQl Developer
Oracle Solaris 10 and 11 Express
StorageTek T10000C Tape Drive Released
Oracle has unveiled the StorageTek T10000C tape drive, a device that provides the highest performance and lowest total cost of ownership of any tiered storage, archive, or backup solution and that requires one-third to one-fifth the floor space of competing solutions.
The new tape drive has a 5 TB native capacity—more than three times the capacity of any other tape drive—and 240 MB/sec native throughput, which is 50 to 70 percent faster than any other drive. Compared to disk-only solutions, Oracle’s StorageTek solution scales to 30 times the capacity and 50 times the performance while requiring 99 percent less power and cooling.
The StorageTek solution includes inline encryption and policy-based data manage-ment across FC and SAS disks, fast access tape, and high-capacity tape tiers.
The new tape drive works with leading third-party operating systems, open systems storage management products, and mainframe storage management soft-ware. “The StorageTek T10000C sets the new standard in tape by storing more than three times more data on a single cartridge than any other tape drive,” says James Cates, vice president of hardware develop-ment at Oracle. “Combining it with the StorageTek SL3000 and SL8500 modular library systems helps ensure that customers, regardless of size, can afford to retain critical data without concern for future scalability.”
bit.ly/hF3Ryy
Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler Collaborates
Oracle has released Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler 3.0, which now supports col-laborative development through integration with Subversion open source version control software. The lightweight, simple-to-install tool also incorporates user-defined design rules and transformation scripts.
Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler sup-ports logical, relational, multidimensional, and data-type modeling, while featuring multilayered design and generation capa-bilities to produce conceptual entity rela-tionship diagrams and relational models. Integration with Subversion enables users
to maintain current and historical versions of designs, support multiuser access, notify users of changes to models, and accept and merge changes.
“Our new release offers two great new features—support for Subversion source code control and the ability to design trans-formation rules—that dramatically improve speed and accuracy of making bulk schema changes,” says Mike Hichwa, vice president of database development tools at Oracle. “We’re seeing rapid internal adoption, for both small-scale and larger projects.”
bit.ly/fFyWbB
Oracle Enterprise Manager 11
g
Scales Up
Oracle has introduced new business trans-action management capabilities in Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g that enable moni-toring of transactions across computing tiers and applications in large-scale environments. IT professionals can track the exact flow of business transactions across underlying systems, which enables them to identify and fix issues, address performance problems, and perform comprehensive reporting for historical analysis. Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g integrates SOA management technology from AmberPoint, which Oracle acquired.
This integration enhances Oracle Enterprise
Manager’s SOA and Java Platform, Enterprise Edition application management by providing advanced analytics for massive amounts of transaction data. Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g offers an improved user interface, new monitoring instruments, and integration with Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher. “With the new business transaction management capabilities in Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g, IT can significantly streamline management of enterprise infrastructure,” says Richard Sarwal, senior vice president of product devel-opment at Oracle.
17 BRIEFS
ORACLE MAGAZINE MAY/JUNE 2011
Oracle GlassFish Server and Java SDK Updated
Oracle has released Oracle GlassFish Server 3.1 and an update to the Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) 6 software development kit (SDK). Oracle GlassFish Server is the reference implementation for Java EE.
Oracle GlassFish Server 3.1 is based on GlassFish Server Open Source Edition and includes new high-availability features for load balancing, failover, state manage-ment, and centralized administration. It also includes new features for OSGi Enterprise, including support for JDBC and HTTP Service; a 29 percent faster startup/deploy/redeploy cycle than Oracle GlassFish Server 3.0.1; a 34 percent improvement in high-availability replication over Oracle GlassFish Server 2.1.1; and tools integration with NetBeans and Eclipse. It also features improved com-patibility with Oracle WebLogic Server 11g,
built-in HTTP and Enterprise Java Bean state management, and improved administration and manageability.
Oracle GlassFish Server 3.1 supports Oracle Coherence for in-memory session state replication and integrates with Oracle Access Manager to support seamless appli-cation single sign-on.
“Oracle GlassFish Server 3.1 delivers a flex-ible, lightweight, and extensible Java EE 6 platform,” says Steven G. Harris, senior vice president of application server development at Oracle. “With this release, Oracle is responding to the increasing demand for Oracle GlassFish Server by adding new fea-tures for enterprise management and high availability to help customers reduce applica-tion and deployment complexity and increase developer productivity and system uptime.”
bit.ly/hCszMM
Oracle Ships Products and
Platforms for Communications
Service Providers
Oracle has released several new or upgraded products and platforms geared toward com-munications service providers (CSPs) and the communications industry.
Among the new releases are products in the Oracle Communications service delivery product family, including Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper 5.0; Oracle Communications Service Broker 5.0; Oracle Communications Converged Application Server, Standard Edition 5.0; and Oracle Communications Presence 5.0. These products help CSPs monetize new ser-vices that leverage existing network assets, maximize profitability, and accelerate time to market. “The latest releases in the Oracle Communications service delivery product family demonstrate Oracle’s ongoing commitment to leveraging the best-of-breed technologies from our key SDP acquisitions—including BEA, Convergin, and HotSip—and enhancing them to deliver next-generation service delivery platform and intelligent network capabilities for communications service providers,” says Liam Maxwell, vice president of products for Oracle Communications.
On the hardware side, Oracle has unveiled two new carrier-grade Netra SPARC T3 servers designed for the communications market. The Netra SPARC T3-1 rackmount server uses the 16-core, 128-thread SPARC T3 processor; it doubles the I/O bandwidth and memory of its predecessor, resulting in 35 percent faster performance. The Netra SPARC T3-1BA ATCA blade server can be used to place as many as 36 SPARC T3 processors (3,456 processing threads) in a single rack—a 50 percent increase over the previous generation—and, like its rackmount counterpart, offers high-bandwidth and high-capacity I/O and greater memory capacity.
bit.ly/g0qkz9 bit.ly/gvuYaW
Oracle Introduces Oracle Cloud File System
Now available, Oracle Cloud File System enables effective storage pooling through a network-accessible elastic storage cloud. The new system has two components. First, Oracle Automatic Storage Management Cluster File System is a highly available, general-purpose cluster file system that takes snapshots of and restores files on demand, replicates files for disaster protec-tion, provides fine-grain access security and data encryption, and supports file tags for file management. Second, Oracle Automatic Storage Management’s dynamic
volume manager provides volume manage-ment support for Oracle Automatic Storage Management Cluster File System and other third-party file systems such as Linux ext3.
“Organizations can move beyond expen-sive and difficult-to-manage and scale hard-ware and storage silos to a highly available, scalable cloud environment that adapts to change in workloads to meet their service-level objectives,” says Angelo Pruscino, senior vice president of product develop-ment at Oracle.
bit.ly/gVbk9C
Oracle Linux 6 Available
Oracle has released Oracle Linux 6, which now includes Oracle’s Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel as the default kernel. Oracle Linux continues to provide full Red Hat compatibility by including the standard Red Hat–compatible kernel, as well as the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel.
Oracle Linux with Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel brings the latest Linux innovations to market, delivering the performance and reliability for enterprise applications and systems, data integrity, and advanced scal-ability. Compared to Red Hat 5.5, Oracle Linux offers 75 percent performance gains in
online transaction processing performance, 407 percent faster flash cache reads, and 137 percent faster solid-state disk access.
“Today Oracle provides the most com-plete and integrated Linux stack coupled with the Oracle Unbreakable Linux support program,” says Wim Coekaerts, senior vice president of Linux and virtualization engi-neering at Oracle. “Oracle Linux 6 with the innovative Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel and the Red Hat–compatible kernel further demonstrates our ongoing commitment and contributions to Linux.”
18 BRIEFS
Oracle Database Firewall Now Available
Oracle has released Oracle Database Firewall, a network-based security solution that monitors database traffic in real time and helps prevent SQL injection attacks and unauthorized attempts to access sensitive information in Oracle and non-Oracle databases.
Oracle Database Firewall monitors and enforces normal application behavior in real time. It uses SQL grammar analysis to examine SQL statements and determine whether to pass, log, alert, block, or sub-stitute different statements. It leverages predefined policies, including white lists of approved SQL statements; blacklists of unauthorized SQL statements; exception policies that override applicable security policies to support patching, custom batch jobs, and break-glass administrative con-trols; and policies that utilize time of day, IP address, application, user, SQL category, and
other attributes. It can also be deployed in monitoring-only mode.
Oracle Database Firewall runs on Intel-based hardware and can scale to support large numbers of database servers. It sup-ports Oracle Database 11g and previous releases; IBM DB2 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows, versions 9.x; Microsoft SQL Server 2000, 2005, and 2008; Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise versions 12.5.4 to 15; and Sybase SQL Anywhere V10. It also works with Oracle Advanced Security, Oracle Audit Vault, and Oracle Database Vault.
“Evolving threats to databases require enterprises to look at new security solu-tions,” says Vipin Samar, vice president of database security at Oracle. “Oracle Database Firewall offers organizations a first line of defense that can stop internal and external attacks from reaching databases.”
bit.ly/gUtQfS
Oracle Tuxedo Certified on
Oracle Exalogic
Oracle has completed certification and performance testing on Oracle Tuxedo for Exalogic Elastic Cloud X2-2. Oracle Tuxedo certification on Oracle Exalogic also includes Oracle Tuxedo Application Runtime for CICS and Batch, a mainframe rehosting solution. Oracle Tuxedo and Oracle Exalogic (option-ally with Oracle Exadata) provide a platform for optimizing and consolidating custom and packaged enterprise COBOL, C/C++, and Python/Ruby/PHP applications, as well as an optimized infrastructure for migrating legacy IBM mainframe applications. Rehosting IBM CICS and Batch applications to Oracle Tuxedo on Oracle Exalogic requires no change in business logic and data and can save customers 50 to
80 percent compared to annual mainframe costs. Oracle Tuxedo and Oracle Exalogic deliver mainframe-grade quality of service and high performance and scalability; a flexible, standards-based environment that reduces operational complexity and management costs;
and extensibility of migrated legacy applica-tions using Oracle WebLogic Server, Oracle SOA Suite, other Oracle Fusion Middleware components, Oracle Applications, and third-party software.
“Exalogic’s unique horizontal scale-out architecture; its high-bandwidth, low-latency interconnect fabric; and Oracle Tuxedo’s ultrascalable distributed archi-tecture means that native and rehosted Oracle Tuxedo applications can provide the responsiveness and elasticity simply not achievable with typical servers used in data-centers today,” says Hasan Rizvi, senior vice president of product development at Oracle. “This not only helps existing Oracle Tuxedo applications, it also means that rehosted mainframe applications can achieve new levels of efficiency and scalability at a frac-tion of a mainframe cost.”
oracle.com/us/products/middleware/tuxedo
Oracle Application Integration Architecture 3.1 Unveiled
Now available, Oracle Application Integration Architecture 3.1 includes two prebuilt direct integrations based on, and certified for, Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g. The com-prehensive upgrade to Oracle’s platform for orchestrating user-centric business processes across enterprise applications also includes nine cross-industry process integra-tion packs (PIPs) and eight vertical PIPs.
Among the new PIPs are Oracle Serialization and Tracking Integration Pack for Oracle Pedigree and Serialization Manager and Oracle E-Business Suite, which com-bines the capabilities of Oracle Pedigree and Serialization Manager with Oracle E-Business Suite’s inventory, manufacturing, and order management applications; Oracle Design-to-Release Integration Pack for Agile Product Lifecycle Management for Process and Oracle
Process Manufacturing, which enables seam-less synchronization of enterprise product record and recipes across the supply chain and extended product network; and Oracle Clinical Trial Payments Integration Pack for Siebel Clinical, which uses SOA to automate the clinical trial payments process.
“Oracle Application Integration Architecture Release 3.1 supplies an entirely new opportunity for Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g customers to discover further value,” says Michael Weingartner, vice president of product development at Oracle. “The core focus of Oracle Application Integration Architecture remains constant by enabling organizations to do more with their existing IT investments, provide business and IT agility, and lower TCO.”
bit.ly/fijjyk
Oracle Releases PeopleSoft Mobile Inventory Management
Oracle has unveiled PeopleSoft Mobile Inventory Management, an application that helps improve inventory accuracy and labor productivity by automating mobile inventory transactions for users of Microsoft Windows–enabled mobile devices and handheld scanners.
“By integrating mobile devices, organiza-tions can improve data accuracy, increase mobility, and streamline inventory man-agement processes,” says Paco Aubrejuan, group vice president and general manager, Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise.
19 INTERVIEW BY CAROlINE KVITKA
ORACLE MAGAZINE MAY/JUNE 2011
O
racle recently released a major updateto Oracle WebCenter Suite 11g. Caroline Kvitka, Oracle Magazine senior managing editor, sat down with Andy MacMillan, vice president of Enterprise 2.0 product management at Oracle, to talk about product developments. The following is an excerpt from that interview. Download the full podcast at oracle.com/magcasts.
Oracle Magazine: How has Oracle WebCenter Suite evolved since it was first launched? MacMillan: Oracle WebCenter Suite was originally launched to take advantage of the shift in the modern user experience. Websites and Web applications were being built differently, and we wanted to have a leading product to meet user expectations. Over the last couple of years we’ve acquired several related technologies and portal prod-ucts. We’ve done a lot of work to bring the best of the best from those different prod-ucts into Oracle WebCenter Suite.
Oracle Magazine: Oracle is calling this a user experience platform. What does that mean? MacMillan: User experience platform is a little broader than what people would typi-cally refer to as a Web development or portal platform. A user experience platform is a way to bring together user components and application components so that people can interact with them in a rich Web-like way, but it is also about how the components interact with each other. It’s the idea that it’s no longer enough to bring up, for example, a list of things on one portlet and then have a map on another portlet. People actually want to see that information blended together so that there’s a richness of the context that’s created by bringing different datasources, content, and business processes together.
Oracle Magazine: How have Oracle’s acquisi-tions contributed to the portal capabilities in Oracle WebCenter Suite 11g?
MacMillan: We acquired two great portal
products from BEA: WebLogic Portal and AquaLogic User Interaction Portal. We also have the Sun portal technologies, and a lot of application-specific portals such as PeopleSoft Portal and Oracle Portal.
In Oracle WebCenter Suite 11g, we took a lot of those portal features, like the ability to surface high-transaction portlets in Oracle WebLogic Portal and to create business communities in AquaLogic User Interaction Portal, and we brought them into Oracle WebCenter Suite. In many cases we rewrote those core technologies, leveraging their heritage, and in many cases we had the original developers building and evolving those features.
Oracle Magazine: How have the content management capabilities in Oracle WebCenter Suite 11g evolved?
MacMillan: Content management in Oracle WebCenter Suite has a heritage from Stellent. That product, Oracle Universal Content Management, is a leading enterprise content management product in its own
right. Initially with Oracle WebCenter Suite, we had a straightforward connection to that technology. You could store documents from the portal in the content management platform. In this release, we’ve exposed a lot of additional capabilities from the content management system in the portal. We have a richer document library and content pre-viewing and markup capabilities. You can go to a piece of content in an Oracle WebCenter Suite portal, click on it, and use the Web content management capabilities from Oracle Universal Content Management.
Oracle Magazine: As a development platform, what does Oracle WebCenter Suite 11g offer? MacMillan: Oracle WebCenter Suite is a Java application. It’s used as a development platform for building portal and Web appli-cations. Oracle WebCenter Suite is built on Oracle ADF [Oracle Application Development Framework] and is used as a composite user experience layer to bring together Oracle ADF applications. I’m sure many of your readers are familiar with Oracle ADF and the role that it’s playing in Oracle Fusion architecture and Oracle Fusion Middleware. Oracle WebCenter 11g is really the front end or the user experience technology for bringing together Oracle ADF and non-Oracle ADF applications.
That’s important for a couple of reasons. One, Oracle WebCenter Suite is an easy and fast way to build powerful user experience components. You can bring in components that we’ve built in that model to mash them up and create a social experience. Two, many of our applications are building these Oracle ADF components through a common UI model known as our common user experi-ence architecture, which is based on Oracle ADF. If you’re developing a new application, you can develop your own components, but you can also leverage components from other middleware and applications products Andy MacMillan, Vice President of Enterprise 2.0
Product Management, Oracle
BOB
ADlER
The Social Connection
Oracle WebCenter Suite 11g connects business and IT
users and embeds social components into applications.
20 INTERVIEW
and bring those into your Oracle WebCenter Suite composite application, which is a pow-erful concept if you’re building applications.
Oracle Magazine: What IDEs does Oracle WebCenter Suite support?
MacMillan: There’s a great connection between Oracle WebCenter Suite and Oracle JDeveloper, but we also support open development. If people want to build their own Web framework and connect to Oracle WebCenter Suite and use our Web services or our REST [Representational State Transfer] services, they can do that. Or if they want to build a set of standards-compliant portlets in Eclipse and build JSR-compliant portlets and deploy them into Oracle WebCenter Suite, they can do that.
Oracle Magazine: What capabilities are avail-able for business or power users?
MacMillan: One of the main ideas behind Oracle WebCenter Suite is that developers are going to build applications but that power users or typical business users are going to want to customize, extend, and personalize them. There needs to be a rela-tionship between how that is done and how development occurs.
We’ve done two interesting things in this area. First, our Oracle Composer technology allows business users to go into an edit mode from the browser and connect to datasources. They can drag components out of the page, move things around, and edit content. It’s really about allowing business users to take ownership of that experience and blend it to whatever their needs might be.
The second area is actually the relation-ship between Oracle Composer and the development environment. What we enable in Oracle WebCenter Suite is the idea that a developer can build a component or even a whole site. Let’s say I build a component as a developer and I publish that component into the application. Let’s call that version 1.0. The business user can take that component, put it on a page, mash it up, and customize it. Let’s call that version 1.1.
What’s unique about Oracle WebCenter Suite is that as a developer if I want to work
on version 2.0, I can actually get version 1.1 very easily from the application space, frame that into my development environment, work on it, and create version 2.0. In the typical model, development would create version 2.0 based on development version 1.0 and all the business user changes would get overwritten. So there’s a relationship between business users and their ability to use browser-based tooling at runtime, and the developer experience at design time, that allows users to work together.
Oracle Magazine: What are organizations looking for in terms of Enterprise 2.0, and how is that reflected in Oracle’s Enterprise 2.0 strategy and Oracle WebCenter Suite? MacMillan: We’re seeing a lot of interest in social computing, or Enterprise 2.0. Organizations are trying to bring those tech-nologies to bear on business challenges and business opportunities, and in many cases, their key business processes and transactions are represented in their enterprise applica-tions. So we have a unique capability to marry together collaborative capabilities and their enterprise applications to apply social com-puting to those business transactions.
Our strategy is really about connecting the benefits of social computing—the ability to have people quickly connect, and connect on the right topics, and provide rich context— to relevant business topics.
If I have a transaction in my enterprise resource planning system and I want to escalate that, I need people to collaborate. Collaborating around a transaction or escala-tion is a core use case, but others include increasing innovation and engaging cus-tomers. If I want to collaborate around my product development process, then I need social tools in the context of my product lifecycle management product. The big opportunity is to actually connect the power of these kinds of social concepts to key busi-ness drivers.
That’s really our strategy at Oracle. How do
we provide that context, as well as the tools and the technology, for social collaboration around business activities? That’s where we’ve gone with Oracle WebCenter Suite.
Oracle WebCenter Suite has a whole set of rich social services—everything from activity streaming to blogs, Wikis, microblogging, tags, and intelligent collaboration. The value is realized when organizations connect that technology to the business problems.
Oracle Magazine: How do you see Oracle WebCenter Suite changing how organiza-tions are working?
MacMillan: I have a vision for Oracle WebCenter Suite that I think we’ll achieve in two places. One is around the idea of business users being able to own composite applications. I love the idea that business users can take core components and bring them together in an environment and have the application that they need. This is very different than how it works today, where I’d have to live with a couple of different pieces or ask IT to write something for me.
Second, there’s a lot of debate about the business impact of social and the role of social. We have an incredible opportunity, and our customers have an incredible oppor-tunity, to recognize and show the value of social by providing this business context. We’re just starting to see customers con-necting social to their business process. That’s a vision that we’ll realize soon.
“We have a unique capability to marry
together collaborative capabilities and their
enterprise applications.”
—Andy MacMillan, Vice President of Enterprise 2.0 Product Management, Oracle
LEARN more about Oracle WebCenter Suite 11g
bit.ly/eIUCNu
NEXT STEPS
Caroline Kvitka
is senior managing editor of Oracle Magazine andProfit. She has been at Oracle since 2001.
