Oracle-BEA deal gets the green light

The Oracle-BEA Systems Inc. merger was effectively approved by the federal government yesterday when the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission opted to terminate their antitrust review of the proposed deal early.

It's now up to the BEA stockholders, who on Friday morning will vote on Oracle's $17 per share offer for the middleware giant -- an offer that was initially rejected but ultimately accepted by BEA's board of directors under pressure from Carl Icahn, a major technology investor and BEA's biggest stockholder.

SearchOracle.com recently spoke with Dennis Callaghan, an analyst with the New York City-based 451 Group, to find out what a finalized merger would mean for BEA and Oracle customers, and how the merger would affect Oracle's product portfolio. Here's what Callaghan had to say:

What will Oracle Fusion Middleware look like if BEA is brought into the Oracle fold?

Dennis Callaghan: Oracle would be wise to put [BEA WebLogic] at the center of Fusion Middleware, rather than their own application server. In terms of how the market has voted, there's really no comparison [between the two]. I would expect BEA's [Business Process Management] stuff to supersede anything Oracle's got. The portal product that emerges will most likely closely resemble that which BEA acquired when it bought Plumtree. I don't consider either Oracle or BEA to be that strong in the [enterprise service bus (ESB)] realm, but probably would give the edge to the BEA AquaLogic ESB here. It's a slightly more established product that seems to be getting traction in the market. And if [Oracle leads] with WebLogic as their app server, it stands to reason that AquaLogic ESB would win out. All this being said, it should be fairly easy for Oracle to fill in and enhance these technologies with things it has elsewhere in its portfolio, such as the [Business Process Execution Language] engine it got when it bought Collaxa in 2004, which has always been a pretty strong product.

Should BEA users be worried?

Callaghan: Oracle, despite its 'evil empire' image, has by most accounts done a pretty good job of developing and supporting PeopleSoft, J.D. Edwards and Siebel applications and [the company is] not forcing customers into a new and different application suite. I would expect they would do the same thing with BEA, given how prevalent WebLogic is vs. Oracle's own application server. The company also has tremendous [research and development] resources to put into these products. Oracle generated about $5.5 billion in cash last year, compared to about $100 million for BEA. The fact that this ended up being a friendly takeover should bode well for the BEA product set as well.

What does increased consolidation in IT marketplace mean for potential middleware buyers?

Callaghan: Consolidation always creates opportunities to look at new vendors. [IBM's WebSphere] passed WebLogic long ago as number one in application servers, it has a comprehensive middleware/SOA infrastructure around it and no one is going to acquire IBM. Red Hat-JBoss is becoming a much more mature and capable middleware offering/SOA backbone [and] by the very nature of open source is very responsive to customer needs, [although] I'm still concerned about the speed of their product development cycles. So, it never hurts to consider alternatives when there is any uncertainty about future product development plans.

Author: Mark Brunelli and Jon Franke @ SearchOracle.com

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Oracle contractor shortage predicted

If you have Oracle skills 2008 could be something of a jackpot year with contractors in short supply as demand ramps up over the next 12 months, says IT recruitment company Technojobs.

The enterprise software giant has built up a head of steam over many years via its acquisition strategy. Most famously it acquired software giant PeopleSoft for $10.3bn, back in 2004, but it also has plenty of smaller buys under its belt - a strategy that has led it to ranking as the second largest software company in the world after Microsoft.

Oracle's success in growing its software business last year is now translating into a rise in jobs requiring Oracle skills being advertised and Oracle is already the second most in-demand skill for contract jobs in 2008, according to the recruitment company.

The average annual salary for the last three months for a permanent Oracle job was £46,244, according to ITJobsWatch.co.uk. The average Oracle contractor daily rate for the past three months was £418.

Continued investment in corporate and public sector strategy ERP projects - as well as the general IT skills shortage - means demand for Oracle skills is likely to rise this year, said the recruiter.

Job seekers who gain experience in different areas and implementations of Oracle - for instance via contracting - will be in the strongest position, said Technojobs. Those who also have consulting and project management skills will have an advantage too.

Author: Natasha Lomas @ management.silicon.com

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Oracle contractor jobs market expected to grow in 2008

Oracle finished with a crescendo in 2007 with record profits and substantial growth, however the benefits for Oracle IT contractors have yet to materialise so far in 2008.

Oracle's success in 2007 was primarily due to their acquisitions strategy incorporating selling industry-specific applications to their existing database, middleware, ERP and CRM customers.

As a result of this strategy, Oracle experienced an impressive reported growth over rival competitor SAP.

In addition to selling applications to their existing customers, Oracle for 2008 are now selling industry-specific solutions to banking, telecommunications, retail, Government, utilities and health care industries.

It is no surprise that the strategy for the year ahead is further growth and by selling to their existing customers it is likely to allow Oracle to leverage relationships, leverage support and leverage existing products.

For many Oracle IT contractors this increase in market growth has yet to materialise in increased vacancies nor has it meant an increase in pay. Oracle professionals in permanent positions have also not benefited financially.

Due to the growth of Oracle software, the continued investment in key corporate and public sector strategic ERP projects and the general skills shortage across the IT market, the demand for Oracle skills is likely to start showing levels of growth in 2008. It is already the second highest demanded IT Skill for Contract Jobs in 2008.

Highlights from the latest Oracle salary information, show the following (source: ITJobsWatch):

- Average annual salary for the last 3 months for a permanent Oracle job was: £46,244

- This has remained relatively static over the last 12 months

- The average Oracle contractor daily rate for the past three months was £418. This is comparable to the amount it was in the same period last year

- The exception is Oracle EBS - Permanent Oracle EBS consultants have enjoyed a healthy 12.57% rise in their salary to £58,243 whilst contractors have seen a rise of 4.59% to £439 per day.

Anthony Sherick, from Technojobs told us:

"Over the past 12 months the Oracle jobs market has remained relatively static in terms of remuneration. However, with the growth in demand, we at Technojobs have started to see the number of Oracle jobs advertised increasing."

"The candidates in an even stronger position are those that gain experience in different areas and implementations of Oracle, which can often be done through contracting. Additionally it is worth considering evolving Oracle experience with consulting skills and project manager skills, which will open more job opportunities and in parallel a higher salary in 2008".

Source: www.contracteye.co.uk

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Practice Test for Oracle 11g DBA OCA Exam 1Z0-047

uCertify, a reputed name in the preparation of certification exams, announced the pre-release of the Exam Simulation PrepKit for Exam 1Z0-047 for the Oracle OCA 11g certification.

The full version will be released on 19th March 2008. There is a huge discount offer of 50% for the customers who place their orders before the release date.

The 1Z0-047 exam also provides credit towards, Oracle Database: SQL Certified Expert, Oracle 9i DBA OCA and Oracle PL/SQL Developer Certified Associate certifications.

The PrepKit has been developed keeping in mind the latest exam trends by Oracle. There is a huge demand for professionals proficient in Oracle. This certification exam provides an opportunity to Database Administrators to test their skills and get recognition from the world leader, Oracle.

The PrepKit for the 1Z0-047 contains four full-length practice tests, which include 250 challenging and interactive questions along with 150 study notes that simulate the real exam. The 1Z0-047 exam is an elective one. This Oracle Database certification demonstrates the powerful SQL programming language and helps you to master the key concepts of a relational database.

The PrepKit for exam 1Z0-047 is bundled with a variety of tests such as pre-defined tests, diagnostic test and a final test. You can also customize the tests according to your needs. Detailed result analysis of all the tests taken will help you to focus on your weak areas, so that you can overcome your shortcomings.

There are also a lot of helpful resources such as Technical Articles on different important technical topics, Tips and Tricks, Things to practice etc.


In addition to this, the PrepKit has been refined with new features, such as 'Study Note Search.' Through the 'Study Notes Search' feature, you can enhance your understanding of the technical terms and definitions by searching with the help of keywords. You can also generate a test based on specific study notes to evaluate your knowledge.

Roy Wood, an IT expert, remarked in his blog, "I thought the final test was a bit more difficult than the practice tests which was probably by design. Also, I noticed there was a "learn" function for each test question, which was accompanied by a thorough explanation."

He further added, "There was also a means to create your own tests, add your own questions, provide immediate feedback, tagging, print, review questions, and make notes online – this flexibility was a nice surprise." To read more about his reviewed uCertify Oracle PrepKit, visit Roy Wood's blog: http://esofthub.blogspot.com/2008/01/it-certification-self-help-portal.html

More information and a free to download version of the PrepKit is available at:
http://www.ucertify.com/exams/Oracle/1Z0-047.html

About uCertify:
Conceived in 1996, uCertify.com specializes in the development of computer assisted test preparation software. The company provides exam simulation PrepKits for various Oracle certification exams of OCA DBA 9i, OCP DBA 9i,Oracle PL/SQL Developer, OCA DBA 10g, and OCP DBA 10g and other significant certifications exams.

Contact:
http://www.ucertify.com

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Oracle tackles the context conundrum

The trouble with keeping data in a standard relational database is that such information does not typically come with machine-readable descriptions of what the data is. Searching through an Air Force database will not provide any indication that what you are looking at is an Air Force database.

As long as the database is used by its intended audience, this lack of database self-awareness is not a problem. But when another system needs to access the data, how will it make sense of the columns and rows of data? It is this semantic cluelessness that slows the process of gathering intelligence from the data.

At least one commercial database vendor is addressing this problem. Oracle is using two Semantic Web tools for the job: the Resource Definition Framework (RDF), support for which was added in Oracle 10g, and the Web Ontology Language (OWL), added in Oracle 11g.

RDF is the starting point.

“By storing RDF and applying rules to it, you can infer new information” and render explicit context about the data, said Xavier Lopez, director of spatial and semantic technologies at Oracle.

RDF offers the ability to link two data elements along with a term that describes the relationship between the two. The resulting three terms are called a triple. For instance, the database can ingest this statement: Lopez works at Oracle. “Lopez” would be the subject, “Oracle” the object and “works at” the predicate tying together the two, according to the description of RDF from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which oversees the framework (GCN.com, Quickfind 960).

But that’s just the start. Having these relationships in machine-readable language allows further reasoning about the data — making it machine-readable by other systems.

“Once you have triples in the database, you can start doing things you couldn’t do before,” Lopez said. “It is essentially designed to find patterns. Previously, it was available everywhere, but you couldn’t find patterns. Now you can find patterns across it.”

Unlike the traditional data cubes used in data mining applications, the schema of the data does not need to be established beforehand, making ad hoc queries a lot easier to execute.

Lopez has seen customers compile billions of triples. After enough data has been rendered into this format, additional inferences can be made.

For instance, if you have “Xavier works at Oracle” and “Oracle is a software company” then an inference could be that Xavier works for a software company.

This is a simple example, but a logical step-by-step process can generate new information.

And this is where OWL comes in.

OWL extends the range of inferencing that can be done on a dataset, Lopez said. Another W3C standard (GCN.com Quickfind 961), OWL is a “richer rule base,” he said. It offers sets of hierarchies that allow data to be described in terms of property characteristics, equalities and inequalities, data types, and restrictions on how the data can be defined.

Oracle has tools that can render standard relational data into the RDF format. And many software tools exist that parse unstructured data from Web sites, e-mail messages, blog sites and any other text-based documents into the RDF format.

Author: Joab Jackson @ www.gcn.com

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Oracle updates its Identity Manager tool

Oracle has released a new addition of its Identity Manager, version 9.1, adding new features to increase an organisation’s ability to comply with regulation and reduce the time it takes to complete an audit.

Hasan Rizvi, Oracle Identity Management and Security Products vice president, said “With this release, organisations can more rapidly experience the benefits identity provisioning delivers across their diverse IT environments.”

A new Graphical Workflow Designer is included in the release, designed to simplify the creation or workflows and help maintain their provisioning, while updates to Connector Wizards will help ease the creation of new connectors and streamline integration.

Nineteen new compliance and operational report templates will allow an organisation to increase its ability to streamline audit processes, while enhanced attestation capabilities will allow access privileges to be automated. The attestation process includes the reviewers, the data to be attested to, and the schedule for attestation activities.

Oracle’s identity management solution provides employees with one single identity for authentication across an enterprise’s many different registration systems.

The “HR-Driven Identity” solution was created by Oracle through combining two areas of its business; its Human Capital Management (HCM) application, which manages all the people aspects in human resources or payroll, and its technology Access Management system.

According to the firm the new technology was a response to regulation, such as Sarbanes-Oxley 2002, which has put increasing external pressure on businesses to show good governance and produce categorical reports on which employees have access to each system.

Individuals holding different identities within an organisation creates a considerable business risk and management overhead for employers. If identities can be consolidated, automated and tied to the initial identity provided to individuals by human resources, organisations will reduce costs, improve efficiencies and defraud its environment, it said.

Author: Rosalie Marshall @ www.itweek.co.uk

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Swedish Medical implements Oracle suite to support EMR system

Oracle has announced that Swedish Medical Center, a healthcare provider, has deployed components of the Oracle Enterprise Content Management Suite - Oracle Universal Content Management and Oracle Imaging and Process Management - to deliver a content-enabled electronic medical record system that helps ensure patient information is available when and where a provider needs it.

Oracle enterprise content management software also facilitated Swedish Medical Center's electronic medical record (EMR) training initiative, helping the organization ensure an on-time rollout. Oracle Enterprise Content Management Suite is a component of Oracle Fusion Middleware.

The new EMR system is accelerating the creation and management of patient records. One clinic, for example, had a basic patient records management system that required approximately 12 steps to pull information from faxes, attribute it to a specific patient and incorporate the data into the patient's record.

Swedish Medical Center's new EMR system uses Oracle Imaging and Process Management to complete this task in only four steps, freeing staff to focus on other responsibilities. Swedish Medical Center also slashed the time that it took to assemble training materials for new and existing processes from 24 hours to as little as 4 hours for major productions, and even less time for individual manual productions.

Source: www.cbronline.com

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BSNL Inks With Oracle

Monday, the media reported that Bharat Sanchar Nigam inked a deal with Oracle that comprise Oracle applications, Oracle Database and Oracle Fusion Middleware that would drive BSNL's aggressive growth plans and enhance customer service delivery. Oracle would also provide BSNL with Siebel CRM to provide next-generation services to customers.

The Chairman and Managing Director of BSNL, Kuldeep Goyal, said that the company has undertaken a decisive step towards extensive deployment of IT solutions for enhancing customer service and enabling faster rollout of services. The project seeks to enhance customer service delivery across the organization and would be able to enhance customer care and would reduce operational costs and increase revenue realization for effectively meeting the new challenges in the telecom sector.

BSNL has 7 core customers across the country and plans to invest extensively in technology.

Source: www.nasdaq.com

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Morrisons signs up Oracle for IT transformation

Morrisons, the UK’s fourth largest supermarket group, has announced a major partnership with Oracle to help drive a far-reaching overhaul of its IT systems.

Under the agreement, the supermarket chain expects to implement a complete Oracle retail suite of merchandising, planning and stores applications, plus the Oracle E-Business Suite for financials, HR/payroll and manufacturing. It will also roll out Oracle’s Siebel platform for CRM and Oracle Fusion middleware including Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle Identity Management – all underpinned by Oracle databases.

The grocery retailer has said it plans to phase in the Oracle systems over the next five years – much more slowly than the original three-year timetable to overhaul its systems it announced in March last year, when it first confirmed plans for a major capital investment in IT.

The Oracle deal is also departure from its original stated plan to pick and choose best-of-breed systems to support all its core functions.

Gary Barr, the retailer’s IT director, said: “We expect Oracle solutions to meet our needs, offering a breadth of functionality and a level of data that will promote a more accurate assessment of business performance. This will help us to turn information into profitable business decisions.”

The supermarket has not yet confirmed any partner to help it integrate Oracle’s systems with its existing infrastructure, but Retail Week reported last month that the grocer plans to recruit more than 500 IT staff and consultants over the next two years to support its IT transformation programme.

The business transformation plan is reported to be called Project Evolve internally.

Morrisons has more than 114,000 members of staff in stores, factories, distribution centres and head office administrative functions.

The grocer is well-known for managing almost every aspect of its commercial operations in-house, including fresh fruit and vegetables, fresh food, meat processing and transport.

Oracle’s systems will expected to provide Morrisons with the operational functionality required to manage and simplify retail processes around fresh and staple produce throughout the planning process, through the supply chain and into the stores.

Oracle’s Duncan Angove said Morrisons’ verticalled integrated supply chain was “unique and helps them bring a highly differentiated approach to food retailing.”

Source: www.computerworlduk.com

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Oracle Magazine for March/April 2008

Publication covering Oracle products.

This issue feature stories: Moving Forward (on "operating and maintaining legacy systems" using Oracle solutions) and SUPPORT FOR SUPERHEROES (building IT infrastructure of Marvel Entertainment, studio that produced Spider-man and Iron Man).



Oracle Magazine for March/April of 2008
Eng | PDF | 28MB

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Polkomtel Selects Oracle to Enhance Customer Experience

Leading Polish Mobile Provider Selects Oracle's Siebel CRM and Oracle Communications Service Fulfillment Suite to Improve Automation and Customer Experience.

Oracle today announced that Polkomtel, a leading mobile provider in Poland, has selected Oracle's Siebel CRM, Oracle® Communications Order and Service Management, Oracle Communications Service Activation and Oracle Communications Inventory Management to help improve operational efficiency, enhance customer service and enable rapid deployment of next-generation services.

In order to maintain its competitive advantage in Eastern Europe's growing communications industry, Polkomtel is focused on driving innovation, enriching its product offering, improving customer care and increasing operational efficiency. To help meet these goals, Polkomtel will replace its inflexible legacy provisioning systems with an automated mobile provisioning system built on the Oracle Communications Service Fulfillment Suite. In addition, Polkomtel will implement Siebel CRM to manage and track all customer interactions, empowering customer service and sales representatives to provide a more personalized, satisfying customer service experience. Polkomtel expects to achieve improvements in its day-to-day operations that will have a positive impact on operational efficiency as well as increases in average revenue per user (ARPU).

"We chose Oracle's mobile provisioning solution and Siebel CRM due to their rich, out-of-the-box functionality and ability to help us accelerate service delivery and reduce time to revenue," said Konrad Kobylecki, chief operating officer, Polkomtel. "The integration with Siebel CRM will provide additional benefit by helping to further streamline the order-to-fulfillment and issue resolution processes."

"Poland is experiencing extremely high mobile subscriber growth and Polkomtel is at the forefront of innovation and customer service in the region," said David Sharpley, vice president of product marketing and channels, Oracle Communications. "Polkomtel's selection of Oracle's end-to-end and integrated communications application suite will enable Polkomtel to continue its growth with improved efficiency and enhanced customer service."

Siebel CRM enables organizations to transform the customer experience. Siebel CRM delivers comprehensive CRM capabilities, tailored industry solutions, role-based customer intelligence and pre-built integration that provide a highly responsive, fully integrated client view across all channels.

The Oracle Communications Service Fulfillment suite automates the entire provisioning process in an integrated manner including order management, inventory and service activation. Oracle Communications Order and Service Management coordinates the many diverse tasks that make up the end-to-end service fulfillment process, including installing equipment in a point of presence, triggering billing once the service is activated in the network and coordinating processes between engineering and operations. Oracle Communications Service Activation manages the activation of complex services in a flow-through manner across multiple technology domains, reducing deployment costs and significantly increasing agility. Oracle Communications Inventory Management enables tracking of all network resources ranging from physical equipment to network locations and addresses, and supports end-customer services and network technologies.

Source: www.crm2day.com

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Oracle and Accenture integrate Oracle Fusion Middleware software

Oracle and Accenture have integrated Oracle Fusion Middleware into Accenture Communications Solutions, Accenture's suite of business offerings and assets designed to mitigate the risk of deploying, and reduce the time to deploy, OSS and BSS software applications.

Oracle Fusion Middleware is a pre-integrated portfolio of customer-proven software that spans from portals and process managers to application infrastructure and business intelligence.

The newly integrated capabilities are intended to further enable communications service providers to rapidly launch new services and reduce the inherent risks - such as exceeding project budget or project time limits - which can be associated with new software implementations. Now that Oracle Fusion Middleware is integrated into Accenture's Communications Solutions, it can serve to further expand a service providers's ability to bring services to market more quickly.

Accenture is also adopting Oracle's Application Integration Architecture for Communications to deliver additional solutions for the communications industry. Delivered through Accenture Communications Solutions, Accenture intends to leverage these pre-built software products that will enable service providers to bring services to market more quickly, identify new revenue streams through enhanced data analysis, and capitalize on new opportunities by rapidly adapting streamlined business processes.

Source: www.cbronline.com

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Salesforce.com shopping itself to Oracle?

Tom Foremski is reporting that a "reliable source" indicates that "Salesforce.com has approached Oracle to gauge if there is any interest in a sale at $75 a share."

At first glance it would appear strange for Marc Benioff, who has long trumpted his software-as-a-service (SaaS) model as the "death of software," to be offering his firm for sale by to the world's second largest enterprise software vendor.

But Foremski thinks the deal makes sense for several reasons. Apart from the obvious synergies of Oracle's market presence with Salesforce.com's technology, he also points out that Benioff appears to be losing interest in his current job and has been selling an enormous number of shares recently. He also speculates that Benioff would make a great candidate to replace Ellison, whenever Larry sees fit to retire.

My take
There was a time when I would discount rumors such as this one. But after watching Oracle for the last five years, I rule nothing out.

It would certainly launch Oracle to the front of the on-demand market. Oracle's only true multi-tenant SaaS offering is the online CRM offering it picked up from Siebel, which was a fraction of the revenue from Siebel's on-premise product line. Oracle's main on-demand offering is simply its traditional E-Business Suite, offered on a single tenant hosted basis. Oracle has been touting this model as superior to the multi-tenant model lately, but to me it smells of "if you can't fix it, feature it."

There's one other big plus for Oracle. Buying Salesforce.com would take the wind out of the sails of SAP's recent launch of its own on-demand offering, Business by Design. With SAP making such a strong move into the SaaS market, can Oracle afford to appear as a laggard?

Update, Feb. 12: Salesforce.com's share price was up nearly 8% yesterday on the rumor of its interest in a deal with Oracle.

Upon further consideration, however, it seems to me there are two possibilities, both of which are problematic:

1. Contrary to Foremski's assertion, the source is not reliable. The rumor could be a ploy by someone interested in pumping up the share price.

2. Foremski's source is reliable. If so, and the source has factual knowledge of a $75 per share offer from Salesforce.com, then the source is disclosing insider information.

Either way, the SEC should investigate.

Source: http://fscavo.blogspot.com

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IDEA Uses Oracle

Oracle today announced that IDEA Cellular Limited, a leading mobile operator in India and a part of the Aditya Birla Group, has selected Oracle's Siebel CRM to deliver a unique customer service experience to pre- and post-paid mobile subscribers across its entire operations in India. IDEA's strategic outsourcing partner, IBM, will undertake the implementation, which on completion is expected to address challenges arising from IDEA's extensive channel and dealer network and meet its fast-expanding customer base.

IDEA is focused on enhancing the customer experience and service delivery, and plans to increase its customer base rapidly over the next three years from its existing 22 million subscribers. The operator currently provides mobile services in 11 areas with plans to expand into two new areas -- Mumbai and Bihar. With the help of its IT infrastructure outsource partner, IBM, IDEA will adopt an enterprise-wide CRM system spanning all lines of business in India. A sign of convergence, this is the first time a communications company in India will use a single CRM solution to provide customer service to both its pre- and post-paid customers.

IDEA chose Siebel CRM over competing applications for several reasons including the extensive out-of-the-box communications-specific functionalities, coupled with Oracle's superior architecture, flexibility and scalability.

"IDEA has been on the forefront of adapting cutting-edge technology to exceed customer service expectations. In doing so, we have adopted a collaborative approach to partner with the best-in-class application technologies available to streamline and enhance our business processes. I am confident that all IDEA customers will benefit significantly from our selection of Oracle's Siebel CRM, and our decisions to converge pre- and post-paid care, a first in the Indian communications industry," said Prakash Paranjape, chief information officer, IDEA.

Source: www.lightreading.com

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What Microsoft can learn from Oracle: greed and market share

The consolidating world of enterprise software, Microsoft has much to learn. Oracle's Larry Ellison understands that proprietary software is a slow-growth business going forward, and positions his buying spree accordingly:

Mr. Ellison has explained his deals in language a third-grader could understand. At an investors' conference in 2006, he declared: "We want to be No. 1 in all the segments. This isn't vanity. The No. 1 software company in every segment makes all the money....We never buy anything where it doesn't put us in the No. 1 position or get us in such a strong No. 2 position that we think we can get to No. 1 very quickly....It's No. 1 or it's over."

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer? Perhaps embarrassed to have ambition anymore after too many bouts with the antitrust authorities, Ballmer explains Yahoo! and other acquisitions in terms of cost-cutting synergies and what-not. Namby pamby "we love customers" stuff. Since he announced his not-so-hostile takeover of Yahoo!, Microsoft's stock has been hit 11 percent.

For the biggest vendors, it's just a market share question, and Oracle has been rewarded for aggressively seeking market share for market share's sake. Its stock is up 67 percent in the last five years, while Microsoft's is up 24 percent.

So while Microsoft attempts to persuade the world that it just wants to befriend everyone, Oracle buys, fires thousands of people, and makes a lot of money in the process. Oracle's method isn't pretty and it's certainly not the only way (nor is it the way that I'd personally choose), but it has been effective.

For Microsoft to compete it may have to start owning up to its ambition. It wants market share. It wants dominance. It wants to remove customer choice. Just like Oracle.

It might as well tell it like it is.

Author: Matt Asay @ blogs.cnet.com

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ORACLE Magazine 2008

Traditional relational content, unstructured content, XML, 3-D spatial data—your enterprise is home to all kinds of information. Read how customers are using Oracle Database 11g to store all their data, simplify management, and improve systems performance.

ORACLE Magazine 2008
84 pages | Jan-Feb 2008 | PDF | 6 Mb

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How to Deal with Oracle Licenses

Oracle customers got some advice on how to get the best deal and protect themselves while licensing software from the enterprise software giant.

Oracle's licensing practices have been maligned as overly confusing and unfair. But Eliot Arlo Colon, president of Miro Consulting, an independent firm in Fords, New Jersey, didn't get into specifics about particular policies, instead organizing a webinar around four categories: compliance, discounts, ongoing annual support costs and terms and conditions.

"When I look at e-mail subject lines, these are the things we get hit with," Colon said.

"Compliance is the foundation. Without it, nothing else matters," he said, adding that it is "not a gray area. Either you're compliant or you're not. ... If you consider areas [of use] gray, or your vendor considers areas gray, you should be concerned."

Companies should self-audit their licenses twice a year, and it should be a "thorough review," not a couple of mass e-mails, he said: "It's definitely more of a bear than most people would anticipate."

A third party should review the audit, and the company must possess a "stated and defendable" position on gray areas, he added. It is also wise to get assumptions confirmed in writing: "If it's not stated in your agreement that you have that right, chances are you do not have that right," he said.

Oracle vigorously defends its intellectual property, according to Colon. "You always have to assume an audit is only 30 days away," he said. "We've worked with companies that say 'We're a strategic partner, we're in the Oracle top 50,' and then they're audited."

Colon offered a range of advice concerning license cost. While Oracle and other vendors tend to offer better deals at certain times of the year, customers shouldn't be easily tempted by a low price, he said: "Waiting until a vendor's end-of-year, end-of-quarter may not be in your best interest if it's changing your business process. ... Everyone wants to get a good deal, but discount isn't the whole game. It's total cost of ownership."

To that end, organizations should take a close look at their existing annual support costs, he said: "You may find that your support is a lot better than you thought, or you might find products that you're supporting and not using. ... or that Oracle has acquired half the software you've got and now it can be supported under one envelope."

In fact, enterprises should review their annual support spending at least twice per year, Colon argued.

IT shops should also seek to rework any complex and ambiguous language in license contracts; determine how globalization and consolidation has altered their company's licensing needs; mull the ramifications of licensing among mobile workers; and ensure they have collected all proofs of purchases for storage in an asset management repository, Colon said. His company advises enterprise-software customers of companies including Oracle and Microsoft.

When renewal time comes, companies should weigh whether it makes more sense to renew the existing pact or formulate a new one, according to Colon. "Businesses are very dynamic. If you have an agreement signed four years ago, chances are it doesn't work for you today," he said.

Firms must also ensure they and Oracle are working from the same set of terms and conditions, Colon warned: "You want to make sure you're protected -- believe me, Oracle is going to make sure they're protected."

Author: Chris Kanaracus @ www.pcworld.com

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Kepware adds Oracle connection to KEPServerEX

Kepware Technologies announced that its KEPServerEX Product will provide manufacturing plant floor execution data to Oracle’s manufacturing applications, which are part of the Oracle E-Business Suite.

The latest generation of Kepware's OPC server technology, KEPServerEX, was designed to allow users to quickly setup communications from equipment to control and business systems via a wide range of available "plug-in" device drivers and components. As part of this relationship, Kepware is enhancing its KEPServerEX product to deliver several new features including; 1) OPC Client functionality – enabling KEPServerEX to act as a gateway from any OPC Server including third party device drivers as well as higher level HMI/SCADA or Historian products, 2) a first level of data analytics – generating derived information from real-time plant floor data and 3) complex data tags – aggregating information into concise time or event relevant structures.

“Kepware is extremely proud to work with Oracle,” says Roy Kok, VP of Sales and Marketing for Kepware. “As a partner, we deliver plant floor data into their current and future products. The architecture of our KEPServerEX product is a natural fit for all OEM applications, delivering high reliability and consistent operation across all 130+ protocols that we offer, in a solution that is easy and straight forward to validate and support. The new developments required for this project will be delivered in the form of new options to benefit all existing Kepware customers,” he added.

"Oracle continues to look for companies that can support our overall manufacturing strategy. We were impressed by what Kepware has to offer and expect Kepware to help expand our capabilities in the shop floor connectivity space," said Jon Chorley, Oracle Vice President SCM Product Strategy. "Kepware provides a combination of benefits including a wide range of protocols for device communications, product capabilities to handle complex data and a vast number of industry relationships that will benefit our joint customers.”

“This relationship is enabling customers to leverage the full benefits of OPC as an open technology enabling connectivity within the automation marketplace” stated Thomas Burke, President of the OPC Foundation. “The combined solution will offer connectivity to virtually any plant floor data through the use of Kepware drivers, or their new OPC Client implementation. Kepware’s additional support to create complex data, as part of this effort, will form the foundation for OPC-UA connectivity in the near future,” he added.

“The manufacturing performance and visibility market has emerged over the last several years from a few startup software suppliers focusing on OEE to a critical function that has attracting most enterprise and operations software suppliers explained Bob Mick, VP Emerging Technology, ARC Advisory Group. He continues, “Oracle has been building out their Operations Management functions and has reached the stage where they need out-of-the-box access to a broad range of operations information, including legacy systems, to be successful. A Kepware partnership provides immediate access to operations information, help with OPC related architecture, and a method for remaining current with new developments from automation and other suppliers moving forward.”

About Kepware
Kepware is the world leader in communication software for automation and offers unique experience in both OPC and embedded device communications. Since 1995, Kepware has focused on the development of communication drivers to automation controllers, I/O and field devices. Operating system support includes; Microsoft Windows Desktop, Windows Server and Windows Embedded (Windows CE and Windows Embedded NT/XP). Today, with over 130 communication protocols, and through the efforts of our direct sales, distribution and embedded partners, Kepware is the leading provider of communications with annual shipments exceeding 100,000 units. Kepware’s responsiveness to customer needs and strong partnerships with other leading automation suppliers ensure that your next application will be a success. Ask around and you’ll hear why automation professionals everywhere consider Kepware Technologies "Automation’s Best Friend."

Source: www.automation.com

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Oracle launches Data Integration Suite

Oracle Data Integration Suite, combines traditional data integration capabilities with middleware and tooling for SOA. Oracle launched on Monday Oracle Data Integration Suite, which combines traditional data integration capabilities with an array of middleware and tooling for constructing a service oriented architecture.

Data Integration Suite costs $60,000 per CPU for a package that bundles Oracle Data Integrator and Oracle/Hyperion Data Relationship Manager with the company's BPEL Process Manager, enterprise service bus, application server, business-to-business engine, and business rules engine, according to a statement.

"This is really Oracle attempting to go a long way toward providing a credible alternative to IBM Information Server," said James Kobielus, an analyst with Forrester Research. IBM released Information Server in October 2006; the product sits at the center of the company's Information on Demand Strategy.

In turn, Oracle's suite aligns its data-integration offerings with its Fusion Middleware line for SOA.

Additional options in the suite include a new pair of data quality tools, Oracle Data Quality for Data Integrator and Oracle Data Profiling, which the company developed with Harte-Hanks Trillium Software.

"Finally, Oracle now has best-of-breed data quality tools," Kobielus said.

Also, Oracle is optionally offering its Coherence Data Grid, technology acquired through Oracle's purchase of Tangosol last year, and a number of adapters, including ones for applications and unstructured content, as options.

The company did not provide pricing information for the optional items.
Overall, the suite reflects the further integration of two key Oracle acquisitions, Sunopsis and Hyperion, into the company's core Fusion Middleware lineup, according to Kobielus. "There's a lot of Sunopsis and Hyperion DNA in this," he said.

Oracle bought Sunopsis, maker of an ELT (extract, load, transform) tool in October 2006. The company plunked down $3.3 billion in March 2007 for Hyperion, which had a master data management product among its offerings.

IBM, Oracle, and SAP are now the main industry contenders in terms of a truly broad data-integration suite, according to Kobielus. Other large enterprise stack vendors, such as Red Hat or Sun, might be wise to make some acquisitions in this space, he added.

Marketing materials announcing the Oracle's release stress the suite's applicability to heterogenous environments, noting its support for a broad array of databases, including IBM DB2, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Teradata, and Oracle.

This is telling, right down to Oracle's positioning of its own database at the end of that list, Kobielus said. "IBM is also strongly heterogeneous," he noted.

Author: Chris Kanaracus @ www.infoworld.com

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Kaiser, Oracle cut property deal in Pleasanton

Kaiser Permanente and Oracle Corp. have fashioned a complex property transaction in the Hacienda Business Park that could bolster the economic and job base of the Tri-Valley.

Kaiser has bought three buildings from Oracle in Pleasanton that the software giant now occupies, according to public records in Alameda County. Oakland-based Kaiser has agreed to rent the buildings to Oracle so the Silicon Valley company can continue to occupy them.

Separately, Oracle is moving forward with a city permit that would enable the tech firm to build a new office building across the street from the ones Oracle sold to Kaiser in late December.

So what do all these maneuvers and deals mean? Kaiser is poised to significantly expand its operations and employment levels in Pleasanton. Oracle appears to be amenable to planting major roots in the East Bay city -- if the Redwood City-based company constructs the new building and occupies it.

"We're very happy to know that Kaiser has made a permanent home in Pleasanton and that Oracle will continue its commitment to our community," said Pamela Ott, the city's economic development director.

Oracle and Kaiser wouldn't discuss the deals. The price was not disclosed for the buildings. Here are the highlights of the various transactions:

# Kaiser bought from Oracle two office buildings, each totaling 186,000 square feet, and a data center. These three buildings are on the south side of Owens Drive near the Pleasanton-Dublin BART station.

# Oracle remains in the three buildings under a rental agreement with Kaiser.

# Oracle is going through the city's approval process to construct a new 186,000-square-foot building that is next to and will be identical to an existing building that Oracle owns and occupies. The site of these buildings is the north side of Owens Drive near Hacienda Drive.

If Oracle ultimately decides to move into the new building, the upshot would be hundreds of new jobs for Pleasanton.

"Kaiser continues to grow in this area, and we don't think they are done with the Tri-Valley," said Brian Lagomarsino, a broker with Colliers International, a commercial realty firm.

Both of the office buildings that Kaiser bought from Oracle can accommodate about 600 employees, which means Kaiser could conceivably move 1,200 workers into the two buildings.

"It's a good sign for Pleasanton, long term," Lagomarsino said.

The transactions are not the first time that office buildings in Pleasanton have changed hands between Oracle and Kaiser. In 2005, Oracle sold Kaiser four office buildings a short distance away near the corner of Baker Drive and Owens. These four buildings are occupied primarily by Kaiser information technology workers.

The latest deals mark the second purchase of Tri-Valley office buildings by a high-profile corporate user in recent weeks.

In December, Fremont-based semiconductor equipment maker Lam Research Corp. paid $36 million for a two-building complex in Livermore. The seller was another chip equipment maker, San Jose-based KLA Tencor Corp.

"You have two brand-new corporate users coming into the marketplace," said Jim Peterson, a senior vice president with Cornish & Carey Commercial.

Although it's expected to take two or three years for Oracle to move into its new building, city officials say these kinds of expansions are a welcome reversal of the misfortunes the Tri-Valley suffered after Oracle's purchase of PeopleSoft Inc.

Other companies, such as Kaiser, State Compensation Insurance Fund and Lam, have materialized to pick up the slack.

"PeopleSoft was a hometown company, and nobody in town wanted them to go away," Ott said. "Some of the concerns that were expressed when Oracle took over have abated over time. These deals are exciting for the city of Pleasanton and will help the city maintain its economic vitality."

Author: George Avalos @ www.contracostatimes.com

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