Oracle Emphasizes Enterprise 2.0 Credentials

A year on from staking a claim on the "Enterprise 2.0" landscape, Oracle last week sought to re-emphasize its credentials by briefing analysts and customers on its progress to-date.

The terms Enterprise Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 are often used interchangeably to describe the application of Web 2.0 ideas and technologies within the enterprise. However, a clear distinction exists between the use of these two terms, and this differentiation is important to maintain going forward, as it enables more meaningful discussions to be had when examining the future role of IT within the business.

Building on the somewhat vague and yet particular usage of the term Web 2.0, Enterprise Web 2.0 describes a fresh, and some would say new, approach to the design and provision of business applications that incorporates aspects such as social networking, collaboration, and real-time communication.

In addition, Enterprise Web 2.0 places more emphasis on the user’s "experience" or "joy of use", something of a novelty in enterprise IT these days.

By comparison, Enterprise 2.0 focuses on the composition and architecture of the IT ecosystem, and the associated business models that will support Enterprise Web 2.0 applications. Oracle’s decision to use the tag of Enterprise 2.0 sits comfortably with this terminology, as for the most part Oracle’s primary offerings sit at the infrastructure layer.

Viewed from the perspective of a potential customer, Oracle’s recent acquisition spree has left it with a number of overlapping products, solutions, and technologies in this area. Last week’s briefing therefore provided the company with an opportunity to reposition and re-emphasis its strategy.

Oracle has clearly been busy these past 12 months as evidenced by the release of several offerings that bring the power of Web 2.0 technologies to the enterprise. The company now offers a growing range of integrated tools and services for delivering "context-aware" applications, effectively collaborating, and simplifying the management and archiving of unstructured content. These are the products and technologies previously associated with Plumtree, BEA, and Stellent, all of which have now been subsumed by Oracle.

Oracle WebCenter Suite, one of four portal offerings from Oracle, provides the foundation for the company’s Enterprise 2.0 strategy. This user interaction and portal platform can be used to support and integrate ad hoc and structured business processes, and is also suited to custom and packaged enterprise applications.

Oracle’s new collaboration platform, Oracle Beehive, is an open platform for integrated and secure collaboration, and marks Oracle’s third attempt to break into the enterprise collaboration market. Oracle recently acquired the intellectual property assets of California-based Tacit Software for an undisclosed sum to expand its collaboration platform, and so it will be interesting to see where this takes Oracle.

It is clearly a mistake to think that Web 2.0 is all about technology, and likewise Enterprise Web 2.0. But it is also a mistake to dismiss the technology altogether. Selecting and implementing enterprise social software solutions, next-generation collaboration solutions, and Rich Internet Applications requires careful thought, consideration, and planning.

Organizations must now consider Oracle’s credentials and capabilities along with those of its competitors in this important new area.

Author: Richard Edwards @ www.computerwire.com

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