Don't get stuck with AJAX, Oracle warns

JSF is so much better

Oracle this week told developers to be wary of the hype surrounding AJAX frameworks and encouraged large organizations to back JavaServer Faces (JSF) to "Web 2.0-enable" applications.

Ted Farrell, the exec setting technical and strategic direction of Oracle's own development tools, told The Register that most AJAX frameworks focus on the interface and pay lip service to the most challenging part - integration with back-end servers.

Adopting AJAX-based rich interfaces and internet-based applications at this stage could leave their organizations stranded in the future, lacking either skills or an upgrade path to continue working, he argues.

"No one is concerned about the importance of back end technology because [they say] we have web services - you can expose everything as a web service," according to Farrell, speaking at this week's AJAXWorld in Santa Clara, California. Farrell is Oracle's chief architect and vice president of tools and middleware.

"But look at the user interface space... you get UI technologies like Swing, Java, DHTML or JavaScript only to find out technologies and capabilities change and have nowhere to go."

All dressed up and nowhere to go

Farrell warned organizations that take a strategic decision to adopt AJAX, or the other emerging rich internet and client architectures such as Silverlight and Apollo from Microsoft and Adobe Systems, risked getting left behind as these technologies provide no standard way to interoperate with back end servers.

He claimed companies are in danger of repeating past mistakes, of committing to a user interface and then becoming stuck if, or when, things don't work out.

According to Farrell, JSF already delivers the ability to build a rich Web 2.0-style interface while abstracting the developer from integration with the back end. "JSF separates the object model from rendering, you get events back and a render kit decides how the event is rendered," he said.

"We [Oracle] have developers combining Oracle Forms, Siebel and PeopleSoft. Trying to get them to JSF which is declarative and has the tooling is easier than have them learn DHTML... if you have that higher bar you will loose a lot of developers."

AJAX certainly has its challenges, and Farrell is correct to highlight how the Web 2.0 crowd has quickly dismissed integration with back-end servers as a web services thing. Also, JSF presents an interface framework with some kind of critical mass while - at the last count - there existed 134 frameworks serving AJAX, each with its own strengths and approaches.

Java this and Java that

Oracle has made a strategic decision to bet on JSF. The company was quick to to seize on JSF, hatched by Sun Microsystems several years ago and supported by the Java Community Process (JCP). Oracle's JDeveloper IDE has supported JSF since January 2006.

While JDeveloper 11g, expected next year, will feature an AJAX and Flash render kit, Oracle's strategy is to add Web 2.0 capabilities - such as wiki, presence or RSS feed - to its JSF implementation as components. Oracle currently offers more than 100 JSF components, many under open source. Oracle plans to open source its AJAX components next year.

Oracle is releasing the code as it places increased importance on features synonymous with Web 2.0 in its applications. Fusion, Oracle's upcoming customer relationship management (CRM) software, will feature the ability to mash-up maps with contact and sales information, and combine information on individuals' presence and voice over IP (VoIP).

The move is calculated to cut down the nsteps currently needed to find or combine information held in separate systems.

Author: Gavin Clarke

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Oracle Donates $1 Million to JA Worldwide

JA Worldwide (Junior Achievement) announced today that Oracle has awarded a $1 million Oracle Commitment Grant in support of the organization's innovative JA Titan(TM), a web-based business competition for teens. The gift, which will be distributed over the next two years, will expand JA Titan beyond the U.S. and Canada to 10 additional countries around the world.

JA Titan is an innovative online high school-level program that helps students act as virtual CEOs, exercising critical economic and management decisions using an interactive web-based simulation of companies competing in an imaginary global marketplace. JA Titan gives participants firsthand experience in the challenges that come with operating a successful global
enterprise.

"Through Oracle's considerable support, JA Titan will allow American high school students to work with, learn from, and interact with high school students in Europe, Asia, Latin America and other parts of the world," said Gerald M. Czarnecki, president and chief executive officer of
JA Worldwide. "This is going to bring the global economy to life for young people in an exciting and powerful way. It will not only make our global economy more tangible for these students, but it will leave them better prepared to succeed in that economy when they are adults."

Oracle's grant will allow JA Worldwide to translate JA Titan into 10 languages and expand to 10 new countries. Participating countries will be determined in the coming months.

"Oracle is committed to advancing education in innovative ways to ensure that students have access to vital technology skills and training necessary for success in today's global economy," said Rosalie Gann, Director, Oracle Global Corporate Citizenship. "We are excited to expand
our partnership with JA to promote global learning to positively impact the lives of students and communities worldwide."

Source: www.prnewswire.com

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SAAS Doesn't Pay, Oracle's Ellison Says

CEO Ellison knocks SAP's midmarket and on-demand strategy while failing to mention Oracle's own investments in SAAS. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has some definite opinions on the software-as-a-service sector and reaching the lower to midmarket customers traditionally interested in on-demand software: neither area is worth pursuing.

During Oracle's fiscal first-quarter 2008 reporting call with analysts Sept. 20, Ellison expounded on SAP's release the previous day of its Business ByDesign suite, formerly code-named A1S. Ellison pointed out the "radically different strategies" of Oracle and SAP's growth plans and said he believes SAP is wasting its time pursuing the midmarket with an on-demand offering.

"Our strategy for growth is to find a way to add more value to the same customers we already serve, which are the large end of the midmarket and large companies," Ellison said. "What we're doing here is moving beyond ERP [enterprise resource planning] to industry-specific software."

Oracle, based in Redwood Shores, Calif., has pursued a vertical approach to the business applications market—in which it vows to beat global leader SAP—by acquiring best-of-breed technology vendors in specific industries, such as Retek in retail or I-flex in financial services. The strategy is to sell those core applications to its existing ERP and CRM (customer relationship management) installed base.

Oracle's strategy, according to Ellison, is "very different" than SAP's strategy of going after "small companies" with SAP's Business ByDesign suite.

After four years in development, SAP's Business ByDesign suite was announced earlier the week of Sept. 17. The suite is an on-demand, integrated suite of ERP, CRM and other back-office functional applications. SAP is targeting the midmarket first, expecting to add 10,000 customers to Business ByDesign's roster by 2010, and will likely tap its larger enterprise customers through departmental sales once it irons out the kinks of the new software.

Ellison said he believes SAP has taken a misstep with Business ByDesign—particularly in its approach to the midmarket. "We see the problem in that because we've looked at going downmarket," Ellison said. "We've looked very closely at it, and we think it's very hard to make money because there is no synergy. To go downmarket you need a new product and new product development teams. You spend a lot of money developing a whole new product for the low end. But you also need an all-new sales force because we don't call on those customers. We don't call on small businesses, and it's very expensive to call on small businesses. It's very expensive to do ERP implementations in small businesses. The cost of sales is high. The cost of implementation is high. There are virtually no synergies in sales, marketing, and product development and support."

Ellison said that while Oracle thinks the "small market" is interesting because it's large in size, he said, "We just haven't figured out a way to make a substantial profit in that market. We think it's hard to make money."

With regard to successfully selling to small companies, Ellison speaks from experience. Oracle has tried in the past, unsuccessfully, to sell its software to the SMB (small and midsize business) sector, with fair to middling success—results tough to handle for a company that is looking to be the global leader in application sales.

Ellison's statements regarding SAP are not unexpected given the company's strategy of knocking its biggest competitor in the applications market, particularly during Oracle's own earnings calls. What Ellison failed to point out is that Oracle paid a heavy premium of $5.85 billion for Siebel Systems, which had a significant on-demand offering. At the same time, Ellison personally owns about 41 percent of NetSuite, an on-demand ERP company that will compete directly with SAP's Business ByDesign suite.

NetSuite's technology was the basis for the Oracle Small Business Suite. In 2004, Oracle and NetSuite (previously NetLedger) severed their ties with regard to the Oracle Small Business Suite, but in marketing terms only. At the time NetSuite, which sold the Oracle Small Business Suite, changed the name to NetSuite Small Business. NetSuite is prepping for an IPO.

All that said, Ellison does have a point. SAP is tasked with building a (nearly) new channel to sell Business ByDesign—no easy feat for any company to do quickly. SAP currently has about 2,500 midmarket partners, and expects to push the software through its direct sales channel while it builds a partner channel.

"It is our obligation to create a market for our partners. 2008 is a year we are still testing [the Business ByDesign suite] out, so it will be pushed a little by SAP's sales force," said Leo Apotheker, Deputy CEO of SAP, based in Walldorf, Germany, during an interview with eWEEK. "Hopefully rather quickly we will be able to empower our partners so that at the end of the day we will be a full business partner."

Author: Renee Boucher Ferguson @ eweek.com

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