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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