Tag Archives: Oracle

Oracle middleware cloud – what does it mean to Mulesoft and Apigee?

10 Friday Oct 2014

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Oracle will soon be launching 2 cloud offerings – a hosted approach to their heavy weight SOA Suite middleware. But more importantly potentially for some of the cloud integration players like Mulesoft and Apigee is a lighter, web interface IDE solution. This lighter solution is clearly aiming (and statements made to the effective of) the Gartner pace layering ethos where you want to quickly link existing services together to offer new capabilities. This new cloud integration service will be aware of all the other cloud service APIs from Oracle you have and provide smart prebuilt transformations, which you can extend or change if you want. For non Oracle integrations the service is meant to use some intelligence and heuristics built through how other customers have realised mappings to make suggestions. With control frameworks for security, access and errors etc based policy mechanisms.

The solution includes access to prebuilt connectors to obviously Oracle products, but also the likes of Salesforce, Workday and more coming like Successfactors. When combined with other new cloud offerings such as their new mobile apps then the pacing message becomes a lot stronger. Add to this the cloud adoption of the CEP (Complex Event Processing) engine (which looks very good) and the addition of several API tools next year for catalog and realtime discovery and they will have a pretty solid suite.

With this lighter weight cloud solution there is meant to be means to pull the integrations out of the cloud and into on-premise middleware deployments. This makes sense as a lot of the capability looks to be built on top of OSB.

Add to all of this the other service offerings being launched such as Dropbox like distributed document with google doc like collaboration and there is a very potent story for the Oracle one stop shop. So you could use Oracle for best of breed integration but convenience and who got fired for buying Oracle is likely to be ruling story.

I suspect you will see Oracle appear strongly in the iPaaS assessments by Gartner soon.

Given Ellison has indicated that the new cloud services from Oracle will be aggressively priced it will be interesting to see how the smaller players differentiate themselves. I suspect one of the keys will be the speed of offering new capabilities by their cloud solutions both at the product core and through connectors. Prior to the 12c launch the rate of change in the middleware space didn’t appear to be rapid.

Oracle Open World Middleware Update

09 Thursday Oct 2014

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So having been fortunate enough to attend part of Oracle Open World I provided some support to the UKOUG Fusion Middleware SIG chairman with a short briefing on some of the key points from OOW.

The following are my initial notes, if you want the complete deck, it should be available through the UKOUG website.

Cloud
– key note from Larry was all cloud, cloud cloud
– more SaaS than anyone else – announced dozens of services is the last year – probably hundreds across all the sectors
– build and buy
– platform upgrade
– data as a service – BlueKai acquisition Data Management Platform
– Some of these offerings included capabilities that sounded like enterprise offered Dropbox – so might soon see personal cloud?
– data migration of data or app up and down from cloud push of a button (reality bit more complex)
– innovation for securing the cloud at lowest levels
– going after b2c and b2b capabilities

Middleware Cloud
– SOA Suite as a hosted solution or integration cloud which more like web UI for OSB integration.
– ethos change for integration cloud no deployment – develop and promote to production
– Override able Automated mappings when going between own cloud services or Oracle adaptors to 3rd party. Can built own mappings and incorporate own functionality
– Configuration controls policy driven such as error handling etc
– Can bring integrations back to on premise
– breadth & agility / ease (pace layering started to get mentioned a lot more)
– Use cases such as linkage to mobile – 7-11 use case
– More cloud adaptors coming to support 3rd party
– API inventory and discovery capabilities coming – successor to OES
– Support for JSON and REST alway through SOA rather than transformational capability only

Mobile Application Framework
– seems to have crept up quietly, successor to ADF mobile in the form of MAF Faces
– by delivering hybrid strategy like Phone Gap but enables Java in a container on Andriod & iOS
– MAF actually incorporates Apache Cordova – the open source version of PhoneGap
– with it is a new UI presentation style with all the support style guidance – ALTA
– Java on iOS but Jobs said …. done by compiling to native solution

A couple of presentation grabs ….

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JDeveloper 12c

29 Tuesday Jul 2014

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So I have been using JDeveloper 11g for a while and have to admit that I wasn’t a big fan finding a bit flaky and prone to crashing. The biggest driver to using it has been the fact that it offers a lot of XMLSpy like features without the stupidly high XMLSpy license costs.

With JDeveloper 12c arriving I took the opportunity to give it a go. Wow, is it so much better – quicker particularly during the startup cycle and way more reliable. The features around XSD editing haven’t significantly changed but just feels subtly easier to use.

With all the features around working with SOA Suite 12c and Weblogic 12c for core Oracle development I can imagine it is a huge step forward.

With the easier deployment of 12c getting PoC work done should be a lot easier. It’s just a shame still needs that huge 8GB footprint to do anything meaningful and my company laptop being a notebook (great for travelling with) doesn’t pack that punch and Oracle isn’t yet offering low cost SOA Suite deployments in the cloud yet.

Oracle SOA Suite, AIA, PIPs and Fusion apps

23 Monday Jun 2014

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I recently presented on the subject of Oracle middleware (FMW) with an emphasis on  SOA Suite, Application Integration Architecture (AIA), Process Integration Packs (PIPs) and Oracle Fusion Applications.  Below is a derivative of the presentation.  I’ve sought to identify how the technologies relate, and how Fusion applications relate to the non Fusion products.

For those trying to get to grips with this technology stack – you might find the notes useful as I’ve included plenty of links to associated information.

Impact on Integration when Moving to Fusion Apps

17 Tuesday Jun 2014

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So as a road mapping question I have been thinking about the migration to using Fusion Apps so we have a road map and more importantly design patterns that will support a transitions from the likes of Ebiz R12, Siebel etc to their Fusion successors.

Example of Coexistance

Example of Coexistance

In broad terms the application level transition through the principles of co-existence are well established. What is currently exercising the grey matter is the middle migration. Perhaps the best way to explain this is through an example. The Product Data Hub (PDH) solution exists to provide a Master Data Management capability for your widest and gadgets.

You will want to share that master data with other apps such as Ebiz so you can deal with say order management. All fairly obvious, and in Fusion Apps world the different components should inherently work together. Back in R12 world though you are probably going to be using the Product MDM PIP (Process Integration Pack) with the Ebiz extension pack. When using the PIP like this then it’s just a case of retiring the PIP. But this PIP is designed so that you can extend the process to publish Master Data to your own apps for example you also push the data to your design systems as you maybe sharing available parts data.

So now we have an extended PIP whic in a simple Fusion apps migration you’d leave behind. But leaving the PIP behind also means an integration gap. So what is the answer.

Well on the early days of Fusion Apps the suggestion was that AIA and PIPs would be part of the ongoing story. but the reality is little has moved in this space. Understandable, Fusion Apps development had been far bigger than anyone expected, if fusion Apps are directly conversant then how much real demand exists for the PIP transformation. So what is the answer, well at this stage I’m not sure. I can say I have seen ABCS’ mentioned in the public FusionAppsOER. We know that AIA Foundation Pack EBOs are realised in Fusion Apps albeit via ADF BCs.

Given Fusion Apps underpinnings are the same as AIA so it should be possible to drop the AIA Foundation Pack (FP) into your Fusion Apps environment (setting aside all the licensing questions it would raise). Can you therefore drop in the PIP and disable the legacy Oracle app elements leaving your custom extensions? Do you accept a rewrite of your integration all be it you should just need to redevelop the orchestration layer (ABCS’ for Fusion App exist and you can carry forward your own ABCS’ for your app such as the design system in our illustration)?

Deployment of Fusion Apps with Non Fusion Apps

Deployment of Fusion Apps with Non Fusion Apps

Hopefully in the coming weeks we will get the opportunity to uncover answers with Oracle.

Oracle Press Offer More Free Books

14 Saturday Jun 2014

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Oracle press are offering another free book Simplified User Experience Design Patterns for the Oracle Applications Cloud Service in addition to the previously mentioned

  • Getting Started with Oracle NoSQL Database
  • Securing Oracle Database 12c: A Technical Primer

Just need to go to http://eservice.mhprofessional.com/vm.asp?i=57A08X3D95X5 and register.

SOA Patterns on the Oracle Platform

12 Thursday Jun 2014

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The last Packt book I contributed to as a technical reviewer is due for release this month according to the Packt site (go here).  Looking forward to seeing the final result.

 

Oracle NoSQL – free EBook

06 Friday Jun 2014

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Oracle Press are currently offering a free eBook copy of Getting Started with Oracle NoSQL Database, all you need do is register at http://books.mcgraw-hill.com/ebookdownloads/NoSQL/ to get the book.  I don’t know how long the offer will last, so I’d suggest getting it quickly.

Oracle WebCenter Suite Structure Representation

23 Friday May 2014

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When it comes to understanding the range of products and how product families fit together Oracle have created some helpful block diagrams, such as the one below.

SOA / AIA Structure

This really helpful – particuarly when trying to understand potential licensing relationships. However there doesn’t appear to be an equivalent diagram (certainly not on OTN). So after a bit of navigating around OTN we have produced the following diagram:

WebCentre Suite Makup

WebCentre Suite Makup

If you find it useful, help yourself but a nod would be appreciated.

Oracle Big Data Handbook – summary review

05 Monday May 2014

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Having written several detailed reviews of Oracle Press’ Oracle Big Data Handbook (links below) I thought it useful to produce a summary. Over all is a very insightful and informative book covering the range of technologies that Oracle offers to address the ‘Big Data’ space from a number of view points such hardware with the Big Data Appliance (BDA), software with NoSQL, Enterprise R and Hadoop along with the various adapters (e.g. ODI) and existing product features that existing products make available to support the big data story and contribute to make a cohesive ecosystem. The book looks beyond the technologies classically linked to the ‘Big Data’  term to explore products such as Endeca. I like the act that the book tries to explain the rational behind some of the approaches adopted and the associated value propositions. Finally book looks at governance, maturity and architectural capabilities. All of which makes for an informative and insightful book.

The book isn’t flawless a few challenges that can make the reading a little frustrating occasionally (at least for me as I went cover to cover), for example,looking at the Big Data Appliance we seem to revisit the hardware specifications multiple times. The data governance perspective is data governance not specific to big data in my opinion. Occasionally the book seems to jump about when explaining a number of related areas which means that using the book as more a reference isn’t so easy. Don’t get me wrong these issues are hugely out weighed by the value it brings.

my detailed reviews:

Oracle Big Data Handbook

Oracle Big Data Handbook