Oracle plans to unveil Oracle Integration, a product
that combines the company’s application server with several other
technologies for integration and enablement of SOAs
(service-oriented architectures).
The integration package, which will be unveiled at the Oracle
OpenWorld conference in San Francisco in December, will support
multiple standards-based technologies, including web services, BPEL
(Business Process Execution Language), EDI, RosettaNet, ebXML
(electronic business XML), HIPAA, and HL7 (Health Level 7).
B2B support and data integration will be key functions of the
product. BAM (business activity monitoring) will be provided via a
console that visualises what is going on with the architecture.
Oracle with the package is attempting to provide SOA
technologies as a successor to EAI, which focused on messaging and
message brokering, said Amlan Debnath, Oracle vice-president of
server technologies.
“EAI is giving way to SOA-based integration,” he said.
Looking to compete against offerings such as BEA Systems’
WebLogic Platform and IBM’s WebSphere, Oracle believes it is
offering a more complete standards-based product that does not rely
on any proprietary translations at the core.
BPEL-based transactions, for example, would not be stored
internally in a proprietary manner but in exact, BPEL semantics, he
said.
“We’re using standard formats” to prevent any loss of
information, said Debnath.
EDI-based communications in Oracle Integration will be offered
both over the internet and value-added networks, Debnath said.
Analysts at ZapThink were pleased that Oracle is focusing on
integration but wondered whether the company is actually offering
anything different from what already is on the market. They also
questioned whether Oracle could keep up with IBM and BEA.
"They keep updating their marketing to sort of talk about what
they want to be, but comparing them with what IBM and BEA are
doing, I liken them to the five-year-old who tags behind the
10-year-old [and] who wants to play along but [is] just not up to
the task," said Jason Bloomberg, senior analyst at ZapThink.
Oracle did not have details on pricing and availability of
Oracle Integration. The product will run on Oracle-supported
platforms such as Linux, Solaris and Windows.
Paul Krill writes for Infoworld