Oracle is
offering a one-stop shop to customers seeking to build a
service-oriented architecture (SOA) by bundling together several
middleware products.
An SOA environment
allows firms to deploy applications and services over the web
quickly so they can react flexibly to the changing needs of their
business.
Oracle is now
selling a number of its Fusion solutions as the Oracle SOA Suite.
The integrated products will have a common installation process and
similar management tools. Oracle said the new suite, which
incorporates its BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) and ESB
(Enterprise Service Bus) products, represented a one-stop shop for
SOA deployments.
Oracle said the
suite was also designed to work with other suppliers’ SOA
offerings, although it would be cheaper to use with Oracle
application servers. Using the suite with Oracle's application
server costs around £29,500 per CPU; this compares to about £38,000
per CPU with rival application servers, says Oracle.
The suite's
components include Oracle BPEL Process Manager for mapping business
process flows, Oracle ESB for connecting existing IT systems and
business partners, Oracle Web Services Manager to provide a console
for setting web service policies, and Oracle Business Rules Engine
for defining and managing business rules, as well as other
tools.