Oracle Fusion Middleware

Oracle Fusion Middleware (OFM, also known as Fusion Middleware) consists of several software products from Oracle Corporation. OFM spans multiple services, including Java EE and developer tools, integration services, business intelligence, collaboration, and content management. OFM depends on open standards such as BPEL, SOAP, XML and JMS.^[1]

Oracle Fusion Middleware provides software for the development, deployment, and management of service-oriented architecture (SOA). It includes what Oracle calls "hot-pluggable" architecture,^[2] designed to facilitate integration with existing applications and systems from other software vendors such as IBM, Microsoft, and SAP AG.^{[citation needed]}

Evolution

Many of the products included under the OFM banner do not themselves qualify as middleware products: "Fusion Middleware" essentially represents a re-branding of many of Oracle products outside of Oracle's core database and applications-software offerings—compare Oracle Fusion.

According to Oracle, by 2006 over 30,000 organizations had become Fusion Middleware customers, including over 35 of the world's 50 largest companies and more than 750 of the BusinessWeek Global 1000, with OFM also supported by 7,500 partners.^[3]

In order to provide standards-based software to assist with business process automation, HP has incorporated OFM into its "service-oriented architecture (SOA) portfolio".^[4]

Oracle leveraged its Configurable Network Computing (CNC) technology acquired from its PeopleSoft/JD Edwards 2005 purchase.

Oracle Fusion Applications, based on Oracle Fusion Middleware, were finally released in September, 2010.^[5]

Assessments

In January 2008 Oracle Universal Content Management won InfoWorld's "Technology of the Year" award for "Best Enterprise Content Manager", with Oracle SOA Suite winning the award for "Best Enterprise Service Bus".^[6]

In 2007 Gartner, Inc. wrote that "OFM has reached a degree of completeness that puts it on par with, and in some cases ahead of, competing software stacks", and reported revenue from the suite of over US$1 billion during FY06, estimating the revenue from the genuinely middleware aspects at US$740 million.^[7]

Oracle Fusion Middleware components

• Enterprise application server
  • Oracle Weblogic Server
  • Oracle Application Server
  • JRockit (a JVM)
  • Tuxedo (software)
• Integration- and process-management
  • BPEL Process Manager
  • Business activity monitoring
  • business rules
  • Business Process Analysis Suite
  • Business process management
  • Oracle Data Integrator (ODI): an application using the database for set-based data integration^[8]
  • Enterprise connectivity (adapters)
  • Oracle Enterprise Messaging Service
  • Oracle Enterprise Service Bus
  • Oracle Application server B2B
  • Oracle Service Registry
  • Oracle Web Services Manager (OWSM), a security and monitoring product for web services^[9]
• Application development tools
  • Oracle Application Development Framework
  • JDeveloper
  • Oracle SOA Suite
  • TopLink, a Java object-relational mapping package
  • Oracle Forms services
  • Oracle Developer Suite
• Business intelligence
  • Oracle Business Intelligence 10g^[10]
  • Oracle Business Activity Monitoring (Oracle BAM)
  • Oracle Crystal Ball - does "predictive modeling, forecasting, and simulation"^[11]
  • Oracle Discoverer
  • Data hubs
  • Oracle BI Publisher
  • Oracle Reports services
• Systems management
  • Oracle Enterprise Manager
  • Web services manager
• User interaction
  • Oracle Beehive collaboration software
  • Oracle Portal
  • Oracle WebCenter
  • Real-time collaboration
  • Unified messaging
  • Workspaces
• Content management
  • Oracle Imaging and Process Management
  • Web content management
  • Records management
  • Enterprise search
  • Digital asset management
  • Email archiving
  • Oracle Universal Content Management: In November 2006 Oracle Corporation acquired Stellent, a software-development company (based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota) which provided content management systems. Stellent's primary product, "Universal Content Management" (UCM), the foundation of most of its other content-management products, became Oracle Universal Content Management as a part of the Oracle Fusion Middleware stack.^[12] Oracle retained the name "Stellent" for this suite of applications. (Before 2001 Stellent had used the name "Intranet Solutions" and called its product first "IntraDoc!", then briefly "Xpedio".
• Identity management
  • Enterprise Single sign-on
  • Oracle Entitlements Server
  • Oracle Identity Manager
  • Oracle Access Manager
  • Oracle Adaptive Access Manager
  • Oracle Information Rights Management
• Grid infrastructure
  • Services registry
  • application-server security
• Performance
  • Oracle Web Cache

Integration, pricing and bundling

Apart from selling licenses to run OFM components,^[13] Oracle Corporation also markets a managed option via the SaaS Oracle On Demand service.^[14]

See also

• Oracle Fusion Applications
• Oracle SOA Suite

References

1. ^ "Oracle Fusion Middleware". oracle.com website. Oracle Corporation. http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/middleware/index.html. Retrieved 2009-07-22. "Oracle's complete family of application infrastructure products — from the #1 Java application server to SOA and enterprise portals — are integrated with Oracle Applications and technologies to speed implementation and lower the cost of management and change." 
2. ^ "Oracle Fusion Middleware is 'Hot-Pluggable'". Oracle Fusion Middleware. Oracle Corporation. http://www.oracle.com/products/middleware/hot-pluggable.html. Retrieved 2009-09-12. "Oracle Fusion Middleware's hot-pluggable capabilities enables customers to 'drop & deploy' various Oracle Fusion Middleware products into their existing IT environments."  (Oracle Corporation's web-page on OFM's "hot-pluggable" capabilities.)
3. ^ "Oracle Marks Key Milestone With Siebel Certification Roadmap for Oracle(R) Fusion Middleware", prnewswire, 2006
4. ^ "HP & Oracle Fusion Middleware and Service-Oriented Architectures". HP. http://h71028.www7.hp.com/enterprise/cache/306020-0-0-0-121.html. Retrieved 2010-02-08. "To address increasing customer demand for standards-based software that will help automate business processes, HP and Oracle have collaborated to incorporate Oracle Fusion Middleware into the HP Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) portfolio." 
5. ^ "Oracle officially launches its Fusion apps". 20 September 2010. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-20016932-92.html. Retrieved 22 September 2010. 
6. ^ "Oracle Fusion Middleware Wins Two InfoWorld Technology of the Year Awards"
7. ^ Pezzini, Massimo; Barnes, Michael; Cantara, Michele; Iijima, Kimihiko (2007) "Oracle Fusion Middleware: On the Road to Service-Oriented Architecture (and Beyond)", Gartner RAS Core Research Note G00145119, Gartner, Inc.
8. ^ Rittman, Mark. "An Introduction to Real-Time Data Integration". http://www.oracle.com/technology/pub/articles/rittman-odi.html?msgid=7689776. Retrieved 2009-06-08. "Oracle Data Integrator, a member of the Oracle Fusion Middleware family of products, [...] is a Java-based application that uses the database to perform set-based data integration tasks" 
9. ^ Lakshminarayanan, Sitaraman (June 2008). Oracle Web Services Manager: securing your web services. Birmingham: Packt Publishing. p. 1. "Oracle Web Services Manager, a component of SOA Suite from Oracle is a web services security and monitoring product that helps organizations not only to define and enforce security policies, but also to define and enforce the service level agreements." 
10. ^ http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/bi/index.html
11. ^ "Oracle Crystal Ball". Oracle Corporation. http://www.oracle.com/us/products/middleware/bus-int/crystalball/index.html. Retrieved 2011-03-01. "Oracle Crystal Ball is the leading spreadsheet-based application suite for predictive modeling, forecasting, simulation, and optimization." 
12. ^ NewsShark (2007-04-30). "Oracle Launches Oracle Universal Content Management 10g Release 3". Information Technology News (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Gilbane Group). http://gilbane.com/news/2007/04/oracle_launches_oracle_univers.html. Retrieved 2010-05-04. "Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) announced Oracle Universal Content Management 10g Release 3, a new component of Oracle Fusion Middleware. [...] Tags: ECM, Oracle, Stellent" 
13. ^ "Section II: Oracle Fusion Middleware" (PDF). Oracle Technology Global Price List. Oracle Corporation. 2009-07-01. pp. 4–6. http://www.oracle.com/corporate/pricing/technology-price-list.pdf. Retrieved 2009-07-22. 
14. ^ "Get to Fusion Faster with Oracle On Demand". Oracle Information Insight. Oracle Corporation. October 2006. http://www.oracle.com/newsletters/information-insight/on-demand/oct-06/ondemand-path-to-fusion.html. Retrieved 2009-07-22. "Companies [...] can turn to Oracle On Demand [...] providing a smoother, lower-risk path to Fusion." 

External links

• Oracle Fusion Middleware
• Intel support for Fusion
• KMWorld article on Oracle acquisition of Stellent
• Official Homepage
• Yahoo! Group for Stellent Users
• Oracle forum for Stellent/UCM product suite
• Content.FM Content Management On Air. Broadcasting news, product updates and general purpose information about ECM and Oracle Universal Content Management