Oracle expands SOA support

Showcases new Fusion middleware offerings

Oracle today unveiled new components in its Fusion middleware range, including the latest version of its service-oriented architecture (SOA) 10g suite and Developer Depot, a free Java tool for building SOA applications.

Oracle said that SOA Suite 10g Release 3 features a one-click install, designed to speed up SOA deployments; an improved enterprise service bus (ESB) to reduce the application programming burden; and new workflow capabilities and web services security. A new framework for automated testing and service simulation of SOA applications has also been added.

Meanwhile, Developer Depot uses Web 2.0 technologies like asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax) to simplify the development of new applications by re-using code and making it available on the Oracle Technology Network.

Elsewhere at the OpenWorld user conference in San Francisco, Oracle announced plans to integrate Adobe Flash technology with its Fusion line, letting developers create graphical user interfaces for enterprise applications.

Oracle Accelerate, a program designed to push SOA technology into vertical market sectors and small and medium-sized firms, was also launched. The tool builds customised solutions tailored to specific industry sectors, and offers a partner community and automated user training programs to simplify implementation.

“The solutions come pre-configured with the requirements firms need to run their business and use a wizard to create a live version of the software based on inputted business information,” said Tony Kender, a senior vice-president at Oracle. “You can have a new live implementation in a matter of hours, and what used to take months now takes weeks.”

Oracle plans to offer more customised products. “There is a huge world beyond enterprise resource planning for [offering] customised applications [to] smaller enterprises, and we’re getting into that,” said Oracle president Charles Philips. “We’re building industry business units around communications and retail, for example, and we’ll get more industry orientated over time.”