Oracle and BEA- The Real Fusion
Three years back Oracle concocted Fusion middleware to integrate and merge all its key enterprise applications into a high quality Fusion Application.Who would have thought that even Fusion middleware will undergo further Fusion?Acquisition of BEA Systems last year has enabled Oracle to position itself as the strongest in providers of middleware and java technologies for enterprises.
Last two quarters we have seen a sea change in Oracle’s middleware strategy for most of its customers. Ambiguity and turbulence generated in customers and solution providers due to overlapping seem to be fading now. 2009 is expected to bring better understanding of the strategy of Oracle and its right adoption.
Oracle Fusion Middleware will exhibit a new face with its next version (11g) planned to be rolled out by mid of this year. It will have blended offering originating partly from BEA and partly from Oracle portfolios. BEA's Web Logic Server and Aqua Logic BPM combined with Oracle's BPEL Process Manager and Web Center will be flagship products for the new OFM stack.
Oracle has announced that all pre-acquired products will be supported for the next five years, allowing customers to leverage existing investments. Most enterprises, using BEA or Oracle technologies need to know how they are impacted by Oracle's new technology road map. There are no radical changes needed, but next investments will need to be planned meticulously.
Next target for Oracle is to have all middleware products upgraded to be "hot-pluggable" with the ability to run on multiple Java application servers, such as those from competing vendors like IBM to support multiple infrastructures. Many components for example, BPEL PM, Coherence, Top Link, and J-Developer are already hot-pluggable. However to make BEA products like Aqua Logic Service Bus work on application servers other than Weblogic will be a daunting task.
If one were to ask Oracle on the top three motivating factors behind the acquisition honest answer would be - increase in market share, customer base and entry in Chinese market. The bold decision made by Oracle to drop homegrown products, opens easy opportunities for competitors to coax customers away from Oracle/BEA but many believe and are sure it would only reinforce faith of its customers in Oracle in providing best in class products to them.
According to Gartner “Investments in Oracle's middleware are low-risked”, Acquisition of BEA Systems will not disrupt OFM's architectural foundations or technology direction. Both are strongly founded and nurtured in Java and they support the same set of fundamental standards (XML and SOA).
The real fusion has begun now heralding a new powerhouse.
I would like to hear your views if you are impacted by one of the biggest mergers in IT middleware camp.
Oracle has announced that all pre-acquired products will be supported for the next five years, allowing customers to leverage existing investments. Most enterprises, using BEA or Oracle technologies need to know how they are impacted by Oracle's new technology road map. There are no radical changes needed, but next investments will need to be planned meticulously.
Next target for Oracle is to have all middleware products upgraded to be "hot-pluggable" with the ability to run on multiple Java application servers, such as those from competing vendors like IBM to support multiple infrastructures. Many components for example, BPEL PM, Coherence, Top Link, and J-Developer are already hot-pluggable. However to make BEA products like Aqua Logic Service Bus work on application servers other than Weblogic will be a daunting task.
If one were to ask Oracle on the top three motivating factors behind the acquisition honest answer would be - increase in market share, customer base and entry in Chinese market. The bold decision made by Oracle to drop homegrown products, opens easy opportunities for competitors to coax customers away from Oracle/BEA but many believe and are sure it would only reinforce faith of its customers in Oracle in providing best in class products to them.
According to Gartner “Investments in Oracle's middleware are low-risked”, Acquisition of BEA Systems will not disrupt OFM's architectural foundations or technology direction. Both are strongly founded and nurtured in Java and they support the same set of fundamental standards (XML and SOA).
The real fusion has begun now heralding a new powerhouse.
I would like to hear your views if you are impacted by one of the biggest mergers in IT middleware camp.
Comments
You have rightly stated that the new fusion of middleware stack is going to be powerful with blend from both the worlds. It will give IBM run for its money.
Do you have a list of products that will be deprecated in OFM 11 ?
Posted by: Rahul | January 5, 2009 6:03 PM
Oracle has a tough task ahead to ensure it sets a right roadmap for BEA clients to move to Oracle products. As far as I think, Oracle has no radical plans to sunset BEA products, some of them are in fact better than Oracle's. Few ex BEA employees mentioned that Oracle will allow BEA products to operate in the same way as that of the PeopleSoft acquisition. However, IBM has more complete and long running product suites in middleware and it will be difficult for Oracle to challenge IBM's presence in middleware.
Posted by: Samarjit | February 4, 2009 2:36 PM