At a customer event here Wednesday, Oracle executives detailed the components of its Fusion Middleware, which will eventually underpin all its applications. A limited roll-out of the server infrastructure software will kick off toward the end of 2005, they said. The process is expected to take several years.
Oracle refers to Project Fusion as its ongoing initiative to integrate customers from acquired business software makers PeopleSoft, Retek and JD Edwards, which PeopleSoft had bought before PeopleSoft was purchased by Oracle.
The executives said the Fusion middleware is Oracle's answer to NetWeaver, rival business software maker SAP's most strategic development effort. NetWeaver is standards-based infrastructure software, or middleware, designed to ease data interoperability in SAP applications.
Charles Phillips, Oracle's president, said that the company invites the competition from NetWeaver because the Fusion middleware is based on existing application server products already used by customers. By contrast, SAP does not have a history of selling middleware.
"If SAP wants to compete by talking about infrastructure, great. We've been doing that for years," Phillips said.
"SAP has done neat packaging (with NetWeaver), and they've talked about it. But very few customers can say, I'm using NetWeaver for 'X,'" he said.
The Fusion middleware consists of several components, including a Java application server, a Web portal, business intelligence software and Oracle's Collaboration suite for e-mail and Web conferencing. The software is based on Java and Web services standards, which will make it easier for customers to modify Oracle programs and share information with non-Oracle-based systems, according to the company.
Next year, two major upgrades of Oracle's packaged applications--Oracle eBusiness 11.i.12 and PeopleSoft--will be certified to run on the middleware suite, said John Wookey, senior vice president of applications at Oracle. Other lineups, such as the JD Edwards range, will have new products certified for Fusion as they are released, he said.
Fusion will also cover Oracle's data hubs, which is software meant to make information easier to track by providing a single instance of data for many applications. The company expects to release a data hub for companies to track products next month.
Eyeing SAP customers
Although Oracle has its hands full trying to
retain thousands of newly acquired customers, the company has its sights on SAP
customers with wandering eyes.
Oracle recently launched an internal program called SAP Battle Desk that is designed to nab SAP customers who may be considering their options during a significant application upgrade, Phillips said.
In particular, Oracle is targeting those businesses that may need to install SAP's NetWeaver infrastructure software during an upgrade project.
"SAP is changing its architecture, and that will require some major changes. So if they're going through such a hard upgrade, they might as well look at what else is out there," Phillips said.
SAP is counting on NetWeaver to ease integration between outside products and its applications. This year, the German software maker plans to begin publishing the interfaces of NetWeaver and inviting third-party companies to build add-ons to the SAP applications.
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