Oracle’s ‘Tsunami’ Is on the Way

Oracle is close to unveiling new Web services tools and a content management server as the cornerstone of its new information lifecycle management (ILM) strategy.


In a joint event touting its technology and applications in San Francisco next week, the company will work to instill the theme of “information” into
the minds of some 20,000 registered attendees, said Bob Shimp, vice
president of technology marketing at Oracle.


Oracle OpenWorld San Francisco combines the OracleWorld and Oracle AppsWorld
shows in an attempt to show unity under ILM. The emerging strategy, already
touted by EMC , IBM , HP and others, focuses on managing information from its inception to its disposal.


ILM is crucial at a time when government regulators are hawkishly watching
businesses to make sure they are keeping records for specific lengths of time.


“We see the world changing from a focus on networks and business processes
to more of a focus on building your application around your information,”
Shimp told internetnews.com. “We’re going to be talking about our ILM
vision and new technology support for that.”


While Shimp refused to confirm it, Oracle officials have said the
company will unveil Tsunami
, the code name for its enterprise content
management (ECM) server.


ECM is an integral part of ILM because it helps companies manage information
on networks fraught with e-mail, media files and loads of other unstructured
traffic. Tsunami is Oracle’s answer to the glut of data that threatens to
clog networks, and it will compete directly with ECM products from IBM and
Microsoft.


“Content management is going to come to the forefront,” Shimp said. “A
number of the vendors, Microsoft most notably, have painted a vision of how
you should do content management, but no one has been able to deliver on it
and Oracle will be the first.”


For example, the company has major new designs to broaden Web services
support for its application server, said Vijay Tella,
vice president and chief strategy officer of Oracle Application Server. Tella
refused to provide specifics, but he said Oracle’s model for grid
computing will move into focus more than ever.


Tella did tell internetnews.com that customers in 2004 are looking
for complete SOA portfolios and application platform suites.


Oracle officials previously said the show will be the launch platform for
Oracle Integration, an update to the company’s Data Hub strategy
for synchronizing information in one consolidated view.


Integration includes Oracle’s 10G Application Server, with improved support
for Web services, BPEL , EDI and a host of other
protocols. Like Microsoft, IBM and BEA, Oracle is looking to steer the
industry away from classic enterprise application integration and toward
service-oriented architecture (SOA) .

Distributed computing architectures that subscribe to the notion of reusing
assets such as code, SOAs are the choice of future software platforms for
customers who want to cut down on manual coding.


As for the conference, which will run from Dec. 6-9, Shimp said he
anticipates it will be the largest ever for the company, which made a big
splash when it introduced its 10g grid computing in 2003. Some 600 sessions
are expected to convene.

Get the Free Newsletter!

Subscribe to our newsletter.

Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis

News Around the Web