Oracle enterprise architecture framework builds momentum and value.

too big. Shrinking budgets and reduced Research of MIT’s Sloan School of

he Center for Information Systems

rolling multiple solution architectures

staff can also make enterprise architecture Management defines enterprise architecture

into cohesive enterprise architectures.

appear to be too much to handle. as “the organizing logic for business pro-

And that help had to extend beyond the

“Because of that, a lot of organiza- cesses and IT infrastructure reflecting the

Oracle perspective to encompass other

tions tend to implement just solution integration and standardization require-

technologies.

architectures,” says Covington, “and they ments of the firm’s operating model.”

“So our organization set out to create

don’t take advantage of the economies Sounds important, right? Some orga-

a framework that would help jump-start

and the value associated with an enter- nizations, however, don’t see it that way.

enterprise architecture,” says Covington.

prise architecture.” “They look at architecture as overhead,

“Our goal wasn’t to replace any of the

Using the Oracle enterprise archi- and many of them don’t even have an

existing enterprise architectures, like

tecture framework, an organization can individual or a department to address

TOGAF [the Open Group Architecture

gain economies of scale by merging it,” says Oracle ACE Director Basheer

Framework] or FEA [Federal Enterprise

two or three solution architectures, Khan, CEO of Innowave Technology.

Architecture] or Gartner, but to provide

using those savings to continue and Other organizations might think they

a tool that could expedite the process of

expand that process. “So you get a have an enterprise architecture, but they

implementing enterprise architecture.”

snowball effect that allows you to instead have what Oracle ACE Jordan

The Oracle enterprise architecture

incrementally expand the value of Braunstein describes as a “hair ball.”

framework team created a just-enough,

enterprise architecture in your organi- “I can’t tell you how many customers

just-in-time framework that will allow

an enterprise to get started with enter-

zation,” Covington says.

It doesn’t take an MIT scientist to see architecture is OK,” says Braunstein,

I work with who think that their current

prise architecture without getting

how such a snowball might be an effective business integration and architecture

bogged down in unnecessary processes,

weapon against hair-ball architecture. O partner at Rolta TUSC. “And they’re

paperwork, and artifacts.

“Our goal,” says Jahangir, “was not

Bob Rhubart (bob.rhubart@oracle.com) is manager transactions. Not only are they losing

sitting there telling me they’re losing

to build a framework for the sake of

of the architect community on Oracle Technology transactions, but they don’t know where

building a framework but to really look

Network (OTN), the host of the OTN Arch2Arch to look for them.”

at the end results, to be very solution-

podcast series, and the author of the ArchBeat blog Convincing the unenlightened to take reverse-engineer a framework that fits

and business value–oriented, and then

(blogs.oracle.com/archbeat). enterprise architecture seriously takes

that principle.”

more than just talk. “At the end of the

The resulting Oracle enterprise

day, it’s not enough if we paint a pretty

collection of easily ignored, quickly for- next STEPS

architecture framework is more than a

picture,” says Khan. “We need to have

the tools and the wherewithal to make

gotten documents.

LISTEN to

the picture a reality.”

“We’re not looking at it as yet another

Introducing the Oracle Enterprise

set of documents or artifacts that just Architecture Framework

www.bit.ly/pu2eK

ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE FOR REAL

gets published and uploaded into a

Hair-Ball Architecture and Other Nightmares

Bob Covington and Hamza Jahangir are

repository,” says Jahangir. “We’re looking

www.bit.ly/477pJ6

doing their part to frame that reality.

at what needs to be built and what

more Architect (OTN Arch2Arch)

Covington and Jahangir are directors

needs to be addressed at a certain point

podcasts

of enterprise architecture in Oracle’s otn.oracle.com/syndication/arch2arch-podcasts in time to progress you toward creating Enterprise Solutions Group and were

value for your business.”

GET more OTN architect information

otn.oracle.com/architect

instrumental in the creation of the Oracle

READ more about

enterprise architecture framework.

JUST ENOUGH, JUST IN TIME

enterprise architecture

Covington, Jahangir, and their col-

That just-enough, just-in-time focus is

otn.oracle.com/architect/entarch

leagues were getting calls for help from otn.oracle.com/architect/entarch/pdf/ part of a mission to overcome the percep-

oea_framework.pdf

customers who were having difficulty

tion that enterprise architecture is just

24 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010

ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE

BY J E F F E R I C K S O N

Top of the Stack

OAUG helps members make the most of evolving infrastructures.

hese days when Oracle Applications Tokyo, Japan; Paris, France; and New Users Group (OAUG) members gather

Delhi, India. But all roads lead back to to talk shop, they often discuss infra-

Las Vegas, Nevada, for COLLABORATE structure technologies such as SOA and

10, the largest independent Oracle user business process management. “It’s all

conference (to be held April 18 through very exciting,” says OAUG President Ray

22), which OAUG sponsors with Payne. “This is where Oracle is going

Independent Oracle Users Group and with its next generation of applications,

Quest International Users Group. and we intend to help our global mem-

New technologies present new learn- bership stay on top of it.”

ing opportunities. “With Release 12 of As an Oracle ACE and president of

Oracle E-Business Suite based on Oracle OAUG, Payne was a busy guy at Oracle

Fusion Middleware, we’re seeing more OpenWorld 2009. I used several of his

OAUG sessions on topics such as Oracle fellow OAUG board members to triangu-

SOA Suite and Oracle BPEL Process late his position and get a few minutes

Manager,” says Payne. “People are with him. Payne was eager to talk about

excited about the possibilities.” OAUG on the cusp of its 20th year.

In addition, members have shown a Payne has been a part of OAUG for

OAUG President Ray Payne

lot of interest in Oracle’s Hyperion appli-

cations. “In 2010 we’ll try to meet that changes in applications technology—

18 years. In that time, he’s seen a lot of

This huge and diverse body of tech-

need with three conferences dedicated and OAUG. In 1993, Payne presented a

nologists forms more than 100 special

to Hyperion,” he says. The first of those paper at a conference on how to query

interest groups (SIGs), and 53 of them

conferences will take place in Jersey Oracle E-Businesss Suite data through

held meetings at Oracle OpenWorld

2009. “Our SIGS are very active,” he says. City, New Jersey, February 22 and 23.

While OAUG helps its members says, “but back then it was innovative.”

a Web browser. “That’s old hat now,” he

OAUG’s vast activity is reflected

follow Oracle’s lead, it also helps Oracle About 600 members attended that

by the volume of online resources

gain a better view into the real-life use 1993 conference. By 1997, when Payne

exchanged on the OAUG site. “It’s full of

cases of its technology. “A few years joined the OAUG board of directors,

nitty-gritty stuff like how to do encum-

back, I relayed to Oracle executives that almost 8,000 attended the group’s

brance accounting in general ledger, or

our members would like to access Oracle annual meeting. “Our growth mirrored

how to incorporate document imaging

support right from the Oracle E-Business the explosive growth of Oracle in those

into your workflows,” Payne says.

Suite console,” says Payne. “This year, days,” Payne says. Payne’s career grew at

OAUG provides free online classes

Larry Ellison announced that feature in the same time, as he moved from appli-

and hosts the OAUG Knowledge Factory,

his Oracle OpenWorld keynote.” cation developer to application manager.

which features online forums, education

That cycle indicates the value that By the time he was elected OAUG presi-

and information resources, and a data-

OAUG and Ray Payne bring to members. dent in 2008, the group’s database had

base of more than 4,000 papers. Still,

“Evolving with Oracle,” says Payne, “has grown to more than 1 million individual

the best way to meet people and gain

firsthand technical knowledge is through always been a rewarding experience.” O contacts around the globe, and Payne

a face-to-face meeting.

Jeff Erickson is a senior editor with Oracle Publishing. infrastructure at his employer.

had become chief architect for Oracle

“Our group meets everywhere from

Argentina to Russia, and we continue

All individual members join OAUG

to grow our international membership,”

STEPS

through corporate memberships. “We

says Payne. “We held our first Dubai

have about 2,200 corporate members,”

conference last year, and we will inau-

JOIN OAUG

says Payne. “Anyone from those organiza- www.oaug.org gurate a Budapest conference this May.” tions can sign up to be part of an OAUG

Payne often makes the international

WATCH Up Close videos

VID DEAL

oracle.com/us/oramag/upclose

DA event and use the online resources.”

scene, having spoken in Singapore;

ORACLE MAGAZINE

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010

BY B L A I R C A M P B E L L

Simple Pleasures

On the journey from toy cars to tuning, Linux as a life-changer, and getting back to basics Tanel Poder

sysadmin in my university’s

peer SPECS

How did you get started in IT? I computer lab. To me, the fact

Company: HP

was 11 years old when I found

that students can now get a head

Job title/description: Oracle DBA

an old BASIC programming in HP’s SaaS organization, responsible start in serious IT technologies

for installations, upgrades, tuning,

manual on my mother’s desk

like Linux by playing with them

backup, and recovery

and started reading it. I was

right on their home PCs for free

Location: Cupertino, California

Oracle credentials: already interested in electron- Oracle is amazing.

Certified Professional (Oracle

ics and building electric toy

You’ve taken Oracle University [OU]

Database 10g), with 10 years of

cars, but this book showed me experience using Oracle products classes in the past. What led you

a way to build something cool to do this? I take training very

without having to physically assemble anything. I asked to take

seriously. Everyone on our six-

a BASIC programming course, and after learning BASIC I went person DBA team tries to take at

otn.oracle.com/community/oracle_ace

on to learn Pascal, dBASE, and C.

least one OU course every year—

Which new features in Oracle

mostly covering a new technology we’re considering imple-

peer SPECS

Database are you finding most

menting. OU instructors are usually very experienced and

Company: TanelPoder.com, a consulting and training business

valuable? Being a performance

offer a lot of value that you can’t get from books alone.

specializing in advanced Oracle tuning

geek, I like Oracle Database

and troubleshooting services and database design

11g’s Real-Time SQL Monitoring

Piet de Visser

Job title/description: Founder

feature the most. It allows you

Which new features in Oracle

and consultant, focusing on complex

to determine, in real time, which

Database are you finding most

tuning and troubleshooting issues spanning multiple components in the

part of an execution plan a long-

valuable? The Oracle Database

enterprise infrastructure stack

running SQL statement is spend-

11g improvements in Oracle

Location: Singapore

ing most of its time in.

Partitioning are quite helpful,

Oracle credentials: Oracle Certified Professional (Oracle8

If you were going to the International

and I see great potential for

Database, Oracle9i Database) and

Space Station for six months and

Oracle Real Application Testing

Oracle Certified Master (Oracle9i Database), with 13 years of

could take only one Oracle reference

and Result-Set Caching.

experience using Oracle products

book, what would it be? Christian

What advice do you have about

Antognini’s Troubleshooting Oracle

getting into Web or database development? Get your basic IT

Performance [Apress, 2008] is the

education right. Reading the work of Chris Date is a good start.

best Oracle performance-tuning

Understand ACID [atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durabil-

otn.oracle.com/community/oracle_ace

book out there.

ity] and the 12 rules by Ted Codd. Listen and try to understand the needs of your business and

peer Chen Shapira SPECS your clients; then strive for sim-

Company: Logica.com, an IT and

What’s your favorite tool or technique on the job? PL/SQL. Even as

plicity and clarity. Finally, avoid

business services company

a DBA, I still find development skills very important. There

hype-of-the-day stuff.

Job title/description: Database

are many repetitive aspects to my job, and the only way I can consultant and DBA, responsible for

What green practices do you use

assisting with technical architecture,

make time for fun or chal-

in your DBA work?

I build simple

troubleshooting database issues, and

lenging tasks is by automating coaching fellow DBAs, developers, and efficient systems that don’t

managers, and architects

everything that can be auto-

need ridiculously large machines

Location: Rotterdam, the

mated. PL/SQL is a great tool

in order to function properly.

Netherlands

for this, thanks to its native

A system with no frills requires

Oracle credentials: Oracle

integration with the database. Certified Associate, with 19 years of fewer resources and less mainte-

experience using Oracle products

What technology has most

nance and is therefore “greener”

changed your life? Linux. I

overall. And I rarely print any-

actually got my start in IT

thing, as I find paper too heavy

when I found work as a Linux

to lug around. O

otn.oracle.com/community/oracle_ace

26 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010

ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE

HONORING EXCELLENCE

Leading companies demonstrate innovation, environmental leadership, and excellence with Oracle technologies and applications.

O Oracle Innovation Award (formerly the Oracle

racle’s customers and partners dem-

onstrate leadership in many areas of Excellence Award). For the second year, technology, applications, and sustainability— Oracle recognized outstanding achieve- from implementing business intelligence

ments in environmental leadership with initiatives and deploying Oracle

the Oracle Enable the Eco- grids to solving the chal-

Enterprise Award (formerly lenges of midsize

the Oracle Empower the businesses and

Green Enterprise Award). establishing green

Oracle honored partners business practices.

for innovative uses of In 2009, Oracle

Oracle technology by pre- sponsored several

senting two sets of awards: awards programs to honor

the first annual Oracle customers and partners for

PartnerNetwork Global Awards their achievements and vision.

and the Oracle North America In the area of Oracle Fusion

Titan Awards. Winners were Middleware, Oracle, in conjunc-

selected for excellence in solving tion with six user groups, commended

real-world customer challenges and customers for their achievements in

for their development and deploy-

middleware deployments with the ment of Oracle technology.

GETTY IMAGES

ORACLE MAGAZINE

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010

Oracle Business Intelligence/Enterprise

vices at Business for Social Responsibility,

Performance Management Innovation

and Kathleen Schwille, director of program

Award winners:

development at National Geographic

t AWE

Education Programs.

t British Telecom t CAE

Oracle Enable the Eco-Enterprise Award

t City of New York

winners (and their respective partners,

t Continental Airlines

if applicable):

t Dubai Aluminum

t Abigroup (partner: Ndevr)

t EuroChem

t EMC

t Florida State University

t IBAMA (partner: Condomínio de Soluções)

t General Dynamics

t Kraft Foods Global t MARIA FORNEY Ingersoll Rand t Ministry of Justice of Turkey

VocaLink’s Hussein Badakhchani (right) accepted the 2009 Oracle Application Grid Innovation Award from

t Marsh

(partner: Havelsan)

Hasan Rizvi (left), senior vice president of product

t Mercer

t Missouri Division of Professional Registration

development at Oracle, as Ajay Patel (center), vice

t NetApp

(partner: Tallgrass Technologies)

president of product management at Oracle, watched from the podium.

t Pearson Education

t Motorola (partner: Deloitte Consulting)

t Pernod Ricard

t NH Hoteles (partner: Oracle Customer

t Singapore General Hospital

Services)

ORACLE INNOVATION AWARDS

t Panduit

The Oracle Innovation Awards recognize orga-

t Reflexite (partners: Andrews Consulting nizations for innovative deployments of Oracle

Oracle Business Intelligence/Enterprise

Performance Management Implementation

Group and WTS)

application grid, Oracle business intelligence,

t Remote Energy Monitoring and Oracle’s enterprise performance manage-

Partner of the Year Award winner:

t Business Intelligence Consulting Group

t S-OIL

ment system, all of which are components

t San Diego Gas & Electric of Oracle Fusion Middleware. Oracle also

(BICG)

(partner: Capgemini) recognized one partner for its implementation

ORACLE ENABLE THE ECO-ENTERPRISE AWARDS

t Sprint

t Utah Department of Transportation performance management solutions.

of Oracle business intelligence and enterprise

The Oracle Enable the Eco-Enterprise Awards

recognize Oracle customers for their envi-

ORACLE PARTNERNETWORK GLOBAL AWARDS Oracle and the Australian Oracle User Group,

The 2009 awards were cosponsored by

ronmental leadership. Oracle presented this

For the first time, Oracle presented the Oracle Independent Oracle Users Group, Oracle

award to 15 global customers and their

PartnerNetwork Global Awards, which recog- Applications Users Group (OAUG), Oracle

respective partners from a wide range of

nize partner excellence in a number of catego- Development Tools User Group (ODTUG), Quest

industries. The winning companies rely on

ries, including Oracle Accelerate, applications, International Users Group, and United Kingdom

Oracle Applications and technologies to

industry, midsize, and technology. In addition, Oracle User Group. A panel of judges from

support their green business practices and

the award features a separate track that rec- Oracle, OAUG, ODTUG, special interest groups,

reduce their environmental impact while

ognizes value-added distributor (VAD) partner and the user community selected the winners.

improving business efficiencies.

The 15 winning companies for 2009

performance from around the world.

A team of IDC executives and ana- Oracle Application Grid Innovation

were selected by a panel of six judges,

lysts, including Martin Canning, Philippe de Award winners:

which included four Oracle green experts as

well as Cody Sisco, manager of advisory ser- Marcillac, Henry Morris, and Ricardo Villate, t Agilent Technologies t Avis Budget Group Inc. t Bank Zachodni WBK S.A. t Barclays Global Investors t Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) t Credit Suisse t Express & Transportation Research Institute (Korea) t General Electric t J. Crew Group Inc. t Royal Bank of Scotland t TD AMERITRADE Holding Corporation

HARTMANN STUDIOS

t VocaLink

Winners of the 2009 Oracle Enable the Eco-Enterprise Award with Oracle Chairman of the Board Jeff Henley (right)

28 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010

ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE

The categories, winners, and runners-up for the 2009 Oracle PartnerNetwork Global Awards are as follows:

Accelerate t Winner: Business Technology Services

(BizTech) t Runner-Up: InoApps

Applications t Winner: Kalypso

HARTMANN STUDIOS

t Runner-Up: Business Services Provider de Venezuela

Judson Althoff (left), senior vice president, Worldwide Alliances and Channels, at Oracle, presented the Oracle

Industry

PartnerNetwork Global Award in the Accelerate category to Business Technology Services. Tom Connolly (second from left), Margot McDonnell, and Kyle Snyder accepted the award.

t Winner: IBM Global Business Services t Runner-Up: Deloitte Mexico Midsize

Accenture and IBM Global Business Services t Winner: Cloud Creek Systems

sales, marketing, and solution development.

t Enterprise 2.0: Deloitte Consulting t Runner-Up: GuangZhou Wisetop Computer

The 2009 recipients were selected by a panel

t Enterprise Performance Management and (GZ Wisetop)

of 68 judges that included IDC analysts;

Business Intelligence: InterRel Consulting Technology

Everything Channel journalists; and Oracle

sales, marketing, and development executives. t Enterprise Resource Planning: CD Group t Winner: Deloitte Consulting

t Oracle Accelerate Application: Business t Runner-Up: Inatech Solutions

The 2009 Oracle North America Titan

Technology Services (BizTech) VAD

Awards recognized 13 leading partners across

t Oracle Database, Grid, and Oracle Real t Winner: Arrow ECS Alternative Technology

17 momentum and solutions categories.

Application Clusters: Cloud Creek Systems Group

Momentum categories and award recipients: t Security and Identity Management: SENA t Runner-Up: Beijing Teamsun Technology

t Global SI Applications Momentum: Accenture Systems t Regional Systems Integrator/Reseller

t SOA and Integration: Deloitte Consulting ORACLE NORTH AMERICA TITAN AWARDS

t Specialty Applications: Kalypso For the sixth year, Oracle presented the Oracle

Applications Momentum: CD Group

t Technology Momentum: BIAS

North America Titan Awards, which recognize Industry-specific solutions categories and partner solutions and best practices devel-

award recipients: oped or delivered in the award year. Oracle

Solutions categories and award recipients:

t Industry: Terillium PartnerNetwork honored partners that dem-

t Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing:

t Life Sciences and Health Care: IBM Global onstrated excellence in categories including

Deloitte Consulting

t Customer Relationship Management:

Business Services t Manufacturing: Infosys Technologies

t Public Sector: Applications Software Technology

next STEPS

Oracle enterprise architecture framework builds momentum and value.