Springtime is in full swing, and that means two things for many of us in the IT community: Our allergies are flaring up, and we are having to attend too many technology conferences. Fortunately, I am not suffering from the former malady, but I am having to bear the latter one with as much good humor as I can muster. In that spirit, please join me on a virtual trip around the IT conference circuit to learn about the announcements that will influence the choices of System i users.
First Stop: Collaborate 07
For the first leg of our journey, let's land in Las Vegas, where three of Oracle's application user groups joined to hold their annual meeting three weeks ago. Collaborate 07 was a particularly important event for JD Edwards World users. That is because Oracle showed up to announce World A9.1, a new version of the enterprise application suite that runs exclusively on the System i. World A9.1 features about 1,300 enhancements in several key areas, including a body of Java-based programming interfaces that lets the solution participate in service-oriented architectures. To learn more about World A9.1, check out my recent post to the JD Edwards Advisor, a new Web site that I manage for Andrews Consulting Group.
Besides being generous to World users at Collaborate 07, Oracle announced a technology initiative that could benefit users of any of the vendor's applications. The initiative, known as Oracle Application Integration Architecture, defines a body of common objects for all Oracle applications. The object model is based on open industry standards and will be kept consistent as Oracle ships new releases of its applications.
By publishing the object specifications, Oracle will make it easier for both IT vendors and users to integrate Oracle's products and their other applications. Indeed, Oracle is using the object model to develop its own integrations between its applications. The integrations, which Oracle calls Process Integration Packs, will offer "out of the box" connectivity between the vendor's growing portfolio of products. Several Process Integration Packs are already in plan for applications found at companies that use the System i. These include Oracle's E-Business Suite, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, and Siebel applications.
Our Next Destination: SAPPHIRE '07
Our virtual jet plane now touches down in Atlanta, this year's venue for SAP's international customer conference. Two weeks ago, SAP used SAPPHIRE '07 to make several important announcements along with its partners. For starters, SAP laid out a road map for the new functionality it will deliver in its NetWeaver family of middleware products over the next couple of years. The enhancements will include the following:
- Support for AJAX and Web 2.0 social networking technologies in NetWeaver's portal server and its browser-based rich client
- New facilities for creating Web services–based composite applications and monitoring business activities via those applications
- Enhancements to NetWeaver's business intelligence and master data management tools that will make it easier for business users to analyze corporate data
Many of the enhancements will ship with NetWeaver 7.1, the next release of the middleware platform, which is due to ship during the second half of this year. While many System i users who use SAP applications have held off on deploying NetWeaver, the new release should give them reasons to reconsider the middleware platform.
Speaking of road maps, SAP joined with Microsoft to announce plans for future versions of Duet, software that enables Microsoft Office applications to access SAP business processes. Among the enhancements planned for Duet are Office access to SAP's sales, supply chain, and customer relationship management software. Microsoft also intends to ship support within Duet for its Office SharePoint Server family of collaboration tools. Much of the new functionality should become available in Duet 2.0, which is planned for the end of 2008.
A Quick Hop to the MySQL Conference
While SAPPHIRE is not over yet, we must catch a flight to Silicon Valley, where open-source database provider MySQL AB is holding its annual conference. The trip turns out to be well worth it, as IBM's System i team is here to make an important announcement. IBM and MySQL AB have agreed to work together to certify DB2 for i5/OS as a MySQL storage engine. This means that the System i will be able to run MySQL applications and store the data in DB2. In addition, IBM will resell MySQL Enterprise, the database vendor's flagship product and service offering.
The certification of DB2 for i5/OS as a MySQL storage engine could make the System i significantly more attractive as a server of Web-based workloads. Over the last several years, much of the code for Web applications has been written to MySQL and other open-source databases. Indeed, thousands of PHP scripts are written to MySQL. While System i users can run these scripts via Zend for i5/OS, they often have to modify these scripts to support DB2. Once DB2 is certified as a MySQL storage engine, these PHP scripts should run without modification. Of course, we will have to wait until the certification is complete to see whether this theoretical benefit turns out to be a real one.
The Never-Ending Conference Junket
Our virtual journey could go on from here to many more destinations. After all, we have not yet visited Anaheim, where COMMON held its annual conference last week. We could also jet over to St. Louis to attend IBM's PartnerWorld event for its Business Partners. Unfortunately, we do not have time to do so in this article, so look for coverage of these conferences in other postings. As for your travel-weary industry analyst, I'm going to unpack my bags, take an aspirin, and hit the lounge chair for a long nap.
Lee Kroon is a Senior Industry Analyst for Andrews Consulting Group, a firm that helps mid-sized companies manage business transformation through technology. You can reach him at
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