Oracle Delivers XML-Enabled Infrastructure for E-Business

Contact(s):

Paige O’Neill Oracle Corp. 650/506-3429 poneill@us.oracle.com

Shannon Mollner Applied Communications 415/365-0222 x266 smollner@appliedcom.com

Message Broker Capabilities Build on Oracle(r) Application Server and Oracle8i(tm) to Enable Reliable Content Exchange Across the Internet

LOS ANGELES, Calif., Apr. 14, 1999-At Internet World today, Oracle Corp. announced a complete infrastructure, based on the eXtensible Markup Language (XML), for the exchange and management of information associated with all aspects of e-business. This technology offers a more flexible server infrastructure to help companies solve complex business problems such as content routing, processing and management. As part of this infrastructure, Oracle announced that it is working on message broker capabilities which will be combined with Oracle’s Internet platform-Oracle8i(tm), Oracle(r) Application Server and Oracle Tools-to comprise a complete infrastructure for e-business.

As businesses evolve their electronic commerce strategies from consumer storefronts to business-to-business application integration, infrastructure requirements become increasingly demanding. True success requires operations to be integrated tightly with customer relationship management applications such as sales force automation and call centers, and with back-end ERP applications and data warehouses. New requirements for customer self-service and supply-chain integration further fuel the need for application integration.

More specifically, Oracle today announced:

• XML-enabled message broker capabilities: a scalable, reliable infrastructure that will allow businesses to intelligently process, transform and route XML-based information.
• XML support in Oracle8i: available immediately in the form of an XML Parser. The XML Parser facilitates the storage and re-construction of XML documents to and from Oracle8i.
• A new version of Oracle Application Server (see separate release), and a roadmap for the product that is a central component of Oracle’s XML-enabled Internet platform.

Oracle: Making XML Ready for Prime Time XML already provides a standard, extensible method of describing data in a structured way, but businesses seeking to realize its potential also require a flexible server infrastructure to route, transform, store and propagate XML messages. At the same time, XML is quickly emerging as the leading choice for inter-application communication. However, to date, there is no comprehensive platform that provides XML storage, processing, and rules-based content routing for managing mission-critical business-to-business information.

The Oracle Internet platform, consisting of Oracle8i, Oracle Application Server, and Oracle’s message broker capabilities, will address these problems by providing an XML-enabled server infrastructure that can interface with any e-commerce server and back-office system, including order-entry and billing applications.

"XML is rapidly becoming a required standard for electronic business and we consider it a core technology offered within our Internet platform products," said Chuck Rozwat, senior vice president of Oracle’s Server Technology division. "Oracle is delivering the scalable, reliable, secure infrastructure needed to make the promise of XML a reality."

Oracle8i Adds Support for XML
Oracle8i, the industry’s first Internet database, provides a complete content management platform for all kinds of Internet data including text, documents, video, audio, and graphics. With core XML support directly in the database, organizations will benefit from a reliable, high-performance database architecture for new kinds of XML-enabled documents.

Oracle8i is unique in allowing businesses to gain the full benefits of the information in their XML documents. XML content that resides in file systems as static documents is difficult to manage, search, and re-purpose in new views and applications. By storing XML data in the database, companies can leverage the information it contains in multiple ways across multiple applications, and can take advantage of database security, replication, and other features for easier management and administration.

Oracle8i’s core XML support makes it possible to build applications that store XML in the database as either documents or data, and that publish XML documents from existing data and queries. It makes development more productive by simplifying the tight integration of XML with database data, and by extending the power of database queries to XML documents. Oracle8i also makes applications more scalable by processing database data and XML together in the same server, eliminating network traffic for data access and improving the performance of XML document generation and processing.

Leading Applications Vendors and ISVs Commit to Oracle’s XML Infrastructure More than 30 leading application vendors and ISVs have committed to support Oracle’s XML strategy, including: 170 Systems, Inc., Agile Software Corporation, Applied Automation Techniques (AAT), BidCom, BPA SYSTEMS, Inc., Bluestone Technologies, Calico Technology, Inc., Cap Gemini, Cascade, Celerity Solutions, CIMx, Cinebase Software, Inc., Commercepath, DataChannel, GE Information Systems, Harbinger Corporation, HK Systems, Hewlett Packard, Indus International, Inc., LPA Software, Inc., Manugistics, Mat-Man, Rorke Data Systems, Sterling Commerce, Synergen, Syntra Limited, Thomson Corporation, Tomax Technologies, Inc., Vastera, Inc., and Yantra Corporation.

"BPA SYSTEMS is excited about Oracle’s dynamic XML support as it shows Oracle’s continued commitment to innovation and standards support," said Michael Palmer, President, BPA SYSTEMS. "The Oracle Internet Platform is the platform of choice for Supply Chain Execution solutions. This validates BPA SYSTEMS focus on an Oracle-only strategy."

Oracle: The Open Standards Leader
Oracle continues to participate in and drive the definition and adoption of open Internet standards. The company is actively involved in the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) process to define XML standards, and is active in many of the key XML Working Groups, including XML, XSL, XML Schema, XML Query, XML Linking and XML Infoset. Oracle also makes XML infrastructure components available to the developer community through Oracle Technology Network (http://technet.oracle.com), the online resource for developers building applications for the Oracle Internet platform. For more information about Oracle’s XML support go to (http://www.oracle.com/xml).

Oracle Corporation is the world's leading supplier of software for information management, and the world's second largest independent software company. With annual revenues of more than $8.3 billion, the company offers its database, tools and application products, along with related consulting, education, and support services, in more than 145 countries around the world.

For more information about Oracle, please call 650/506-7000. Oracle's Worldwide Web address is (URL) http://www.oracle.com/.

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