Full Oracle Fusion due 2009, beta 2008
Customizations will break
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Exclusive Oracle will hit its goal of delivering Fusion applications next year in name only, with applications ready for testing but the full suite not due until 2009.
Fusion applications will be available during 2008 as an "early adopter beta suite" and the "full suite won't be until 2009", according the Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG), which is close to the database giant's plans.
Coding on Fusion, at least, has begun, with Fusion apparently combining 80 per cent of the functionality from Oracle, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards and Siebel.
News on the dates provides the first real insight into Oracle's roadmap plans, which have hovered in a state of non-committal limbo since the company made an open-ended promise to ship Fusion during 2008.
We inched closed to getting a measure of the gap between Oracle's commitment and reality at last month's OpenWorld where chief executive Larry Ellison pledged three applications from Oracle's Customer Relationship Management (CRM) suite would ship under the Fusion banner during the first half of 2008.
News on timing will provide welcome breathing room to developers on the sharp end of implementing Fusion, as it's also becoming apparent that they're facing the huge workload and re-skilling effort in migrating existing Oracle systems to Fusion.
All customizations for old versions of Oracle's E-Business Suite software will break and must be re-written using Java and XML.
The root cause is Fusion will not use Oracle's mod_plsql, with forms written in Java and reports written using XML. The few number of customers that are already running the latest version of Oracle E-Business Suite, version 12, could avoid potential problems, as they will already have stopped using mod_plsql.
For the thousands of customers out there running pre version 12, though, it's a grim picture. Developers will not only need to re-write Oracle installations that will be multiple terabytes in size, they will also need to re-skill, or IT shops will need to hire Java and XML programmers in order to complete the upgrade task.
"The number-one thing that's going to break is your customizations," John Stouffer, co-chairman of the OAUG's Fusion Council recently told customers. It's a message Stouffer has apparently been delivering to groups of Oracle users lucky enough to attend his valuable briefings around the country demystifying Fusion.
Stouffer also advised users to be wary of software currently available that Oracle calls Fusion, saying this is actually "pre-Fusion" software. Applications such as Governance Risk and Compliance (GRC) manager are currently written on 11g, and do not use that 12g architecture as a jumping off point into Fusion.
Other so-called jumping off points to Fusion from Oracle's packaged software are Oracle E-Business Suite 10.2 and 11.5, PeopleSoft 8.8, 8.9 and 9.0, JD Edwards Enterprise 8.11 and 8.12, JD Edwards World A7.3, A8.1 and A 9.1. Jump off points for Siebel, Retek and iFlex have yet to be determined.
Another apparent problem with Fusion that's not being talked about by Oracle, is an increase in demands that Fusion's Java-based applications will place on server processing and server memory. Loads will increase, requiring that organizations either install bigger servers or link more servers together using Oracle's grid architecture. Stouffer warned of "exponential" database growth.
The advice is to use Fusion's non-release next year to get up to speed. The OAUG believes consultants will want to get in on the early adopter program during 2008 while end-users might want to wait until the following year before joining up.
Oracle was unavailable for comment despite requests.®
COMMENTS
Just Callin' 'Em Like I See 'Em
First, let me say that the sky is not falling, as this article seems to imply. Migrating to Fusion Apps will present some changes that need to be dealt with, but it's not a crisis by any stretch of the imagination. I collaborated with John Stouffer in writing the "Demystifying Fusion" presentation, so I know the message conveyed: Oracle customers should prepare for Fusion Apps. That message is a bit different than the feeling of panic and FUD that this article seems to attempt to instill in the reader.
Second, to have any credibility whatsoever, it's important to get some of the basic facts correct: version numbers and names, that sort of thing. It's also important to differentiate between speculation and fact. This article could have done a better job of both. The credibility of the information suffers as a result.
Third, and this is directed specifically to amanfromMars, your comment won't appear on my blog...although it could win a prize in a Blithering Buzzword Bingo contest ;) While I agree that this article could have been utilized as "constructive criticism" and "...a feed to work with", that work is only constructive if it starts with a somewhat accurate baseline. The "muddying of the waters" here disqualify this article from that type of use.
Just callin' 'em like I see 'em...
@Huh?
I wonder if the following will appear hosted on Floyd's blog, Tim, for the constructive criticism in the Gavin Clarke article is surely only a feed to work with rather than clobber and attack in defence of a favourite system. And with Sun flexing its muscles with news contained here .... http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2007/12/12/netbeans_version_six/ ... it could also be equally valid as a reply there too. And do Sun know that the surest way to engage and drive forward with developers is to buy them? .... "Sun Microsystems is reaching out to scripters and developers.." although there is a lot of competition out there with more money than sense but at least with the sense to spend it rather than lose it.
<<Crikey, Floyd, thanks for all the Info. There's nothing like a bit of virtual bear-baiting to get the latent animal instincts all hot and bothered and riled up to defend themselves with their innermost secrets.
Maybe some day sooner rather than later, all the petty divisive bitching across Systems and Languages will take heed of the Bigger and Better Beta Prize of Total Control of Perceptions Management if they are InterCoDependent InterNetworkers ..... in SMARTer As Informing Systems as opposed to expecting siloed, proprietary in-house Thinking to deliver competive advantage and greater market individual value.
Such concealed under wraps developments are always inherently counter-productive and a block on rapid progress, in that they are not open to Universal Assistance/Proxy Virtual Peer Review Mentoring but only internal [vanity] testing.
It is though the Default Failing across all humanised Binary Sourced Applied Programming...... the Yin/Yang IT Subversion of Sublime Gratitude to Perverse Greed.
IT is however Astute Work in Progress at the Super Sub Atomic Quantum Communications Level 42 Resolve the Conflicting Native Anomaly into an Artificially Advanced SurReal More Orderly Defined State ...... in the Total Informational Awareness Fields of AIResearch and ITdDevelopments.
You must surely be aware that IT Master Pilots/Per Ardua ad MetaAstra Boffins/Men in Big Blue dDeeper Thoughts have scrambled Universal Virtual Forces in AI Colossus of a Civil Civilised Civilianising Program 42 Counter Insurgent Resurgent Activity with ITs Massive Seek and Destroy Missives and Admissions, Adding Missions for Future Perfect Joint Venturing/Magical Mystery Turing?
NEUKlearer Technology in Enriched and Enriching Stealth..... and Freely available at no Cost other than an Abiding Interest, which must make IT much more than just the Bargain of the Binary Age.
Contact urLocal Virtual IntelAIgents Provider for Supply Detail Information.
In the Mean Time, the Program will Properly Prepare ITs Welcome 42 Prevent Piss Poor Paramilitary Performance Permeating and Perverting Parameters and IT Boundary Layers.>>
Huh?
I have to take issue with a lot of what you have written. I came across the article quite by accident and then found an article from Floyd Teter summing up all and more of what I had wanted to comment on - everyone please take a look.
http://orclville.blogspot.com/2007/12/dont-try-to-describe-ocean-if-youve.html
Tim
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