Welcome to 5 Minute Briefing: Oracle an information resource prepared by Database Trends and Applications Magazine and published in cooperation with the Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG). To subscribe, click here.

Oracle Strengthens Enterprise Content Management System

Following the product roadmap it laid out when it purchased Stellent about a year ago, Oracle unveiled several new features for its enterprise content management system at the AIIM conference in Philadelphia this week. The key new enhancement, Brian Dirking, a principal product director at Oracle, is the area of rights management. Rights are now automatically assigned when documents are checked into the content management system, he said.

The integration of Oracle Universal Content Management and Oracle Information Rights Management protects documents and emails that users check in to Oracle Universal Content Management by sealing them with Advanced Encryption Standard and RSA cryptography. This helps prevent unauthorized access to electronic documents and emails, even if it they have been downloaded, emailed, copied or transferred outside the corporate network. It also allows administrators to control access to electronic documents and emails by local and remote users at the individual and group level at any time. Finally, the new functionality does not require user intervention or restrict legitimate access to and search of the encrypted information. “This is a major new feature,” Dirking said. “No other system does this automatically for all content in the system, even after it has been checked out.”

Oracle also unveiled several other new features for its ECM at AIIM. Among the most notable is the introduction of Folios, which enable grouping of multiple content items for distribution, retention control, workflow and automatic rendering into a single document or other formats; support for BPEL-based (Business Process Execution Language) processes, or standards-based integrations and processes, which helps streamline the integration of document workflows and enterprise applications; and an improved AJAX-based user interface, which simplifies Web editing for line-of-business users. More information is available here.

Back to top

Online Tool Improves Oracle Performance Analytics and Advice

The StatspackAnalyzer.com forum of database performance experts has announced availability of version 2.0 of StatspackAnalyzer.com. It is a freely available online tool that analyzes the data from a user's own Oracle Statspack or Automatic Workload Repository (AWR) reports and presents customized recommendations for improving the performance of the user's Oracle database in a report.

“It is a free tool, basically a Web site that DBAs can go to, they can cut and paste their Statspack or AWR reports from Oracle 8 all the way through to 11 and then it does an automated analysis and gives them back a formatted report with suggestions, with best practices for improving their performance,” Woody Hutsell, Texas Memory Systems executive vice president, told 5 Minute Briefing. StatspackAnalyzer.com is sponsored by Texas Memory Systems, makers of “the World’s Fastest Storage” and Oracle experts, Burleson Consulting.

Oracle’s Statspack and AWR provide DBAs and consultants with extensive, complex performance statistics on how their databases are running. But with reports running to as many as 10,000 text lines, analyzing and drawing meaningful conclusions can be difficult and time-consuming, according to the tool's sponsors. StatspackAnalyzer.com is intended to make the data more meaningful by pinpointing problem areas and by providing analysis and recommendations for improving application performance.

In addition to updating StatspackAnalyzer.com version 2.0 to support Oracle from version 8 to 11.1, Texas Memory Systems and Burleson Consulting also spent months adding new logic to StatspackAnalyzer.com which cross-correlates results between sections of the Statspack report. “We do a lot more cross-correlation of the indicators so that we end up with a consistent set of recommendations,” said Hutsell. “The end result for the people who use this is just better feedback for their operation.”

Along with the new updates to StatspackAnalyzer.com, Texas Memory Systems is inviting the Oracle DBA community to directly participate in the creation of new rules and formally review existing rules. Over the course of the last year, hundreds of DBAs have signed up to participate in this major initiative. For more information, go here.

Back to top

Macro 4 Announces Application Performance Portal Now with Oracle

Macro 4, headquartered in Crawley, England, has announced an update of its Application Performance Portal (A.P.P.), an application performance solution. This update to A.P.P. 2.0 adds four main new features to the solution, including Oracle Data Correlation. In release 2.0, A.P.P. introduced a facility that correlated between z/OS DB2 databases and the Java code that was accessing them. With update D, this facility is extended to include support for Oracle databases, running on any of the A.P.P. supported platforms.

“A.P.P. as a solution is applicable and useful to any organization that makes use of Java in their application environment, from the very smallest to the biggest. Having said that, the highest level of interest comes from the largest middle tier companies with employee counts of between 1,000 to 10,000,” Harris Hartsiotis, marketing program manager for Macro 4, told 5 Minute Briefing via email interview. Macro 4, established 40 years ago, has a customer base of over 2000 globally, which includes approximately 50 percent of the Fortune 500, Hartsiotis said.

Additionally, according to the company, because many users do not make use of application servers as part of their business solutions and instead run their code via the standard Java Runtime Environment (JRE). Update D introduces support for this model of Java operation and includes support for arbitrary class/method instrumentation and JDBC SQL capture. The versions that are supported in this mode in this update are Java 1.4 and 1.5 from IBM, SUN and Jrockit.

With update D, Macro 4 continues to increase the level of support for the WebLogic infrastructure. Support for additional data measures for Transaction Counts and HTTP Counts has been added. And, in this update the company has added a new set of functionality that allows users to improve the management of the performance data that A.P.P. collects. Update D allows for the scheduling of pre-defined data management tasks to be originated by an external job. For more information, go here.

Back to top

The Human Element is Most Challenging for ECM Implementations

The human element is the most challenging aspect of implementing enterprise content management systems, according to a new study by AIIM, released this week. When asked what was the greatest obstacle end-users faced in deploying ECM, 41 percent said that they didn’t think through the process and organizational issues; 36 percent said that they lacked knowledge and training among the internal staff; and 32 percent said that internal politics and lack of consistent governance was a challenge. Unisphere Research, our research arm, conducts proprietary research with leading IT user groups. To read abstracts of these studies, go here. Are you interested in having proprietary research conducted for your company about issues of concern to you? For more information, send an email to Tom@dbta.com.

Back to top

The Swing towards Centralization

For a generation now, developments in computing have swung on a pendulum between distributed and centralized functionality. On the one hand, the devices in the hands of the end-user get ever more powerful - think of Bill Gates’ famous prediction that we will all have the equivalent of mainframe computers on our desks, for example. On the other hand, central systems are also taking care of more functions - think Gmail, for example. Over the next several years, the swing towards centralization may strengthen. As an example, the new enhancements that Oracle has unveiled for its enterprise content management system represents moving tasks once the responsibility of the end-user to the central system. The development of cloud computing, providing third-party access to the huge computing capacity developed by companies like Google and Amazon, should accelerate the drive to centralization. To follow trends in the industry, keep reading 5 Minute Briefing and subscribe to Database Trends and Applications magazine e-edition here.

Back to top

COLLABORATE 08 – IOUG Forum Early Bird Deadline is Next Week

The early bird registration deadline for COLLABORATE 08 – IOUG Forum, taking place April 13-17 in Denver, CO, is March 13. Register through the IOUG today to save up to $400, as well as:

• Attend more than 425 educational sessions in six user-driven tracks: Architecture, Business Intelligence/Warehousing, Database, Development, Middleware and Professional Development.
  
• Learn from special super tracks on Hyperion, Stellent, and Fusion Middleware, featuring Oracle executive experts
  
• Hear from renowned industry speakers like Oracle President Charles E. Phillips and newly-announced keynote, Dylan Tweney of Wired News
  
• Have your most pressing business questions answered by top IT solution providers
  
• Network with your Oracle peers both formally and informally at various events like the COLLABORATE 08 Welcome Reception and Unconference Sessions – PowerPoint Free Zone (open forums for peer-to-peer discussion)

Register Now to Save and Have the Chance to Win a Carnival Cruise! Registering now with the IOUG will not only enable you to save up to $400, but your name will also be entered into a raffle for a Carnival Cruise for two, valued at $1,000. The winner will be announced at the IOUG Booth during the conference. Please choose priority code EM10 during the Demographic section (step 4) of registration. And, make sure you secure your housing at one of the IOUG's discounted hotels.

Back to top

COLLABORATE 08 – IOUG Forum: The Place for Stellent Customers

If you are an Oracle Content Management customer, you can’t afford to miss – COLLABORATE 08 – IOUG Forum, April 13-17 in Denver, CO. This year, the IOUG Forum will feature a “Conference Within a Conference” dedicated to Oracle Content Management. You can attend more than 30 Stellent sessions throughout the week, interact with the familiar faces of Oracle and Stellent content management experts, network with your peers and attend the Stellent hands-on lab. Register with the IOUG to attend sessions like:

• Exciting New Features of Universal Content Management - Now Shipping! 
  
• 50 Ways to Integrate with Oracle Universal Content Management
  
• Support at Oracle - Navigating MetaLink, Discussion Groups, Communities and Events
  
• Oracle Content Management Roadmap

Click here to view all the Stellent sessions available at the IOUG Forum.

Then, register by March 13 to take advantage of the early bird rate and have your name entered into a drawing for a Carnival Cruise for two, valued at $1,000. Choose priority code EM10 during the Demographic section (step 4) of the registration process. Click here to secure your housing.

Back to top

Join the IOUG to Take Advantage of Exclusive Member Benefits

Take advantage of exclusive IOUG member benefits, including the opportunity to save up to $400 USD on COLLABORATE 08 – IOUG Forum, taking place April 13-17 in Denver, CO, by joining the IOUG today. IOUG members have exclusive access to:

• SELECT Journal, the IOUG's quarterly technical publication that was rated a top member benefit in the IOUG 2007 membership survey.
  
• Library of Oracle Knowledge (LoOK), an online repository filled with thousands of technical tips, articles and papers.
  
• Discounted registration to COLLABORATE 08, a premier customer-driven event presented jointly by the IOUG, Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG) and Quest International Users Group (Quest), offering attendees numerous educational sessions, networking opportunities and vendor interaction.
  
• Oracle Professionals Exchange Network (OPEN), a new online collaboration tool, where you can meet and exchange best practices with Oracle users throughout the globe
  
• And much more!

Join the IOUG today!

Back to top

Hyperion Users: There’s a Place for You at COLLABORATE 08 – IOUG Forum

As a Hyperion customer, you need the most up-to-date information on this product. Now, you can receive it in one place – COLLABOATE – IOUG Forum, taking place April 13-17 in Denver, CO. The IOUG is introducing a special track on Hyperion this year. Register through the IOUG to:

• Learn from more than 100 Hyperion sessions, including:
  
  • What's New in System 9 Essbase
    
  • Real-world Optimization: Hyperion Essbase
    
  • Architectural Planning for Implementing Hyperion System 9: An Overview for System Administrators
    
  • Preserving System 9 Reliability in Large Distributed Environments
    
  • Tips, Tricks and Best Practices for Hyperion Planning
  • The Power of 64-bit Essbase
    
  • Requirements for Gathering and Design: The Key to a Successful BI Implementation
    
• Attend the Hyperion Executive Session, “Oracle's EPM System: Driving Insights to Action” presented by John Kopke, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Performance Management Global Business Unit, Oracle Corporation
  
• Access more than 250 IT Solution Providers that will be featuring Hyperion, in the Exhibitor Showcase

Register with the IOUG by March 13 to take advantage of the early bird rate and have your name entered into a raffle for a Carnival Cruise for two, valued at $1,000. Choose priority code EM10 during the Demographic section (step 4) of the registration process. And, make sure to secure your discounted housing here.

Back to top

Meet Oracle Users on the Oracle Professionals Exchange Network (OPEN)

The IOUG is excited to announce Oracle Professionals Exchange Network (OPEN), a new online collaboration tool available to all members. Built by IOUG volunteers from the Oracle Applications Express Special Interest Group, this customer-driven tool is the only place to network and share information/best practices with your peers in the database and technology community. Some of the tools include:

• The “Collaborator” – Search for other IOUG members with similar interests, and then join “communities” with these individuals to share files, links, messages, contacts and more. When you click on the tab, detailed instructions will be provided about how to utilize this tool.
  
  
• Wikis/Discussion Forums – Participate in the IOUG's existing wikis/discussion forums, or create and manage one of your own.

To edit a wiki, simply select the wiki that interests you, view the ‘Topics Index’ tab to see what has been written about the topic, and click edit to add your own insight. A WikiEditing tutorial is also available.

To contribute to a discussion forum, choose a forum, and click on one of the forum’s topics. Then view one of the topic’s threads, and reply to the thread, or create a new thread.

If you would like to administer your own wiki/forum, contact Tony Jedlinski at tony@konoso.com.

• Ask the Expert – Ask IOUG experts questions or volunteer to become one.

Simply select an expert, and view what questions have been previously asked. Or, click on the “Submit a New Question” button to ask the expert your own question.

If you would like to become an IOUG expert, you can send your request and qualifications to Tony Jedlinski at tony@konoso.com.

Login to OPEN today to share your Oracle knowledge. This network is "in progress" so be part of the launch, and help build it out with your great ideas! Providing your insight and expertise will not only help this tool get up and running, but it will also strengthen the IOUG community.

Back to top

Download the Latest Tools from Oracle

Make Sure You’re Kept Up-to-Date and In-the-Know

Join the Oracle email community and receive:

• Notifications of exclusive offers, hot new downloads and upcoming live events
• Details of informational webcasts and on demand events featuring customer case studies, key industry experts and thought leaders as well as influential Oracle Executives
• Latest information on Oracle products and services including those from our key partners

Sign up today!

Get your FREE CIO Magazine Applications Strategy Guide, along with other resources, including a FREE online SOA assessment, white papers, interactive tools, case-studies and Podcast featuring executive insight. Find out why leading organizations are changing the way they think about their business, strategic applications, and going-forward IT strategies.

Drive Better Results with Top-Down Application Management
Get your FREE Oracle Enterprise Manager DVD kit, containing database, middleware, applications and other typical data center components. Oracle Enterprise Manager helps organizations increase IT insight and reduce resolution times with integrated management.

Get SOA Expertise On Demand
Watch an incredible lineup of leading companies and industry experts share their experiences designing and implementing SOA solutions. Find out why these organizations chose an SOA approach, how they secured management approval and addressed the challenges and lessons learned during implementation. View the webcast!

SOA Management with Oracle Enterprise Manager
View the new Webcast, "SOA Management with Oracle Enterprise Manager" to get the latest on Oracle Enterprise Manager's hot new SOA and middleware management capabilities, including Oracle Application Diagnostics for Java and enhanced runtime governance for SOA.

Receive Your Complimentary BPM Whitepaper
Oracle's innovative approach to business process management (BPM) promotes closed-loop business optimization facilitating an iterative business process development effort allowing for continuous collaboration between business managers' process models and IT's implementation details. Register now and receive your copy of Oracle Empowers Business Process Excellence through Business and IT Collaboration.

Get Started with Oracle on Windows DVD
Learn how Oracle gives you the power to grow by providing a scalable, easy-to-use platform for running your business at a price you can afford. Request your free copy of this DVD, containing Oracle Database 11g software, whitepapers, tutorials, etc.

Content Management Resource Kit CD
Develop a strategy for managing unstructured content- start with the Content Management Resource Kit CD. This free CD is full of valuable information for anyone evaluating or interested in content management technologies. Learn more about content management through white papers, customer videos, product demos and more.
Order your CD today!

Reduce financial operations costs, free-up resources for more strategic tasks, and accelerate your processes into overdrive. Integrate Oracle Imaging and Process Management (IPM) with your current Oracle Financial Management Solution. Click here to view an on-demand Webcast and learn more!

What kind of ROI is possible with content management technologies?
Attend on online seminar and read an independent study written by Forrester Consulting and learn how Oracle customer, Emerson Process Management, achieved a 177% risk-adjusted ROI and payback within 12 months of deploying Oracle Universal Content Management. Register Now!

The Promise of Enterprise 2.0: Make it Real"
View this On Demand event featuring Andrew McAfee, Associate Professor, Harvard Business School to learn how your organization can successfully deploy Enterprise 2.0. 

Maximize your organization's efficiencies with Oracle WebCenter from Oracle Fusion Middleware Oracle
WebCenter is certified with Oracle E-Business Suite, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, Peoplesoft Enterprise, and Siebel Customer Relationship Management, providing a single-vendor solution that will enable you to easily integrate your enterprise applications with Web 2.0 services and enhance user experience. Register now to view the on demand webcast, "Maximize Your Users' Application Experience"!

Find What You Are Searching For?  Begin with Oracle Secure Enterprise Search Two-Disc Resource Kit
This kit is full of valuable information for anyone evaluating or interested in enterprise search technologies, including complimentary product.  Click here to receive your free copy! 
 
Oracle On-Demand Event
"The Trust Factor: Secure Enterprise Search for High-Value Content"
The Gilbane Group joins with Oracle to discuss how Secure Enterprise search can connect disparate resources and integrate your business.

CFO Europe Magazine and Oracle Study - Getting Behind the Numbers
Replay the results announcement webcast, download the slides, download the study report and order a copy of Gary Simon's book ‘Fast Close to the Max®’ at 80% discounted off the usual price with worldwide free shipping. It’s all here.

Tour Oracle's Austin Data Center
Using Oracle OnDemand managed services can help you achieve greater ROI, reduce risk, and significantly enhance your system performance. Join Oracle On Demand SVP Mike Beck for a tour of Oracle's Austin Data Center and download a FREE Forrester white paper to learn more.
 
Get Your Free 2-Disc DVD Kit: Oracle Unbreakable Linux
Oracle Unbreakable Linux delivers enterprise-class support for Linux with premier backports, lifetime support, comprehensive management, and extensive testing, all at significantly lower costs. Discover how your organization can realize the full potential of Linux—Order your free 2-disc DVD kit today.

Rise Above the Upgrade Challenge
Today, a strategic IT organization is essential to business success. And when systems play a mission-critical function in your business, managing successfully through change is imperative. Hear how Sun Microsystems leveraged Oracle's "virtual center of excellence" to cut upgrade planning effort, reduce issue resolution time and improve business results. Click to see this Web cast.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008 (12:00 PM EST)
Join Oracle and WindowsIT Pro to learn how Oracle Database 11g on Windows enables you to improve your quality of service, easily develop reliable applications, and protect your information, so that you can innovate faster and stay ahead of the curve. Register today!

Identity Management for Oracle E-Business Suite Resource Kit
Looking at an Oracle EBS R-12 upgrade? Or simply thinking of bolstering security, optimizing application usability, enforcing compliance and improving user productivity? Arm yourself with the necessary guides and information - download this free Identity Management for Oracle E-Business Suite Resource Kit.

Windows IT Pro presents: Running Oracle Database 11g on Microsoft Windows Server
Tuesday, March 11, 2008 (12:00 PM EDT)
Join author, David Chernicoff as he takes a look at the technologies that Oracle has released with Oracle Database 11g, and the support mechanisms they have put in place, to make developing applications and implementing Oracle Database 11g on Windows a value-add for your business. Register now for this valuable event.

Back to top

Founded in 1993, the Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG) (formerly International Oracle Users Group) is a user-driven membership organization for Oracle technology and database professionals serving more than 15,000 database administrators, developers, architects, technical managers and other Oracle professionals throughout North America and worldwide. The IOUG empowers its members and the broader Oracle community through their technical publication, SELECT Journal, Web site resources including more than 3000 papers, tips and articles and networking with other users through online discussion forums, Special Interest Groups and a network of regional Oracle user groups. For more information about the IOUG, please visit the IOUG Web site.

Database Trends and Applications, published by Unisphere Media, provides timely coverage of the technology and intelligence needed to conceptualize, plan, initiate, implement and manage large-scale integrated information projects. Unisphere Media also publishes 5 Minute Briefing: Data Integration, a summary of news, trends, and insights addressing crucial data integration challenges and 5 Minute Briefing: MultiValue, a review of news, technical tips and insights for the MultiValue database community. Visit our Web site here.

Keep Getting This Newsletter

Don't let future editions of 5 Minute Briefing: Oracle get lost. Take a moment to add the newsletter's address to your anti-spam white list: Oracle@dbta.com. If you're not sure how to do that, ask your administrator or ISP. Or check your anti-spam utility's documentation. Thanks.

Back to top