Lost amid the Microsoft garbage scandal was Oracle's unveiling of its Internet Application Server 8i, replete with some really cool caching features.
When not fending off questions about its year-long spying operation against Microsoft Wednesday, Oracle actually had some pretty significant product news to deliver.
Specifically, the company announced it has revved its infrastructure software to make it easier for companies interested in e-commerce to create scalable Web-based applications.
The centerpiece of the company's Oracle.Now makeover is the Oracle Internet Application Server 8i, which Oracle officially rolled out at an event at its headquarters.
The app server is filled with new features designed to make it the nexus of an e-business' computing universe. Its main selling point is the ability to cache data from the Oracle 8i database. This feature reduces the time Web surfers have to wait by putting much of the data closer to the Web server. It also improves the scalability and performance of the database by reducing the number of calls it gets from those Web applications, officials said.
Analysts liked the caching plans.
"It's standard practice for developers to put caching schemes into their applications," said Thomas Murphy, program director at the Meta Group. "The advantage for programmers is they will have a way to have seamless high-performance cache built in."
The Java-based Internet Application Server 8i also incorporates the Apache Web server, the query and reporting services of the Oracle Discoverer and Oracle Reports business intelligence applications, and Component Services for building applications from pre-built, Java-based components.
The new Wireless Edition of the Oracle Internet Application Server includes Oracle Portal-to-Go, which enables users to access Web and database content from wireless devices.
Oracle 8i gets a boost
Along with the application server, Oracle unveiled Release 3 of its Oracle 8i database and the Oracle Internet Developer Suite.
The database upgrade shares common Java services with the application server and includes new security features (such as support for SSL over HTTP and triple DES encryption) and an XML (Extensible Markup Language) developer kit. It also has an HTTP Listener feature, which enables the database to receive direct HTTP calls without the need for an application server or an outside "listener."
The Oracle Internet Developer Suite brings together into a single package several of the company's development tools, specifically Oracle JDeveloper, Oracle Portal, Oracle Forms Developer and Designer, Oracle Discoverer and Oracle Reports.
Because it wrapped together so many formerly separate products, Oracle also changed its pricing model so that it is based on the processing power of the computer the software is running on.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison emphasised the integration of his company's offerings, saying it will be easier for both developers and systems integrators to work on the platform knowing the entire suite of Oracle infrastructure software was in place, even if a user chose not to turn on all the pieces.
Ellison also chided rival Microsoft by pointing out that the company won't deliver any new software for its Next Generation Windows Services platform, called Microsoft.Net, for two years.
"In Microsoft's Next Generation Windows Services, the 'dot-net' stands for 'not yet,'" Ellison said. "We have Oracle dot-now. Everything is available now or in the next few weeks."
