In addition, Oracle said it would ship in the fall the Oracle8i Appliance, a small database for about 50 users, and would ship a new product, code-named Panama, that delivers application services to mobile phones, PDAs and other handheld devices, using Internet technology and protocols.
Dubbed the "iHost" initiative, Oracle officials told ISVs and reporters at its corporate headquarters here that the company would offer in 60 days a new package of technology that would give ISVs or ISPs all the technology necessary to become an application service provider.
Oracle officials sought to convince their audience that ASPs would be among the companies reaping the most money from Internet commerce, and as proof, offered the company's expectations for Oracle Business OnLine, the company's own hosting service for Oracle Applications.
"We think Business OnLine will be a bigger chunk of our revenue than our applications in three to five years," Mark Jarvis, senior vice president of worldwide marketing at Oracle.
US$11B market by 2002?
Convincing even a small percentage of its 17,000 ISV partners to use Oracle technology to become ASPs would give the company a healthy share of what Oracle believes will be an $11 billion market by the year 2002.
To help would-be ASPs, Oracle unveiled the Oracle Internet Platform Hosting Edition, a suite of products that include Oracle8i Enterprise Edition, Oracle Application Server, Oracle Internet Directory, Oracle Advanced Security and the Oracle Enterprise Manager. The suite is to be available in 60 days, with pricing based on the size of the hosting machine. The cost per megahertz was not yet available.
As part of the iHost initiative, Oracle unveiled new services within its Oracle Partner Program and Oracle Technology Network, which provides information and software to developers.
The new OTN for Partners provides information on technology and assistance in finding possible partners for ISVs interested in moving into the ASP market.
In addition, the company would expand its Oracle Product Certification Program, launched last November, for certifying applications for the iHost platform.
On upcoming products, Panama will be unveiled at Telecom '99, Geneva, Switzerland, in October, Jarvis said. The new technology would provide the infrastructure for running Java application services that could be accessed through a mobile phone or PDA using the Wireless Access Protocol and a small-footprint browser. The technology would have to be installed on, and configured for, the device, and also installed on the server hosting the applications.
Nokia a partner
Oracle officials said mobile phone manufacturer Nokia had signed on as a partner.
Also in the fall, Oracle plans to release the database Oracle8i release 1.1.6. That release is to include a delayed feature called Internet File System, for accessing and manipulating a range of non-relational data types within the database.
For smaller companies or for less-demanding usage, the Oracle8i Appliance would be available later this year. The Java-based technology would run on the database and provide a simplified interface for managing data, applications and operating system. The new product would be geared for about 50 users.
