my recent reads..

Atomic Accidents: A History of Nuclear Meltdowns and Disasters; From the Ozark Mountains to Fukushima
Power Sources and Supplies: World Class Designs
Red Storm Rising
Locked On
Analog Circuits Cookbook
The Teeth Of The Tiger
Sharpe's Gold
Without Remorse
Practical Oscillator Handbook
Red Rabbit

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Fellow travellers on the road to Fusion..

At one point, the cynical would have said that Fusion is just a con to placate all the PeopleSoft, Siebel and JD Edwards customers. Others just complained about the con-fusion.

Of course, Fusion Applications are still a way off in the future, and I'm not sure if even Oracle Development really know in full cinematic detail what shipping the products will really entail. Its all still fairly big-picture stuff .. although in classic Oracle style, the user/user experience seems to have got lost along the way. But there's enough pressure and creativity that I think we will see the current Fusion formula grow an additional term at some point. i.e.
Fusion = Grid Computing + SOA + Enterprise Information Architecture
will become
Fusion = Grid Computing + SOA + Enterprise Information Architecture + Web 2.0
In other words, potentially the best darn definition of "Enterprise 2.0" in the market so far!

In the meantime however, some things are coming into clear focus. One is the critical importance of SOA and Security Fusion Middleware components (a.k.a. Oracle Application Server). This struck home for me when listening to the recent AppCast interview with Cliff Godwin who is now heading Oracle's Fusion Upgrade Program Office. What is the world coming to.. Oracle Applications folks selling technology?!!

The true test of fusion will be the extent to which it is embraced by customers and the user community. It was great to see Floyd Teter kick-off a new series on his blog where he will be covering his company's Detailed Roadmap to Fusion Applications. Hats off to Floyd for the courage to do this in the open, and to provide the necessary detail that will actually make this useful for others considering the same path.

6 comments:

Jake said...

Thanks for the plug. We do what we can. Jake

Noons said...

Hmmmmm.....
Wanna bet the "detailed roadmap to fusion" will run out of things to say pretty quickly?

I'm amazed folks are still beating this drum: the darn thing never existed, doesn't exist and will never exist.

how many more years is it gonna tyak for that to sink in?

BTW: love Ecka, please keep it going!

Anonymous said...

You're missing a huge chunk: Identity Managament.

Also, I see no reason to call it Enterprise Information Architecture, because the entire field of IA already assumes an enterprise-level amount of information.

Unknown said...

Hi Noons, I'll take that bet;) I'm sure there are enough side alleys to explore since the "fusion middleware platform" is the foundation of "fusion applications". Like Bex said, even Identity Management - this could keep you busy for years itself!

Thanks for the comment Bex on the fusion formula .. in my defence I must say that "Grid Computing + SOA + Enterprise Information Architecture" is direct from the fusion whitepaper, and the main point I wanted to make is to add the missing "user experience" element.

On Identity Management .. yes, you could make a case to add it to the formula. But you could also say it's just a critical but implied enabler of SOA and EIA. Or you could just replace SOA with FMW but then lose the impact of using "hot" words.

Similarly with EIA v IA, although in fact for me IA alone is ambiguous because I know of it being used both in a data modeling sense, but alsoin web site design where the "IA" refers to the contnet inventory, information organisation, navigation etc.

About now, I realise we are arguing about a "markitecture", which I think is the essence of futile;)

Unknown said...

btw noons, yes there's more ecka on the drawing board. glad you like it. Started as a stupid joke with the family of xmas, but the stupidity just keeps flowing...;)

fteter said...

Paul, thanks for the kudo. I'm hoping the roadmap series will just kick off the discussion.

While I don't exactly agree with Noons comment, he does touch on a point that resonates with me: the lack of information coming out of Oracle about Fusion Applications. I can see how people could draw the conclusion that "the darn thing never existed, doesn't exist and will never exist" when so little detailed info has been provided to date. Hopefully, we'll see and hear more at OpenWorld.

Keep up the good work.