Oracle hails event-driven middleware for SOA 2.0

Oracle continues to boost the concept of SOA 2.0 with the release of the Oracle Event-Driven Architecture (EDA) Suite, featuring Oracle Fusion Middleware products.

Free IT resource TechNet: More ways to know it, share it, and keep it running. Sponsored by Microsoft Free IT resource Attend the SOA Executive Forum: Breaking SOA Bottlenecks SOAExecForum.com/may2007 Sponsored by InfoWorld

Announced on Monday, the middleware allows customers to identify, analyze, and respond to business events in real-time. EDA is a key component of SOA 2.0 which is the next-generation of SOA that defines how events and services are linked together to deliver a responsive and flexible IT infrastructure, according to Oracle.

The suite features:

* Oracle Enterprise Messaging, to deliver event messages;

* Oracle Enterprise Service Bus, to collect and distribute events;

* Oracle Business Rules, for defining business policies on events;

* Oracle Business Activity Monitoring, to monitor and analyze events;

* Oracle Sensor Edge Server, supporting RFID and managing events from physical sensors and automation equipment.

The package is for companies looking to become a real-time enterprise, said Ashish Mohindroo, senior product director for Oracle Fusion Middleware. "In order to become a real-time enterprise, they have to be able to respond to real-time events," such as stock transactions, he said.

Mohindroo acknowledged that most of the products in the suite have already been available, but they are being enhanced with an events correlation and events processing infrastructure. A common metadata repository is featured to handle changes in business rules.

Oracle pitched the concept of SOA 2.0 at the JavaOne conference in San Francisco in May. The analysis firm Gartner also is promoting it.

Not everyone is happy with the creation of the concept, SOA 2.0. An online petition against it is in circulation. Mohindroo said people are reading too much into the naming. "We're trying to add value to the customer and the vision is to turn them into a real-time enterprise," he said.

Yefin Natis, a Gartner analyst who also has been using the term SOA 2.0 said the negative reaction is good in that it has demonstrated the interactive nature of Web 2.0. 

He said Oracle's EDA suite is mostly about marketing since it features primarily products already on the market. "The primary impact of this announcement is marketing but as far as marketing, it is a very important move on their part," Natis said.

SOA 2.0 features SOA plus EDA, Natis said.

Oracle EDA Suite is priced at $60,000 per CPU.