Oracle updates database, middleware lineup

While offering no major bombshells, Oracle announced a series of updates across its product lines on Monday, including the first patch update to its flagship 11g database.

Oracle 11g 11.1.0.7 is now available, said Chuck Rozwat, executive vice president of product development, during a keynote speech at the company's OpenWorld conference. Rozwat did not provide many details about the patch's new functionality, but Andrew Mendelsohn, senior vice president of server technologies, may elaborate in a database keynote Monday evening.

[ For more news from Oracle OpenWorld 2008, check out InfoWorld's special report. ]

The update is a precursor to the more hotly anticipated 11g R2 release, which observers have said is not expected until next year. OpenWorld is instead expected to be a showcase for technologies that extend the core 11g database; a set of sessions on Thursday focuses on a new "database accelerator," for example.

Rozwat and Oracle President Charles Phillips spent more time in their speech discussing Oracle's acquisition strategy and focusing on other product announcements, including Oracle JDeveloper 11g and Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF) 11g. The tools have tight integration with Oracle WebLogic Server, which is now the company's "strategic" application server following its purchase of BEA Systems.

The executives also previewed E-Business Suite R12.1, an upcoming version of the ERP product.

"With release 12.1 we really focused on rewriting the financial applications," Rozwat said. "We wanted to be more global with financials." The update, for which Oracle provided no release date, also includes improved capabilities for supply chain, manufacturing and human resources, according to Rozwat.

Also announced Monday:

-- Oracle Beehive, an enterprise collaboration platform that joins the existing Oracle Collaboration Suite. Rozwat and Phillips emphasized the Beehive platform's open nature, which gives more flexibility in the choice of end-user clients and support for multiple development toolsets. Licenses are priced at $120 per user.
-- Oracle VM 2.1.2, Oracle's server virtualization software, which includes certification for the vendor's Real Application Clusters (RAC) technology.