Integrating On-premise and Cloud based applications
I invested a reasonable amount of time at OOW 2013 in attending sessions, asking questions and
visiting the Middleware Demo Grounds to learn about integration between On-premise and Cloud
based systems. In a nutshell, the mechanisms are not all that different to integrating On-premise
systems.
There are several options available:
1. There can be a “master / slave” relationship whereby, for example, customer data on E-
Business Suite Order Management can be migrated to Oracle Sales (cloud). Changes to
customer records can be sent as and when they occur from OM to Oracle Sales.
2. The updating can be synchronous too if both, for example, Siebel and OM need to make
updates to customer records.
3. There can be a Master Data Management (MDM) solution, on-premise or in the cloud,
whereby customer data is updated in the hub and sent to subscribing applications.
Within the HCM domain we heard the term: “Tools, Templates, and Pre-integration” used to
describe the integration options. Tools include file based loaders to upload data, next generation
Desktop Integrator, export to Excel (etc.), HCM Data Extract, Public Web Services (47 available
currently in September 2013), Taleo Connect (file based integration), and Taleo Web Services. There
are pre-packaged integrations available, for example: from E-Business Financials and Taleo; and from
Fusion HCM to Taleo.
Oracle SOA Suite is obviously an important integration building block. Other Oracle products that are
mentioned as integration components include: Golden gate, Oracle Data Integration and Adaptors.
These are described below:
Golden gate:
In my layman’s terminology, Golden gate performs a function similar to Data Guard but has much
richer functionality and caters for a lot more business scenarios than Data Guard. Data Guard is used
to transfer data from the Production Database to a DR Database for DR purposes. Golden gate
essentially transfers data between different databases too but can populate different types of
databases (Oracle to Microsoft for example).
Oracle Data Integration:
ODI has taken over from Informatica. It essentially delivers the output of an ETL process but is much
more streamlined than historical ETL applications have been. With ODI the transformation can take
place on the source or target database rather than in a separate database which sits between source
and target.
SOA Adaptors:
Oracle has prewritten a number of SOA based Adaptors for the integration of it’s products – which
are offered as product offerings.
E-Business Suite R12 new functionality and future roadmap
I attended a couple of E-Business Sessions at Oracle Open World and was surprised at how popular
the E-Business sessions were with many attendees having to stand. I was equally surprised at how
many clients are still on R11i. In the demo area there a large number of E- Business Suite stands. E-
Business Suite will continue to be enhanced and supported as an alternative to Fusion Applications
in a similar way to PeopleSoft and JDE.
Some of the improvements to R12 include:
A) Endeca extension for E-Business Suite. Endeca is an acquisition product in the “search” space and
provides an “information driven interface”. The extension for E-Business Suite addresses a subset of
modules. For instance it only caters for Receivables within the Financials sphere currently. It has a
dashboard look and feel, not unlike Webcenter. It provides drill down functionality. It leverages off
the standard E-Business Suite Security Model. It can run “in memory”.
B) “Mobility” via tablets and the like. All OA framework certified on Safari (inclu: iExp, iProc).
Common gestures have been included. For example: a tick movement activates the approval button.
C) Fusion iExpenses integrates to E-Business Suite.
D) Integration being made easier. REST integration protocol being introduced in the near future.
E) User Interface improvements. Forms won’t be retired but the HTML Self Service forms will be
added in certain areas to ‘co-exist’ with forms
F) Windows 8 is now certified
G) OATS automated testing has been improved. Previously no Open Script was used for “record and
playback”. This functionality has been improved by introducing Flow Builder.
The following feature relates to R12.2 only:
Online patching: Make changes to a “second copy” while users continue to work – then swop out.
12.2 highlights:
A) Configurator can be used to facilitate the selling of subscriptions and enhanced billing for
extended warrantee.
B) Project Costing improvements in Payroll integration
C) Contract Lifecycle management improvements
D) Manufacturing improvements and serial number tracking improvements.
The following My Oracle Support Notes offer useful information relating to R12.2:
Release 12.2 Information Center on My Oracle Support. Doc 1581299.1
How to move to R12.2 metalink Doc 1585857.1
Oracle plans to continue improving the User Interface By extending Endeca, introducing more smart
phone functionality and introducing more OAF (Self Service, HTML) forms.
