ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS/ORACLE 9i: From Web to Wireless

Even before m-commerce really takes off in the market, the enabling

technologies have to be put in place——that is what Oracle would have us

believe. Best known for its robust database that forms the core of many large

businesses, Oracle is now gearing up to take web content to the wireless world.

The wireless edition of the Oracle9i Application Server, which was launched in

the Indian market in January this year, is particularly meant for businesses

walking the m-enablement road. Targeted at telecom carriers, consumer portals,

application providers and other enterprises, 9i AS is equipped to wirelessly

enable almost any source, be it a website, database or application.

"It is important for us to keep up with emerging technologies. When the

Internet took off, we decided to re-engineer all our products based on

client-server technology to become web-enabled…but subsequently, they had to

become wireless-enabled. We had to find a middle-tier technology that could do

it for us, otherwise it would have taken years to convert. In that vein, 9i AS

was born of our own needs," explains Shekhar Dasgupta, country manager,

Oracle India.

The market drivers

While experts feel this will be a routine evolution for the huge number of

organizations already using the Oracle database, some also believe the company

can take advantage in that the entire application server market is flourishing

in the current period of e-commerce. According to the Yankee Group, the wireless

market worldwide is expected to grow to 1.2 billion subscribers by 2003.

By cashing on this boom, Oracle hopes to strengthen its position in the area

of infrastructure software. Oracle’s experience and stability in this area

should be an advantage factor. The company has a strong presence as a major

provider of enterprise software and services. 9i AS is especially desirable for

organizations that already use multiple Oracle databases and for integration of

heterogeneous systems.

In the wireless age, portals will not be accessed only through traditional

web browsers, but from a range of mobile devices which 9i AS technology promises

you. It includes pre-built adapters for wireless e-mail and directory

integration, as well as enhanced support for location-based services, the key

technology for creating the next generation of wireless commerce and logistical

applications that deliver personalized services based on the user’s current

location. It is based on the spatial technology, which is already in use around

the world for managing large volumes of highly specialized geographic data.

The new services would include geo-coding, which taps into a wireless network

that tracks the location of mobile devices to produce coordinates for street

addresses, routing for mapping and directions and distance relationships between

businesses. For instance, a person using an application powered by this product

can step off a plane and immediately receive directions and locations for the

nearest car rental agencies, hotels and restaurants using his mobile phone.

Competing with complexity

According to Oracle, its competing products such as IBM’s wireless

middle-ware offer only simple conversion of HTML web content to wireless format

against 9i’s pre-built adapters that can allow you to quickly m-enable. A

typical web server can serve between 10 and 100 requests per second, forcing

many e-businesses to purchase tens or even hundreds of servers to support high

traffic. Oracle claims that by using web cache as part of the infrastructure, it

allows you to support many more users.

Gaurav Varma, marketing manager, Oracle9i explains that Oracle’s ‘portlet’

technology provides a useful framework for aggregating applications and business

information into a portal. Portlets are reusable interface components that

provide access to web-based resources. "By creating employee portals,

supplier portals or customer portals, you can tailor customer information into

different product groups," he says.

Although Oracle 9i AS is being considered as one of the top application

servers in the industry, Gartner analysts say it is still not as pervasive in

enterprise production deployment as is commonly believed. While Oracle’s

solution is extremely flexible, extensive and built on open standards, it also

is fairly complex.

According to Gartner analysts, competitive niche products offer

easier-to-use, packaged applications. Oracle’s solution requires a great deal

of customization to take advantage of its significant capabilities. This makes

9i AS slow to implement. The complexity must be decreased so that developers get

it up and running and turn it around to implement Oracle’s vertical

applications.

Besides the technical hitches, the Indian market, in particular, is at a far

too nascent stage in the mobile segment. Problems like infrastructure and

bandwidth make the spread of m-commerce a highly debatable issue. So, Oracle

might have to wait a while before the Indian enterprise moves from web to

wireless.

Shweta Verma in New Delhi