Oracle offers fusion middleware solutions for growing businesses

By Cheranka Mendis

Q: What is fusion middleware?

A: Fusion middleware is three or four key lines of businesses Oracle has in its portfolio. From a bottom up approach – i.e. from hardware, data base layer, business applications, etc.; middleware is the application which joins the whole portfolio.

Oracle Fusion Middleware started with a logic server, which was the prime flagship product we had back then. Over the years we have invented, done changes and come up with one of the biggest, most complete, open and integrated services in the industry. Currently we have the biggest portfolio of middleware solutions.

Q: What exactly is middleware?

A: Middleware has three key roles to play – business process automation (a platform to integrate applications in different areas of business to have a complete 180 degree view of things), integration (how these big and complex systems talk to each other, how to share data), and allows businesses to scale up.

In a business there are multiple applications running and technologies like middleware bring them together in to a portal form. Facebook for example is a portal technology which connects photos, locations, data and various other activities together.

In business that is where we jump in. For an organisation which wants to have an internal portal to receive detail on business needs such as how your finance is doing today, what the pending items are in the supply chain, requests from suppliers; we bring everything into one window.

That is what fusion middleware does – helps you automate the process, helps you integrate them in to one area, in the front-end as well as back-end.

Q: What exactly does Oracle offer?

A: What we offer to the customer is a complete solution. In a typical environment when you talk to other vendors they will give you a hardware solution, some middleware solution, some connectivity solution. The most recent offering from Oracle – Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud X3-2 – is the most complete, open and integrated engineered system. You have your software, middleware, network, and hardware combined in one box. It is a one box solution to their needs. The customer only needs to buy this. This is the market leading product in this segment right now. The second best thing is the post-service support we offer customers.

Q: How have Sri Lankan companies responded to middleware solutions?

A: With any customer/company, there is a cycle on how they want to proceed. Usually a company starts with a database, and then goes on to business applications, then to middleware that helps run the business applications. Sri Lankan companies have adapted to these well. There is a lot of will from customers.

The need for middleware is increasing because you now have multiple systems in place and this is where middleware functionality really starts helping companies out. We are working with a lot of top telecommunication houses, banks, and even the public sector in moving towards this concept. We have plans to bring in the best resources, because Sri Lanka is a very interesting market.

Q: How so?

A: It is a small country but has a diversified industry segment. Telecommunications here functions at a level of international standards. You have good banks, very strong public sector entities, and a strong manufacturing industry. There are groups that have multiple businesses as well and we are talking to them and they are adapting the model considerably well.

What businesses must understand is that this is a continuous journey or process. IT automation does not happen overnight. We are not only working with customers but with local partners as well through our Oracle Partner Network and have educated them on customer requirements. At Oracle we bring in the product, we bring in local partners, and we bring in foreign resources from India, Singapore, and Pakistan to give them the best industry experience here.

 

Q: When compared to the rest of the region, where does Sri Lanka stand and what should it do to improve?

A: Sri Lanka stands pretty high and there are two or three key reasons for this. One is the diversification – you have practically every industry here. The basic industries you see in developing countries, you have pretty much almost all of it here.

Secondly, there is the quality of education and the ability to speak English because that tells how you connect to the international world. The ability and the will of fresh graduates and the local IT community to understand international concepts and to adapt to new practices are high.

Thirdly, with Sri Lanka being a very tourist-oriented society, the interaction with foreigners puts you in unique position.

 

Q: How is Oracle supporting this?

A: How Oracle is helping is that we are encouraging business entities to come and talk about their business pains. The purpose of IT is to serve business and how to do that in the quickest possible time is what determines how good the company’s IT is. There is a business need for fast adaptation.

Oracle is no longer a product company. We are the only IT company that gives an end-to-end stack of the whole solution. We help businesses understand what the most critical issues are, what solution is best, which would give the quickest possible results and quickest possible return on investment.

Q: Why should a company use Oracle over the competition?

A: What we offer is the most complete offering. Therefore against any competition the customer has the comfort of knowing we look at problems in a 180 degree view. We bring in the best resources and fly in people top notch people from the neighbouring countries such as India, Pakistan, and Singapore to engage in this market. We are enabling local communities. We are not only relying on foreign persons but heavily investing and working with local communities. No competitor offers all this.

Q: What are the aspects local companies should build on to keep with the times?

A: What companies abroad are doing now and what local companies should also think about is building a strategy on a long term basis – i.e. three to five years. Even if you are doing something now you must see how it would affect your business growth in the next three to five years.

Don’t take any IT initiatives on the basis of a short-term approach because business is changing very fast. Through our fusion middleware portfolio we are helping customers come on to a common integrated platform, which is a necessity in long-term growth. Service-oriented architecture is the next thing to do – your old applications and your new must be able to interact with each other on a common platform. This is what we enable.