Oracle Fusion Middleware (FMW, also known as Fusion Middleware) consists of several

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

products from

Oracle Corporation Oracle Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational computer technology company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Co-founded in 1977 in Santa Clara, California, by Larry Ellison, who remains executive chairman, Oracle was ...

. FMW spans multiple services, including

Java EE Jakarta EE, formerly Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) and Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE), is a set of specifications, extending Java SE with specifications for enterprise features such as distributed computing and web serv ...

and developer tools, integration services,

business intelligence Business intelligence (BI) consists of strategies, methodologies, and technologies used by enterprises for data analysis and management of business information. Common functions of BI technologies include Financial reporting, reporting, online an ...

collaboration Collaboration (from Latin ''com-'' "with" + ''laborare'' "to labor", "to work") is the process of two or more people, entities or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. Collaboration is similar to cooperation. The ...

, and

content management Content management (CM) are a set of processes and technologies that support the collection, managing, and publishing of information in any form or medium. When stored and accessed via computers, this information may be more specifically referre ...

. FMW depends on

open standard An open standard is a standard that is openly accessible and usable by anyone. It is also a common prerequisite that open standards use an open license that provides for extensibility. Typically, anybody can participate in their development due to ...

s such as BPEL,

SOAP Soap is a salt (chemistry), salt of a fatty acid (sometimes other carboxylic acids) used for cleaning and lubricating products as well as other applications. In a domestic setting, soaps, specifically "toilet soaps", are surfactants usually u ...

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing data. It defines a set of rules for encoding electronic document, documents in a format that is both human-readable and Machine-r ...

and JMS. Oracle Fusion Middleware provides software for the development, deployment, and management of

service-oriented architecture In software engineering, service-oriented architecture (SOA) is an architectural style that focuses on discrete services instead of a monolithic design. SOA is a good choice for system integration. By consequence, it is also applied in the field ...

(SOA). It includes what Oracle calls "hot-pluggable" architecture, designed to facilitate integration with existing applications and systems from other software vendors such as

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

, and

SAP AG Sap is a fluid transported in the xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a sep ...

Evolution

Many of the products included under the FMW banner do not themselves qualify as

middleware Middleware is a type of computer software program that provides services to software applications beyond those available from the operating system. It can be described as "software glue". Middleware makes it easier for software developers to imple ...

products: "Fusion Middleware" essentially represents a re-branding of many of Oracle products outside of Oracle's core

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and a ...

and applications-software offerings—compare Oracle Fusion. Oracle acquired many of its FMW products via acquisitions. This includes products from

BEA Systems BEA Systems, Inc. was a company that specialized in enterprise infrastructure software products, which was wholly acquired by Oracle Corporation on April 29, 2008. History BEA began as a software company, founded in 1995 and headquartered in ...

and Stellent. In order to provide standards-based software to assist with business process automation, HP has incorporated FMW into its "

(SOA) portfolio". Oracle leveraged its Configurable Network Computing (CNC) technology acquired from its

PeopleSoft PeopleSoft, Inc. was a company that provided human resource management systems (HRMS), financial management solutions (FMS), supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM), and enterprise performance management (EPM) softw ...

JD Edwards J.D. Edwards World Solution Company or JD Edwards, abbreviated JDE, was an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software company, whose namesake ERP system is still sold under ownership by Oracle Corporation. JDE's products included ''World'' for ...

2005 purchase. Oracle Fusion Applications, based on Oracle Fusion Middleware, were finally released in September 2010. According to Oracle, as of 2013, over 120,000 customers were using Fusion Middleware. This includes over 35 of the world's 50 largest companies and more than 750 of the ''

BusinessWeek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'' (and before that ''Business Week'' and ''The Business Week''), is an American monthly business magazine published 12 times a year. The magazine debuted in New York City in Septembe ...

'' Global 1000, with FMW also supported by 7,500 partners.

Assessments

In January 2008, Oracle WebCenter Content (formerly Universal Content Management) won ''

InfoWorld ''InfoWorld'' (''IW'') is an American information technology media business. Founded in 1978, it began as a monthly magazine. In 2007, it transitioned to a Web-only publication. Its parent company is International Data Group, and its sister pu ...

s "Technology of the Year" award for "Best Enterprise Content Manager", with Oracle SOA Suite winning the award for "Best Enterprise Service Bus". In 2007,

Gartner Gartner, Inc. is an American research and advisory firm focusing on business and technology topics. Gartner provides its products and services through research reports, conferences, and consulting. Its clients include large corporations, gover ...

wrote that "Oracle Fusion Middleware has reached a degree of completeness that puts it on par with, and in some cases ahead of, competing software stacks", and reported revenue from the suite of over US$1 billion during FY06, estimating the revenue from the genuinely middleware aspects at US$740 million.

Oracle Fusion Middleware components

* Infrastructure /

Application server An application server is a server that hosts applications or software that delivers a business application through a communication protocol. For a typical web application, the application server sits behind the web servers. An application ser ...

Oracle WebLogic Server Oracle Fusion Middleware (FMW, also known as Fusion Middleware) consists of several software products from Oracle Corporation. FMW spans multiple services, including Java EE and developer tools, integration services, business intelligence, co ...

(WLS) ** Oracle Application Server (IAS) ** JRockit – a

JVM A Java virtual machine (JVM) is a virtual machine that enables a computer to run Java programs as well as programs written in other languages that are also compiled to Java bytecode. The JVM is detailed by a specification that formally descri ...

whose functionality has now been merged to

OpenJDK OpenJDK (Open Java Development Kit) is a free and open-source implementation of the Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE). It is the result of an effort Sun Microsystems began in 2006, four years before the company was acquired by Oracle Corp ...

Tuxedo (software) Tuxedo (Transactions for Unix, Extended for Distributed Operations) is a middleware platform used to manage distributed transaction processing in distributed computing environments. Tuxedo is a transaction processing system or transaction-orie ...

** Oracle Coherence ** Oracle Service Registry –

metadata registry A metadata registry is a central location in an organization where metadata definitions are stored and maintained in a controlled method. A metadata repository is the database where metadata is stored. The registry also adds relationships with ...

** application-server security ** Oracle Web Cache * Integration and process-management ** BPEL Process Manager ** Oracle Business Activity Monitoring (Oracle BAM) – Business activity monitoring (BAM) **

business rule A business rule defines or constrains some aspect of a business. It may be expressed to specify an action to be taken when certain conditions are true or may be phrased so it can only resolve to either true or false. Business rules are intended to a ...

s ** Business Process Analysis Suite ** Oracle BPM –

Business process management Business process management (BPM) is the discipline in which people use various methods to Business process discovery, discover, Business process modeling, model, Business analysis, analyze, measure, improve, optimize, and Business process auto ...

** Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) – an application using the database for set-based data integration ** Enterprise connectivity (adapters) ** Oracle Enterprise Messaging Service ** Oracle Enterprise Service Bus ** Oracle Application server B2B ** Oracle Web Services Manager (OWSM) - a security and monitoring product for

web services A web service (WS) is either: * a service offered by an electronic device to another electronic device, communicating with each other via the Internet, or * a server running on a computer device, listening for requests at a particular port over a n ...

* Application development tools ** Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF) **

JDeveloper JDeveloper is a freeware IDE supplied by Oracle Corporation. It offers features for development in Java, XML, SQL and PL/SQL, HTML, JavaScript, BPEL and PHP. JDeveloper covers the full development lifecycle from design through coding, debug ...

** Oracle SOA Suite ** TopLink – a Java object-relational mapping package **

Oracle Forms Oracle Forms is a software product for creating screens that interact with an Oracle database. It has an IDE that includes an object navigator, property sheet, and code editor that uses PL/SQL. It was originally developed to run server-side i ...

services **

Oracle Developer Suite Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Co-founded in 1977 in Santa Clara, California, by Larry Ellison, who remains executive chairman, Oracle was the third-largest softwa ...

Business intelligence Business intelligence (BI) consists of strategies, methodologies, and technologies used by enterprises for data analysis and management of business information. Common functions of BI technologies include Financial reporting, reporting, online an ...

** Oracle Business Intelligence (OBIEE) ** Oracle Crystal Ball – enables stochastic forecasting and simulation using spreadsheet models ** Oracle Discoverer ** Data hubs ** Oracle BI Publisher ** Oracle Reports services *

Systems management Systems management is enterprise-wide System administration, administration of distributed systems including (and commonly in practice) computer systems. Systems management is strongly influenced by network management initiatives in telecommunic ...

Oracle Enterprise Manager Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM) is a set of web-based tools aimed at managing software and hardware produced by Oracle Corporation as well as by some non-Oracle entities. Releases Oracle Enterprise Manager includes three releases: Oracle Enterpri ...

Web service A web service (WS) is either: * a service offered by an electronic device to another electronic device, communicating with each other via the Internet, or * a server running on a computer device, listening for requests at a particular port over a n ...

s manager * User interaction /

** Oracle Beehive –

collaboration platform Collaborative software or groupware is application software designed to help people working on a common task to attain their goals. One of the earliest definitions of groupware is "intentional group processes plus software to support them." Regar ...

** Unified messaging ** Workspaces ** Oracle WebCenter ** Oracle Imaging and Process Management ** Web content management **

Records management Records management, also known as records and information management, is an organizational function devoted to the information management, management of information in an organization throughout its records life-cycle, life cycle, from the time of ...

Enterprise search Enterprise search is software technology for searching data sources internal to a company, typically intranet and database content. The search is generally offered only to users internal to the company. Enterprise search can be contrasted with web ...

** Digital asset management **

Email archiving Email archiving is the act of preserving and making searchable all email to/from an individual. Email archiving solutions capture email content either directly from the email application itself or during transport. The messages are typically then ...

Identity management Identity and access management (IAM or IdAM) or Identity management (IdM), is a framework of policies and technologies to ensure that the right users (that are part of the ecosystem connected to or within an enterprise) have the appropriate acce ...

** Oracle Identity Management ** Enterprise Single sign-on ** Oracle Entitlements Server ** Oracle Identity Manager ** Oracle Access Manager ** Oracle Adaptive Access Manager ** Oracle Virtual Directory

References

External links

Oracle Fusion Middleware overview

KMWorld article on Oracle acquisition of Stellent

WebCenter Content Users Group - Yahoo! Groups

OTN Forum - WebCenter Content

Fujitsu.com-42 Real Life Examples of Fusion Middleware with Applications

Amazon.com Oracle Fusion Middleware Patterns - Harish Gaur (Author), Markus Zirn (Contributor)

Content.FM
Content Management On Air. Broadcasting news, product updates and general purpose information about ECM and Oracle Universal Content Management {{Oracle Fusion Middleware Service-oriented architecture-related products

Evolution

Assessments

Oracle Fusion Middleware components

See also

References

External links