System News for Sun Users

SAP Applications Certified for Oracle Exadata Database Machine

2011-07-18T16:00:00+01:00

Now that SAP applications based on SAP NetWeaver 7.x certified with Oracle Database 11g Release 2 such as SAP ERP and SAP Business Warehouse (BW) are certified for use with Oracle Exadata Database Machine, they can be deployed using Oracle Exadata Database Machines X2-2 and X2-8. This certification enables customers to consolidate SAP ERP and BW applications onto private clouds. Oracle's announcement notes that SAP customers requiring 24/7 application availability can take advantage of the Maximum Availability Architecture, which hundreds of current production SAP customers rely on and are familiar with.

Exastack Program for ISV Partners

2011-06-29T16:00:00+01:00

Oracle Exastack Ready (available now) and Oracle Exastack Optimized (available in fall 2011) were developed by Oracle to enable ISVs and other members of Oracle Partner Network (OPN) to rapidly build and deliver faster, more reliable applications to end customers. The Oracle Exastack Program focuses on helping ISVs run their solutions on Oracle Exadata Database Machine and Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud. Qualifying applications on the new Oracle Exastack Program ISVs can reduce the cost, time and support complexities typically associated with building and maintaining a disparate application infrastructure, thus enabling them to focus more on their core competencies, accelerating innovation and delivering superior value to customers. knowing an ISV's application has been tuned on Oracle Exadata Database Machine or Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud with a goal of delivering optimum speed, scalability and reliability customers can confidently choose a partner's Oracle Exastack Optimized application.

Annual Kickoff Event for Oracle PartnerNetwork Members - June 28th/29th

2011-06-13T16:00:00+01:00

On June 28, 2011, Oracle will host the third annual Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) global kickoff event featuring live, virtual sessions to provide partners with specific sales strategies, messages and opportunities that will enable them to successfully plan and engage in the OPN program for Oracle fiscal year 2012. Hosted by Judson Althoff, Oracle Senior Vice President of Worldwide Alliances and Channels and Embedded Sales, and other top regional Oracle Alliances and Channels executives, the event will give partners deeper insight into Oracle's vision and plans for the upcoming year, as well as deliver:

Information on how to increase revenue opportunities through service offerings;
Program updates to help ISVs and OEMs grow their businesses; and
Strategies on how to leverage Oracle technology to differentiate themselves from the competition.

Oracle President, Mark Hurd and other top Oracle product development executives from around the globe, will discuss Oracle's strategic product focus areas for fiscal year 2012 and how partners can utilize Oracle's extensive applications-to-disk product portfolio.

EnduraData Releases EDWADDS 3.1.5: Provides Cross-platform Replication

2011-04-12T16:00:00+01:00

EDWADDS 3.1.5 is the latest version of EnduraData's cross-platform file replication, remote online server and PC backup, remote archive and data distribution software. EnduraData's press release claims EDWADDS 3.1.5 includes support for cross-platform data distribution, remote online backup consolidation, data migration and content aggregation for Windows, Linux, Mac, Solaris and other Unix flavors. EDWADDS 3.1.5 can replicate and distribute content from many sites to one site, and it can also expand many to one configurations to include more remote hosts more quickly, easily and cost effectively than earlier versions, resulting in what is truly a unified data management solution. Paul Scievetti, Chief Idea Officer at Synergen, reports that, 'I switched one of my local government clients to EDWADDS for automated backup in a mixed Windows and Linux environments and I am beyond delighted with both the software and the EnduraData team!"

IQNavigator Inc. Invests in Oracle Exadata Database Machine

2011-03-30T16:00:00+01:00

IQNavigator is a leading provider of services procurement and extended workforce solutions that has invested in Oracle Exadata Database Machine X2-2 to power its core online transaction processing (OLTP) and real-time reporting services. The company's expectations are that Oracle Exadata Database Machine will improve system throughput at the database and storage tiers; Increase the performance of complex queries by an average of 10x without tuning; support its real-time reporting capabilities directly from its transactional system; and, scale its system horizontally over time as required.The IQNavigator application incorporates procurement, financial and human resources (HR) capabilities to help clients manage and control costs to achieve savings in the bid process as well as meet a myriad of compliance and visibility requirements. The application also features 24/7 real-time reporting with clients running thousands of on-demand and scheduled reports daily. 'As the IQNavigator service and data products continue to grow exponentially, the performance delivered by Oracle Exadata Database Machine X2-2 is key to supporting the always-on, real-time reporting environment that clients rely on around the world,' said John F. Martin, chief operating officer, IQNavigator Inc.

Traffixsystems' Diameter Router and Load Balancer Scales on Solaris SPARC T3

2011-03-28T16:00:00+01:00

Diameter, developed by traffixsystems and a successor to the company's RADIUS product, has been paired with SPARC Enterprise T-Series technology, Oracle Solaris 10 Zones and Oracle Solaris Cluster to enable telco network operators moving to LTE to accommodate the increase in signaling anticipated to accompany the growth in both LTE and 4G networks. Oracle's ISV Engineering staff benchmarked the Traffix Diameter Router and Load Balancer on a SPARC T5220 under a session-based online-charging scenario in which each client sent the following DCCA application commands: Initiate; 10 Updates; Terminate. The typical request size for this benchmarking exercise was 1,000 bytes and response size was 200 bytes. Throughout the testing, the Traffix software proved easily able to linearly scale across the 64 threads available on the 8-core UltraSPARC T2+ processor, to process Diameter transactions in parallel and to deliver extremely high overall throughput.

Talend Integration Suite Optimized on Solaris

2011-03-08T17:00:00+01:00

Continuing in the spirit of the Tunathon program run by Sun Microsystems that studies and tunes application performance on Solaris, Oracle has enhanced the performance of the Talend Integration Suite being run by one of Talend's financial services customers. Using the ConcurrentHashMap, available since the release of Java 5.0 SE, engineers discovered a contention for the resources of a Java synchronized map that it was possible to resolve by allowing multiple threads to do updates, locking only what each needs rather than the entire map. Oracle's ISV engineering staff can assist companies to avoid limits in scalability with Tunathon resources that can stress applications in house before such limits are encountered.

Wolf Medical Systems Enhances Caregiver Mobility with Oracle�s Sun Ray Clients

2011-02-24T17:00:00+01:00

Through the use of Oracle's Sun Ray Clients, Wolf Medical Systems has enhanced caregiver mobility, optimizing physicians' face time with patients and streamlining IT management. A leading provider of electronic medical records (EMR) software for physician offices and medical clinics across Canada, Wolf has integrated its EMR software with Sun Ray Clients and Sun Ray software, providing to provide doctors and other care providers with a powerful productivity tool that enables them to optimize time with patients, saving up to 20 minutes per day per physician and staff member.

Oracle Plans One-Two Punch With Specialized Partners and ISVs

2011-02-07T17:00:00+01:00

Commenting on the PartnerNetwork (OPN) Specialized the VAR Guy opines that the effort is taking hold with channel partners, given that Oracle now has 1,000 specialized channel partners, a figure that, according to Channel Chief Judson Althoff, will surpass 2,000 specialized partners by the time Oracle wraps up its fiscal year 2011 in May. Althoff also shared with the VAR Guy the news about an aggressive ISV (independent software vendor) strategy that will surface in Fiscal 2012. Further, Oracle plans to reward specialized partners with a new match-maker portal that helps customers find specialized partners, he writes.

Oracle Partners Rapidly Adopt Oracle PartnerNetwork Specialized Program

2011-02-03T17:00:00+01:00

The Oracle Specialized Partner Premier Site Network is a new interactive directory designed to connect customers with a partner that has the right designed to connect expertise to meet their distinct business needs. In its first year of operation, the Oracle Partner Network has attracted nearly 1,000 specialized partners, 22678, OPN specialists, 9,717 OPN implementation specialists and 58 curriculum libraries, each capable of contributing to a competitive edge for customers electing to sign up for specialized status. OPN Specialized has found favor with the industry, as is clear from the comment of Darren Bibby, program vice-president of IDC Software Channels and Alliances Research, who says, "These are great initiatives from Oracle towards letting the world know what it means to be a Specialized partner.'

Oracle Solaris 11 ISV Adoption Guide

2011-01-11T17:00:00+01:00

"Oracle Solaris 11 ISV Adoption Guide" is a white paper written to assist ISVs transition their applications smoothly from Oracle Solaris 10 to Oracle Solaris 11. While applications developed for Oracle Solaris 10 or earlier Oracle Solaris operating systems are binary compatible with Solaris 11 Express and Solaris 11, it is inevitable that changes to component versions, retired frameworks and command line changes or undocumented APIs may require changes in order for those applications to run well on Solaris 11. The white paper provides a list of all currently known reasons for modifications which need to to be made to existing applications.

Oracle for SAP Technology Update

2010-12-13T17:00:00+01:00

John Fowler, Oracle EVP for Systems, addresses the company's SAP customers in his introduction to a special edition of the Oracle Newsletter for SAP, explaining how the complete stack of SPARC and x86 servers, storage, and virtualization technologies, integrated with the Oracle Solaris OS and Oracle databases, can provide the optimal infrastructure on which to run Oracle and SAP. Oracle products, he assures readers, are tested, tuned and certified to run mission-critical SAP applications that meet customer demands for availability, security, scalability, performance and efficiency. Several success stories are appended to the edition. These include the experiences of, among others, Tata Sky Ltd., Dow Corning, and the Hera Group.

LogLogic Leverages MySQL and Oracle Linux

2010-11-09T17:00:00+01:00

A recent Oracle press release announces that LogLogic Leverages MySQL and Oracle Linux to Improve Performance and Reliability for its Critical Business Offerings. LogLogic, the release continues, has integrated the combination of MySQL and Oracle Linux into its comprehensive suite of security information and event management (SIEM) products designed to help its more than 1,000 large enterprise customers achieve regulatory compliance, protect valuable customer information, and improve the efficiency of IT operations. Using MySQL and Oracle Linux enables LogLogic to deliver a reliable and scalable foundation for its product suite and quickly provide a 360-view into customer operations, security stance, and more.

Oracle PartnerNetwork Certified Specialist

2010-10-21T16:00:00+01:00

A new certification offered by the Oracle Certification Program is Oracle PartnerNetwork Certified Specialist (OPN), a new designation for those Oracle Partners who have completed specified requirements for select Oracle Certified Associate (OCA), Oracle Certified Professional (OCP), Oracle Certified Expert (OCE), and Oracle Certified Specialist (OCS) certifications. Credit for the OPN certification will also be included in their company's OPN Specialized recognition.

Sun Resellers to Go Under Contract with Oracle

2010-10-05T16:00:00+01:00

Sun solution providers under contract with Oracle from the previous Sun Partner Advantage channel program will see those contracts expire on Oct. 15 and will be under Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) contracts beginning Oct. 16, said Judson Althoff, senior vice president of worldwide alliances, channels and embedded sales, in an interview with CRN's Rick Whiting.

The Line-up of Partner Events at Oracle OpenWorld 2010

2010-09-02T16:00:00+01:00

What can partners expect at the upcoming Oracle OpenWorld 2010? The company has a full line-up of partner activities, beginning with the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) Forum on Sunday Sept. 19, followed by a series of Partner Pavilions and partner-only sessions to be held throughout the conference event, which ends on the 23rd.

Decision-making Time for Sun VARs

2010-08-19T16:00:00+01:00

The word from Oracle to Sun VARs is they need to join the Oracle Partner Network (OPN), although some of the specifics remain sketchy. In two separate articles from CRN, the topic on Oracle's outreach to Sun VARs is discussed, and an entry on the VAR Guy blog also asks if Sun partners really need to embrace Oracle solutions. This article highlights these discussions.

Oracle Encourages Its VARs to Work Their Way Up the Stack

2010-08-05T16:00:00+01:00

How best to make money as an Oracle partner is the question; by selling Oracle/Sun servers to Oracle software partners running on other than the Sun platform may be the answer, as rumor would have it from the Avnet Technology Solutions Partner Summit 2010 at the end of July. This is the suggestion in the interview on ChannelWeb with Oracle execs Tom Wagner, Jim Standard and Lydia Smyers. Scott Campbell is the reporter.

Sun Technology-related Knowledge Zones Launched

2010-06-30T16:00:00+01:00

Partners interested in identity management, Oracle Exadata, MySQL, Oracle VM, Java, developer tools, Oracle Solaris, Sun servers, Sun storage, and Enterprise Manager Ops Center, now have an opportunity to become more knowledgeable and/or specialized in these areas via the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN), which has launched new Knowledge Zones in each of these product lines. Knowledge Zones are designed to assist in making opportunities available to those specialized in a product and are meant to help companies distinguish their offerings from the competition.

Live Interactive Virtual Event on the OPN Specialized Program

2010-06-14T16:00:00+01:00

Register for the June 29th live online global kickoff of the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) Specialized Program where company executives will provide specific sales strategies and messages to help partners successfully engage in the OPN Specialized program for Oracle's fiscal year 2011. 'With the addition of so many new products into our portfolio in the past year, as well as new partners joining us from recent acquisitions, it is extremely important that our partners understand Oracle's strategy," said Judson Althoff, senior vice president, Oracle Worldwide Alliances & Channels.

Tadpole Topaz V2 - Ultra Rugged Mobile Computer

2010-06-05T16:00:00+01:00

Tadpole Topaz is a state-of-the-art ultra rugged mobile computer designed to withstand the toughest environments, with a magnesium alloy chassis in an integrated rubber over-molding that provides exceptional protection against extreme field conditions. The newest member of the General Dynamics line of rugged computers, the ergonomic Tadpole Topaz provides the security, performance, connectivity and display quality required in the toughest tactical environments at a commercial off-the-shelf price (COTS). "The Topaz is a veritable bargain," writes Conrad H. Blickenstorfer in a review by RuggedPCReview.com.

Exadata May Be Oracle's iPhone Says Ellison

2010-05-31T16:00:00+01:00

The big game channel changer for Oracle this year is Exadata, says John Gray, group vice president of North American alliances and channels at Oracle, who spoke to Steve Burke, editor/news of Everything Channel on the Exchange Solution Provider segment of CRNtv's ChannelWeb. "Our pipeline has exploded around Exadata," reports Gray. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison more specifically told Reuters: 'Right now our pipeline is approaching $1 billion for a fairly new product. I think in a few years the Exadata business will be measured in the billions of dollars per year of new sales. If you will, our iPhone.'

Sun Partner Frontline Discusses Shift to Oracle Practice

2010-05-25T16:00:00+01:00

Long-time Sun partner and systems integrator Frontline Systems has launched an Oracle practice, shifting its focus from hardware sales to professional services and software. Speaking with Nadia Cameron with ARN, Frontline general manager Bill Frangeskakis says staff focused specifically on Oracle's database and middleware offerings has more than doubled since the first of this year, growing from an initial three to eight in the few months since the Sun-Oracle merger.

New Certifications Introduced at Oracle

2010-05-18T16:00:00+01:00

The Oracle Certified Specialist (OCS) are a new series of partner-focused certifications. Paul Sorensen, global director of Oracle Certification at Oracle University, provides an overview of these certifications in a 5:38 minute video. Targeted at professionals that work for Oracle partners, but not exclusive to partners, the certifications are designed to help those interested in Oracle certification to learn, validate, and verify their implementation skills.

Marketing Basics for Partners

2010-05-13T16:00:00+01:00

Oracle's Marketing Basics for Partners is a set of self-service marketing tutorials aimed at transferring marketing knowledge to its partner community. The goal of these on-demand training sessions is to assist partners in executing demand generation campaigns and generate valuable sales leads. Stein Surlien, senior vice president, Alliances and Channels, Oracle EMEA, commented, "We've designed the self-service marketing tutorials to be a practical service where partners can draw on our experience to execute their own campaigns."

New OPN Specializations and Training Resources for Sun and Oracle Technologies

2010-05-04T16:00:00+01:00

The Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) partner enablement resources now include new training resources and Specializations for core Sun and Oracle technologies, the company announced. Value-added resellers (VARs) can get trained and specialized in fifteen new areas, including Oracle Solaris, SPARC, Chip Multithreading (CMT), Sun Storage 7000, and Sun StorageTek Tape Libraries.

How to Get Recognized in the Oracle Partner Network

2010-04-28T16:00:00+01:00

One of the themes of the Oracle Partner Network (OPN) Specialized Program is to help distinguish partner solutions. Oracle's Customer and Partner Reference program offers solutions to help evangelize and recognize customer wins and services. Senior Vice President of Worldwide Alliances Judson Althoff discusses five different opportunities available from the OPN Specialized Program to assist partners in accomplishing these goals.

A Standards-based, Open Approach to Network Automation

2010-04-24T16:00:00+01:00

Force 10's Open Automation initiative aims to transform data center infrastructure. Introduced in March, this initiative represents a streamlined, standards-based approach to network automation that optimizes data center network performance and efficiency, and lays the foundation for cloud-based services.

Channel Partner Strategies for Sun's Product Lines

2010-04-21T16:00:00+01:00

Sun products recently have been the topic for a couple of blog entries from The VAR Guy. One covers the two key growth areas related to Sun hardware that Senior Vice President of Worldwide Alliances Judson Althoff says Oracle partners should immediately focus on. The other looks at partner strategies for Sun's MySQL, Java and OpenOffice offerings.

Hardening and Maintaining Security in a Mixed Operating Systems Data Center

2010-04-17T16:00:00+01:00

Securing a mixed operating systems (OS) environment can be quite challenge, particularly since the hardening process differs from OS to OS and from system to system. Automated tools can greatly reduce the number of resources required and maintain consistency. One solution that can provides these types of services, among others, is Trusted Computer Solutions (TCS) Security Blanket. As the only tool designed to automatically configure operating systems to meet industry standards, Security Blanket also allows for the easy creation of customized security lock down profiles and reduces the lock down processing time from hours to minutes.