Oracle News

*Oracle Express Objects for Supercharging OLAP
Computerworld (Mar. 11, p14) ran hot and heavy with a story that Oracle is releasing Oracle Express Objects 2.0, which a Gartner analyst called "among the most powerful tool kits available." Oracle Express Objects is a tool-set designed to create OLAP applications tied to Oracle's multi-dimensional database. As the name implies, Oracle Express Objects is object-oriented and features dialog boxes, radio buttons, forms, pull-down lists and multiple windows. Another user, Paul Mundell, a decision-support specialist at Warner Bros. praised the product saying, "It is a product rich in useful objects."

*One Size Fits All . . . Oracle (R) Universal Server (R)
Communications Week (Mar. 11, p 15) covered the announcement about Oracle Universal Server with a vengeance this week. "Network managers will be able to deploy a single database to access relational, video, audio and enhanced text data with the release of Oracle Corp.'s Universal Server," was the lead. Key among the features of Oracle Universal Server was the Advanced Networking Option, of which Victor Tsien, a network administrator at the Argonne National Laboratory, said, "Single sign-on is every administrator's dream. The hours upon hours of otherwise wasted time maintaining passwords and access privileges on dozens of systems can be better spent protecting systems, not administering them."

The integration of Oracle's ConText software will also benefit users, a sentiment echoed by industry analyst Esther Dyson, who opined with "It (ConText) does what its name promises. It helps users find and navigate to the content they are really looking for -- even in places they wouldn't ordinarily think to look." Esther has always had her hand on the pulse of the industry and we're thrilled that she has anointed Oracle Universal Server as a pre-eminent product.

*Oracle Network Computer (TM) . . . A Perfect Setup
Information Week (Mar. 11, p36) is stoking the anti-Wintel fires with a superb article on vendors that are taking the Microsoft-Intel semi-monopoly to task. Big-time Oracle customer, Burlington Coat Factory is in the fore of the article, as in the lead paragraph, saying of Oracle's upcoming Network Computer, "It's a perfect setup. We're looking to make it our standard desktop." The article also says that sales of the Network Computer (TM) may bypass personal computer sales by the year 2000. The article further predicts that by year-end, the combined forces of Oracle, Sun, Apple and other vendors could seriously challenge the Wintel status-quo.

Coming Soon to a Gateway Near You . . . Replication for Other DB's Network World (Mar. 11, p1) scooped the rival pubs with the news this week that Oracle will soon offer bi-directional replication of data between Oracle and databases from Computer Associates, Informix and Sybase. The scoop is that new gateway capabilities will enable Oracle customers to replicate data between disparate databases, a move that one user said, "This could help someone to move to Oracle without having to re-engineer the programs they already have in another database." The article also revealed that by summer, all Oracle gateway products will support the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), a critical feature for today's heterogeneous environments. Look for more details on the Gateway front in the coming weeks.

Best Western International Reservation System, More Bang for the Buck Investors Business Daily (Mar. 11, pA6) did a nice piece on the Best Western International hotel reservation system, and Oracle7 was a key ingredient. The new global system, capable of handling over 2,000 transactions a second, is based on an Oracle-Digital platform and includes linkage via a high-speed satellite network. Commenting on the benefits of the new system, Bill Watson, executive vp at Best Western had nothing but compliments for the setup. "The Digital-Oracle system not only offers the power, speed and flexibility Best Western needs, but it was also one-tenth the price of competing systems." Heady words indeed, but when the customer speaks, Oracle listens. The new system is being launched Friday, after having a prototype in place since October. Received on Sun May 05 1996 - 00:00:00 CEST