| Oracle® Collaboration Suite Deployment Release 2 (9.0.4) Part Number B15606-01 |
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View PDF |
| Oracle® Collaboration Suite Deployment Release 2 (9.0.4) Part Number B15606-01 |
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|
View PDF |
This chapter provides an overview of Oracle Collaboration Suite and describes how to use this guide. This chapter contains the following topics:
Oracle Collaboration Suite is a set of integrated software components that provide communication and collaboration services. These components are based on Oracle9i Application Server and Oracle9i Database. With Oracle Collaboration Suite, users can exchange e-mail, voice mail and faxes. They can also organize appointments, share documents, and arrange, track, and conduct online meetings. Users can access these services through the Web or wireless networks, by telephone or fax, or with client applications such as Microsoft Outlook.
The following figure provides a conceptual view of the components that constitute Oracle Collaboration Suite and the services they provide.
Figure 1-1 Oracle Collaboration Suite components and services
At a high level, Oracle Collaboration Suite can be divided into three tiers. There are different options for deploying the components that constitute these tiers. The following figure provides a high-level view of the components of these three tiers.
Figure 1-2 The three tiers of Oracle Collaboration Suite
The three tiers and their components are summarized in the following sections:
The information storage tier is based on Oracle9i Database. It consists of the Oracle Files and Oracle Email database, and can be deployed with Oracle9i Real Application Clusters.
The infrastructure tier is built on Oracle9i Application Server. It consists of a common set of services, such as security, directory, and portal services. These services are used by Oracle Collaboration Suite applications.
The middle tier consists of Oracle Email, Oracle Files, Oracle Calendar, Oracle Voicemail and Fax, Oracle Web Conferencing and Oracle UltraSearch. Users interact with Oracle Collaboration Suite by using these applications, which can be accessed through a wide variety of communications media.
The network setup and architecture you choose for Oracle Collaboration Suite determine the degree of availability, security, scalability and performance of the product. To ensure that Collaboration Suite provides service reliably and efficiently, you must plan these elements carefully in order to optimize your system.
Use this guide to plan your network and architecture before you start installing Oracle Collaboration Suite. The next two chapters in this book, Oracle Collaboration Suite Network Planning and Oracle Collaboration Suite Architecture Planning, describe how to set up and plan your network and architecture, and how to leverage existing elements that might be available. Both chapters also include a list of questions you should ask when evaluating your needs. Chapter 4, "Oracle Collaboration Suite Deployment Examples", includes real-world examples of Collaboration Suite deployments, upon which you can model your own deployment.
