Oracle Fusion Middleware is a comprehensive family of products ranging from application development tools and integration solutions to identity management, collaboration, and business intelligence reporting. This chapter provides an introduction to Oracle Fusion Middleware.
It includes the following topics:
Oracle Fusion Middleware is a collection of standards-based software products that spans a range of tools and services: from Java EE and developer tools, to integration services, identity management, business intelligence, and collaboration. Oracle Fusion Middleware offers complete support for development, deployment, and management.
Oracle Fusion Middleware provides the following components:
Oracle WebLogic Server, an enterprise-ready Java application server that supports the deployment of mission-critical applications in a robust, secure, highly available, and scalable environment. Oracle WebLogic Server is an ideal foundation for building applications based on service-oriented architecture (SOA).
Oracle SOA Suite, a complete set of service infrastructure components, in a service-oriented architecture, for designing, deploying, and managing composite applications. Oracle SOA Suite enables services to be created, managed, and orchestrated into composite applications and business processes. Composites enable you to easily assemble multiple technology components into one SOA composite application.
Oracle WebCenter Portal, an integrated set of components with which you can create social applications, enterprise portals, collaborative communities, and composite applications, built on a standards-based, service-oriented architecture. Oracle WebCenter Portal combines dynamic user interface technologies with which to develop rich internet applications, the flexibility and power of an integrated, multichannel portal framework, and a set of horizontal Enterprise 2.0 capabilities delivered as services that provide content, collaboration, presence, and social networking capabilities. Based on these components, Oracle WebCenter Portal also provides an out-of-the-box, enterprise-ready customizable application, WebCenter Portal: Spaces, with a configurable work environment that enables individuals and groups to work and collaborate more effectively.
Oracle HTTP Server, which provides a Web listener for Java EE applications and the framework for hosting static and dynamic pages and applications over the Web. Based on the proven technology of the Apache HTTP Server, Oracle HTTP Server includes significant enhancements that facilitate load balancing, administration, and configuration.
Oracle Web Cache, a content-aware server accelerator, or reverse proxy, that improves the performance, scalability, and availability of Web sites that run on Oracle Fusion Middleware.
Oracle Identity Management, which provides a shared infrastructure for all Oracle applications. It also provides services and interfaces that facilitate third-party enterprise application development. These interfaces are useful for application developers who need to incorporate identity management into their applications.
Oracle Internet Directory, a general-purpose directory service that enables fast retrieval and centralized management of information about dispersed users and network resources. It combines Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) Version 3 with the high performance, scalability, robustness, and availability of Oracle Database.
Oracle Virtual Directory, an LDAP version 3 enabled service that provides virtualized abstraction of one or more enterprise data sources into a single directory view. Oracle Virtual Directory provides the ability to integrate LDAP-aware applications into diverse directory environments while minimizing or eliminating the need to change either the infrastructure or the applications. It supports a diverse set of clients, such as Web applications and portals, and it can connect to directories, databases, and Web services.
Oracle Identity Federation, a self-contained federation solution that provides the infrastructure that enables identities and their relevant entitlements to be propagated across security domains—this applies to domains existing within an organization as well as between organizations.
Oracle Access Manager, which provides a full range of Web perimeter security functions that include Web single sign-on, authentication and authorization, policy administration, and auditing. Single sign-on (SSO) enables users, and groups of users, to access multiple applications after authentication. SSO eliminates multiple sign-on requests. Oracle Access Manager is the Oracle Fusion Middleware single sign-on solution.
Oracle Web Services Manager, which provides a way to centrally define and manage policies that govern Web services operations, including access control (authentication and authorization), reliable messaging, Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism (MTOM), WS-Addressing, and Web services management. Policies can be attached to multiple Web services, requiring no modification to the existing Web services.
Oracle Platform Security, which provides enterprise product development teams, systems integrators, and independent software vendors (ISVs) with a standards-based, portable, integrated, enterprise-grade security framework for Java Standard Edition (Java SE) and Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE) applications.
Oracle Platform Security provides an abstraction layer in the form of standards-based application programming interfaces (APIs) that insulate developers from security and identity management implementation details. With Oracle Platform Security, developers do not need to know the details of cryptographic key management or interfaces with user repositories and other identity management infrastructures. When you use Oracle Platform Security, in-house developed applications, third-party applications, and integrated applications benefit from the same uniform security, identity management, and audit services across the enterprise.
Oracle Portal, a Web-based tool for building and deploying e-business portals. It provides a secure, manageable environment for accessing and interacting with enterprise software services and information resources. A portal page makes data from multiple sources accessible from a single location.
Oracle Business Intelligence, a complete, integrated solution that addresses business intelligence requirements. Oracle Business Intelligence includes Oracle BI Enterprise Edition, Oracle Business Intelligence Discoverer, Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher, and Oracle Real-Time Decisions.
Oracle WebCenter Content, an integrated suite of products designed for managing content. This enterprise content management platform enables you to leverage industry-leading document management, Web content management, digital asset management, and records management functionality to build your business applications. Building a strategic enterprise content management infrastructure for content and applications helps you to reduce costs, easily share content across the enterprise, minimize risk, automate expensive, time-intensive, and manual processes, and consolidate multiple Web sites onto a single platform.
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You can also use Oracle Fusion Middleware with IBM Websphere. For more information, see the Oracle Fusion Middleware Third-Party Application Server Guide.