On 11 July 2013, Oracle launched the so-called Cloud Application Foundation. An online launch event was organized on 31 July 2013 to introduce this new term in the Oracle Stack.

This event had two parts:

  1. Keynote and Customer & Industry Leader Panel Webcast (60 minutes)
  2. Technical Breakout Session featuring Oracle WebLogic, Oracle Coherence, Oracle Enterprise Manager and Oracle Developer tools Webcast (120 minutes)

First of all: Cloud Application Foundation is yet another term from Oracle – but what does it mean?

Main Cloud Application Foundation components

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Nowadays, Application Infrastructure Requirements have to deliver next-generation applications to end-users using a mission-critical cloud platform. The need is to simplify and consolidate operations through native cloud management and to accelerate the time-to-market with a modern development platform and integrated tools. Oracle Cloud Application Foundation is designed for the cloud and is expected to provide tools and infrastructure around Oracle WebLogic 12c for dynamic enterprise application.
This blog post lists information provided during the first one hour session.

Keynote and Customer & Industry Leader Panel Webcast summary

There are two core components for Cloud Application Foundation:

Oracle WebLogic Server 12.1.2

This part focuses on Oracle WebLogic Server 12.1.2 new features and improvement done to address cloud requirement principally know as elastic and dynamic environment scaling. More information about WebLogic Server 12.1.2 new features can be consult on the following dbi services blog, here.

Oracle Coherence 12c

  • This is the first Coherence 12c release. Oracle Coherence is an in-memory solution across conventional and cloud environments. It is a distributed cache management system for Java, .NET, and C++ enterprise applications.
  • It is designed for large-scale applications to meet mobile, social, or cloud requirements and to provide applications with always-accurate and real-time data. It can be used with Oracle Golden Gate to push database changes into Coherence cache using Oracle Top Link (Oracle persistence implementation tool based on Java Persistence API -JPA).

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  • The speaker discussed the advantages of using Coherence and talked about the work done by Oracle engineers to improve the usability, configuration, and management of this in-memory solution. Coherence enhances the deployment stage of WebLogic and managed Coherence server. It is now completely integrated in WebLogic and the WebLogic Management Framework in particular. It has the same management utilities, the same deployer, and the administration can be performed completely through Oracle WebLogic.
  • Oracle Coherence 12c (12.1.2) contains many new features that help reduce the complexity, ease the integration, and accelerate the time-to-market of scalable solutions.

New and improved Coherence Data Grid functionalities

  • Managed Coherence Server:
    • Fully integrated into the WebLogic Management Framework
    • New Grid Archive (GAR) designed to optimize the packaging, deployment, and use of Oracle Coherence applications
  • Live Events:
    • Event framework to react to operations performed in the data grid
  • Integration with Oracle GoldenGate HotCache:
    • Allows changes to the database to be propagated to objects in the Coherence cache for always-accurate and real-time data
  • Enhanced REST support such as multiple REST application and security for Coherence REST

Performance, reliability, scalability, transactional integrity, multi-language support, disaster recovery, support and driving fast data, as well as the integration into Oracle Fusion Middleware products are fundamental features of Oracle Coherence.
For a complete overview, you can find the technical changes and enhancements here.

Development and management tools designed for Cloud Application Foundation

Oracle Enterprise Manager 12cR3

A lot of work has been done to simplify operations with Native Cloud Management. Some improvements have been made to reduce the lifecycle management complexity concerning private cloud, as well as to maximize the control of business application service levels and to diagnose middleware issues up to 4x faster.

OEM, WebLogic and the WebTier integration

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The WebLogic Management Framework is now able to manage Oracle WebTier components which are typically installed and accessed in the DMZ. The major news is that Oracle WebTier components, specifically OHS, will not be managed anymore by the Oracle Process and Management Notification (OPMN), but by the NodeManager. Good news! This means that it can now be managed by script through WLST.

Oracle Development Tools 12c

  • JDeveloper 12.1.2
  • Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse 12.1.2
  • NetBeans
  • Application Development Framework 12c

One of the objectives of this new release is to be enable the developing and building of application with a common framework for faster, multi-channel deployments with Oracle ADF 12c and WebLogic Server 12c. A relevant point is the improvement in terms of smarter code and the reducing of errors through advanced dependency analysis. Version control and building scripts are other key features of Oracle 12c development tools, which are now more integrated. Also, let’s not forget continuous integration facility, which is more and more important in every development projects during each lifecycle stage of an enterprise application.
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All these features must be tested to understand which improvements have been done.
You can access the online information provided on the OTN here.
Stay tuned for all new Oracle 12c Cloud Application Foundation solutions!