Optimization of the platform with Oracle

Information Week

An overflow crowd of 400-plus people at an Oracle (NSDQ: ORCL) OpenWorld Executive Solution session at Moscone Center in San Francisco today heard Jörg Tettenborn, director of the Oracle Strategic Alliance for Fujitsu Siemens Computers, describe how to create a lean and agile IT infrastructure by virtualizing and consolidating Oracle Application Server and Database applications with FlexFrame for Oracle (FF4O).

As Tettenborn described, FF4O leverages the grid computing capability of Oracle 10g to create the first dynamic IT solution for Oracle application and database services, which can result in a reduction of operating costs by up to 60% and a rapid improvement in efficiency when it comes to running business-critical applications.

FlexFrame for Oracle is a joint development of Oracle and Fujitsu Siemens Computers, and follows the example of another hardware, software, and services product that Fujitsu Siemens released in 2002, FlexFrame for SAP, that dynamically assigns servers to SAP applications on demand. Tettenborn explained that Fujitsu’s concept of Dynamic Data Center and Oracle’s Grid Computing both share an architecture that separates servers from data and separates servers from applications. In a Grid Computing environment, IT components such as applications, storage, and processors are dynamically allocated (provisioned) and freed again to serve other requests when they’re not being used. He said key technologies for both Dynamic Data Center and Grid Computing include virtualization, dynamic provisioning, and automation, that is, integrated administration and management where, for all practical purposes, the grid or dynamic data center can manage itself.

This article illustrates how using the right range of hardware, software and infrastructure, you can achieve a lot more from your infrastructure. As we consolidate and optimize the infrastructure for the application, we need to also examine optimizing the application for the infrastructure, targetting both at the same time is going to achieve the best set of results in terms of reliability and performance.