The Hindu Business Line : Winds of change...

In every business, first comes a transaction, then understanding its business implication, and then acting on it. Try `enterprise grid computing' says Oracle.

Roland Slee

WHEN I joined Oracle 12 years ago, we used to run e-mail on a dedicated server. I could read my e-mails only in office. But today, Oracle's e-mails are Internet-architected. As a result, I can read my e-mails at my office, home, airport, my mobile phone, — anywhere I go, as long as I have access to the Internet. This is true not just of my e-mails but also my documents, for Internet, HR systems, or all official documents. I can work productively wherever I am."

Personalising the use of technology thus is Roland Slee, Senior Director of Business and Technology, Oracle (Asia-Pacific).

In an interview to eWorld, Slee spoke of the Internet's role in information sharing and management, of enterprise grid computing, and of Oracle's plans for India. Here goes:

Slee says how software is being used to deploy an application is increasingly seeing a shift - from a `client server' structure to an `Internet-based architecture'.

Simply put, with software on client servers, the cost of managing and deploying a system is high because if one wants to update the software, he/she needs to maintain it at the end point. And every customer has to have a copy.

If one needs to make a patch, he/she needs to distribute it to everyone involved in the system in that space.

But, in an Internet-based architecture, the software runs centrally on the application server.

If one needs to fix a problem, all that he/she needs to do is limited to that space.

Customers see the benefits of this centralised environment - better performance, business functionality, and easier management of the total cost of ownership.

These business drivers have forced organisations on a global basis to move from client to Internet architecture.

This change has, in turn, driven the need for application server software.

When one runs an application on an Internet architecture, normally, interacting with the application is through an industry standard Web browser, such as Internet Explorer or Firefox.

Today, most mobile phones have mini browsers built into the phone.

Enterprise grid computing

A company's use of information systems has three key elements: Transaction handling: This is basically about capturing the business events that are material to the enterprise.

For example, if someone places an order with a company or gives money, that is an event.

If a company hires an employee, that is an event.

Events that happen in the real world are captured through transactions and are reflected through the system.

We all book airline tickets and withdraw money from the ATM. These are transactions.

Next comes business intelligence. This helps one understand the business implication of transactions.

The third element is about collaboration.

We have captured transactions, we have understood the business implications, and now we have to act on those insights.

To cite an instance where all three elements need to be collaborated and acted upon, imagine that a company's costs are rising faster than revenue.

The company needs to drive up revenue or control costs.

To drive up revenues, the company can run a marketing campaign.

And taking note of expenses going up, it can e-mail the sales director that the sales team needs to go easy on long lunches with wine.

Islands of information

Traditionally, these three events have been separate worlds of IT. They used different IT architecture, software and approaches to build different styles of systems.

There are transactional systems such as sales automation, HR or accounting.

Then one brings the data into an analytical environment.

And then collaboration is done in a knowledge management environment.

More often than not, these are separate moves.

And decisions on these cannot be in time, because it takes time for the data to move through these different environments.

This is where the enterprise grid computing architecture that Oracle offers can help companies to plot transactions and take decisions in real-time.

Agenda in India

Talking of India and opportunities here, Slee says India is a price-sensitive market.

It is also a large one with a big number of small and medium-size enterprises.

Hence those businesses that are sensitive to cost but are ambitious to grow can put in place the building blocks of an enterprise grid computing system.

This will grow as the business grows, and they will not have to fundamentally change the architecture.

In an enterprise grid computing environment, the IT architecture can scale from small implementations to large ones.

Because the way to make your systems powerful is not to buy a big computer but plug in more small computers.

As you keep growing, you keep on adding the blocks.

raja@thehindu.co.in

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