Today Oracle announced the availability of Cloud Application Foundation (CAF), and never shy, declared it the #1 Application Foundation across conventional and cloud environments. This is a key step for Oracle to integrate products and make it easier to built applications on the Oracle technology stack. We take a look at the announcement and present our takeaways.
Working up the stack
On the heels of the Oracle Database 12c general availability and a number of alliances around the cloud, Oracle is not slowing down and announced availability of Oracle Cloud Foundation, which is basically a combination of Oracle WebLogic Server and Oracle Coherence. All together can be found - at the famous 30k feet level - as a part of Oracle Fusion Middleware. 
And Oracle WebLogic Server is - according to Gartner - the #1 Application Server in the market and probably that let to the rationale of claiming the #1 spot for the Application Foundation space.
Building up the stack
It makes sense for Oracle to work the way up the technology stack - as the products leverage each other - CAF uses 12c heavily - and makes curios when we will see Application releases.
But building applications always takes longer - so I would be surprised to see Application news before OpenWorld. But never say never.
Could it be a little more?
Actually CAF rurns out to be a little more than just Oracle WebLogic Server and Oracle Coherence, it also includes Oracle Tuxedo, a Virtual Assembly Builder and Traffic Director / Web Tier. And all of that plays nicely together and can be deployed in the Oracle Cloud and / or Oracle Excalogic Elastic Cloud Servers. Needless to say, it works with Oracle Database 12c and uses the databases new multitenancy features. And Oracle has learnt the lessons from the past - you need an infrastructure management tool for these systems at general availability time and Oracle Enterprise Manager can administer CAF and ships with it now. And finally no application products without tie-in from the developer side - so there is a new Oracle JDeveloper version available along side, too.
If you throw all the new features of these products together, you come up with a staggering list of features, that comes back to my concerns raised after Oracle Analyst day - how can that amount of code and functionality be built reliably and then be trained and administered. We know the answer to the latter is Oracle Enterprise Manager - but for the rest Oracle will have to show, how its product quality can be upheld with this large scope and how the ecosystem will be trained. Oracle seems to have catered for the concern, mentioning the training availability and even providing the link to the training - in the press release.
Oracle WebLogic Server gets cloudy
Not surprisingly the new Oracle WebLogic Server supports new Oracle Database 12c features like multi-tenancy, as we assumed previously as the driver for the many recent Oracle alliances, specifically as part of the product bundle that will run in Microsoft Azure. Another key feature is the more dynamic connection pooling on the database side, that allows the Oracle tech stack to cope better with bursts of database loads. And finally the dynamic auto-scale feature was something badly missing before and adds a key cloud capability (see also Microsoft Azure recently adding this key cloud capability). All this coupled with with the application continuity features makes this a key Oracle WebLogic Server release.
Beefed up Oracle Coherence
It is good to see that Oracle is releasing a new version of Oracle Coherence with 12.1.2. And while adding to the deployment options is good, Oracle (finally) addresses the caching issue between Oracle Coherence and Database with the creation of GoldenGate Hotcache. The support for live events in Oracle Coherence should help the usage of the product in last millisecond environments such as e-commerce. And the good open source uptake of Coherence is being leverage by Oracle, e.g. by the availability of the Apache built tool Maven.
TCO Reduction
And no Application platform without a development tool, which of course is JDeveloper for Oracle, which coupled with the new ADF support for mobile and tablet forms the backbone of how Oracle wants developers to build Java applications.
Given the complexity of this environment, it is good that Oracle Enterprise Manager is there to help administer and monitor the whole environment. Equally the common install of Oracle Web Tier with Oracle WebLogic Server and Oracle Coherence will be welcomed.
Is SAP HANA driving Oracle?
The strong focus on in memory caching with Oracle Coherence allows the impression that recent in memory offerings like SAP's HANA may have put some Oracle projects in overdrive. The two products should not be confused - Coherence is at the end of the day a cache vs. HANA being a database. For an application experience though - they accomplish the same - a faster, and if done right, more powerful user experience.
Cloud or not Cloud?
As usual Oracle build and positions its products to be practically universally deploy-able. Customers can use Cloud Application Foundation to built on premise, hybrid or public cloud applications, that can run on the Oracle Cloud or other public clouds. And they can buy the hardware with Exalogic Elastic Cloud with it, too - if they wish. And while at the end of the day software boils down to bits and bytes, Oracle will have to show if such a unversal deployment of identical products makes them strong players in each deployment scenario - or just average players. Oracle has the deep pockets to succeed at such a strategy, but the proof in the markets still has to be shown.
Implication for Fusion Apps?
And while mentioned or pointed out recently, Cloud Application Foundation should be / is the foundation for Oracle's business applications, with Fusion Applications being the most recent and technologically modern incarnation of Oracle enterprise applications. But Fusion apps are already shipping - so it will be interesting to learn (soon?) how Oracle's application business is planning to uptake and leverage the Cloud Application Foundation.
Building Applications at Oracle can be heaven - as they can be built on a modern, competitive technology stack that competes by itself in the market place - but it can equally be hell - as the technology stack innovates and revolves faster than the more pedestrian business applications can be built. Rabbit and hare challenges...
MyPOV
It's all coming together for Oracle, which is releasing all it's 12c generation technology products in these weeks. Oracle Enterprise Manager administers the whole palette of Oracle products, Oracle Database complements product bundles like Oracle Cloud Application Platform etc. Bringing all these products together in reasonable bundles, that work better together and can be commonly installed, operated and maintained - makes a lot of sense.
As with all new product releases, Oracle will have to prove quality and viability with early adopters, a 12 month beta period for Oracle Cloud Application Foundation as mentioned on the call by Mike Lehmann should certainly help - but we look forward to hear and see from live customers about their experience.
