Oracle and IBM partner on Websphere for Fusion

Oracle and IBM have agreed to provide IBM’s WebSphere middleware as an additional run-time environment for Fusion, the next generation of Oracle applications that bring together Oracle E-Business Suite and the PeopleSoft and JD Edwards ERP software. “Oracle views the IBM-Oracle project as one of the most important customer-focused projects underway at our company,” says Oracle president Charles Phillips. “Open standards are key enablers for Project Fusion and Fusion Middleware,” says John Wookey, senior vice president of Applications Development at Oracle. “The objective is to work together to ensure that our mutual customers are supported.” Oracle has already pledged support for existing PeopleSoft and JD Edwards applications to 2013, and says it will continue to support the IBM DB2 database while evaluating its role in Project Fusion. “Cooperating with Oracle on Project Fusion is good for customers and a strong recognition of WebSphere’s presence,” says Robert LeBlanc, general manager at WebSphere. “We’ve worked together on JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, and other similar projects, so we welcome Oracle’s Fusion applications.” Currently, the companies are assessing where they need to work together and the standards they need to propose on the technical front. They are coming from a position of some strength. For example, JD Edwards ERP systems are already JSR 168 compliant, enabling portlets from the application to be rendered in WebSphere portal. The pair say they will similarly enable Oracle JD Edwards, Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise and Oracle E-Business Suite to support WebSphere and Tivoli in identity management, single sign-on and directories.