Just as, in August, the big news from the Oracle was all about Oracle Database 10g Release 2, this week at Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco the big news for Java developers was all about Oracle Application Server 10g Release 3.

"The advancements in this release will deliver to customers a comprehensive SOA platform enabling them to increase business agility and get the most from existing and future IT investments," said Oracle's Senior Vice President of Fusion Middleware Development, Thomas Kurian.

"Oracle Application Server 10g Release 3 mirrors the actual needs of real companies. The hot-pluggable architecture will allow companies to get exactly what they need by easily mixing and matching existing and new systems. Since the product is backward compatible, Oracle customers will be able to quickly and easily upgrade from Oracle Application Server 10g Release 1 and 2 to Oracle Application Server 10g Release 3."

A key component of Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle Application Server 10g Release 3 will help organizations develop and deploy Service-Oriented Applications on a grid computing architecture, said Kurian, as well as helping to integrate services into enterprise business processes and secure and to manage services, applications and data in a heterogeneous environment.

Oracle Application Server 10g Release 3's hot-pluggable architecture, Kurian explained, "will enable organizations to mix and match Oracle's best-in-class middleware components with their existing infrastructures and use components of Oracle Fusion Middleware together with open source development tools and runtimes."

Specifically, said Kurian, the upcoming release will be certified with open source software including Spring, Apache Struts, Apache Axis, Apache MyFaces, Hibernate, Tapestry, JUnit, CVS, SubVersion, Ant, Eclipse and Log4J.

Oracle Application Server 10g Release 3 features support for a host of standards required to build next-generation SOAs, including WS-Reliable Messaging, WS-Security, WS-Federation, Web Services Metadata, Web Services Invocation Framework (WSIF) and REST Web Services. This release will also include a UDDI v3-compliant enterprise business services registry, said Kurian. 

Oracle Application Server 10g Release 3 is scheduled to interoperate with more than 128 products including middleware products such as Microsoft .NET; IBM WebSphere; IBM MQ-Series; Cisco Local Director; F5 Big IP; Checkpoint firewalls; content management; and systems management.

The new release also has a number of security enhancements, including support for industry leading standards such as SAML 1.0 and 2.0, advanced single sign-on (SSO) capabilities and additional tools for securely managing Web Services and SOAs. Oracle's federation product, Oracle COREid Federation, introduces several new features, including seamless SSO and identity sharing across business partners using a multi-protocol gateway that supports industry standards such as Liberty, WS-Federation and SAML 2.0. Oracle Application Server 10g Release 3 also features a new enterprise identity and resource provisioning solution to allow enterprise users' access control privileges to be provisioned in a variety of enterprise applications and information systems.

• Retail
• Communications
• Healthcare
• Life Sciences
• Public Sector

Other industries to be showcased at the event include Aerospace and Defense, Automotive, Chemicals, Consumer Products, Education and Research, Engineering and Construction, High Technology, Natural Resources, Oil and Gas, Professional Services, Travel and Transportation and Utilities.