What was Oracle's impression of the XIII GeneXus International Meeting?
We were very impressed by the response of the audience, both in terms of numbers and quality. People from Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, and Uruguay, all of them GeneXus and Oracle users, approached us and were surprised by our active participation in the XIII GeneXus International Meeting. Oracle decided to participate a third time in this kind of event because the company understood the magnitude and importance of the Meeting. There is no doubt that this is the most outstanding technological event that has taken place in Uruguay for a long time.
What about GeneXus?
GeneXus is a cutting-edge technology; there is no other technology like it. It features a new knowledge-based development paradigm and proposes a vision shared by Oracle, which is to offer platform independence and provide system intelligence.
In this sense, the GeneXus Java generator is a very important element for those who can choose to have Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) as their platform and use Oracle 9i Application Server as J2EE server. This will enable users to run their GeneXus applications on Intel platforms (either over Linux or Windows), and even in a Unix environment.
Banco de la República Oriental del Uruguay, for instance, uses an application developed with GeneXus by using the Java generator and Oracle 9i Application Server as J2EE container (high-availability), and connects to an Oracle9i database.
In the face of the current division of the platform market (Microsoft .NET and J2EE), Oracle has chosen J2EE due to the solution's maturity, security, portability, and the "freedom to choose" between different manufacturers who offer J2EE certified solutions.
What are Oracle's current plans?
Today, Oracle has the latest version of the 9i platform. It has an Oracle9i Application Server (with a certified J2EE 1.3 engine for running Java applications) and the database server.
Probably, we will have a new release by the end of the year. Actually, we are working to improve cluster management, and make network processing (Grid Computing) easier. In sum, our target is the use of "on-demand" software.
We are also very interested in Linux, which is already being used in many companies for mission-critical applications. Oracle is providing support for RedHat and United Linux, which is something quite unique in the company's history because we have never offered support for operating systems before. Moreover, we are working together with RedHat in R&D groups, and have improved the Linux kernel. These improvements have been made public to the "open source" community so that other distributions are also able to adopt them.
There are several Oracle internal systems (e-mail and demo environments, for instance) running on Linux. Server and application globalization and consolidation have lowered IT costs by 80% inside Oracle.
How about the GeneXus community?
We are proud to share a large installed base with GeneXus. This is why we are working harder than ever, together with ARTech, to improve the integration of both platforms and be able to offer the most attractive solution for the GeneXus community from the technical and commercial point of view.
The GeneXus community thinks in terms of cost-reduction, compatibility and scalability, and this is a common value shared by both companies.
We understand that today there are many software houses using GeneXus that wonder how to make the technological leap to the Web. This is where we think that Oracle is key for providing a scalable, multi-tier and secure solution that will enable clients to protect their investment through time and adopt the latest technology.