Oracle Launches Business Analytics Offensive At Oracle OpenWorld Tokyo

The announcements were part of a business intelligence blitz Oracle launched at the Oracle OpenWorld Tokyo 2012 show in Japan this week. President Mark Hurd also used the event to showcase Oracle's "engineered systems," the turnkey hardware/software systems that Oracle is counting on to fuel its growth.

"We didn't have a zettabyte of information on this planet until the middle of the last decade," Hurd said, noting that the amount of stored data worldwide will reach 2.7 zettabytes this year and 35 zettabytes in 2020.

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"Getting through tons of information to get the right data to the right person at the right time to make the optimal decision is the most important thing you can get from your data," he said, addressing the estimated 12,000 Oracle OpenWorld Tokyo attendees. "That's why these next-generation analytic systems are so important."

Three engineered systems: the Oracle Exadata Database Machine, Oracle Big Data Appliance and Oracle Exalytics In-Memory Machine reporting and analysis server, are critical components of Oracle's business analytics strategy. By integrating hardware with database, middleware and application software, the systems reduce complexity and cut costs, Hurd said.

"We're going to be best-of-breed in everything we do," he said.

Oracle unveiled Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System release 11.1.2.2 with new project financial planning tools, new Account Reconciliation Manager software, and what the company described as "major enhancements across the Oracle Hyperion EPM application portfolio." Oracle also promoted the performance boost the software gets when run on the Oracle Exalytics In-Memory Machine.

Also new are the Oracle Manufacturing Analytics and Oracle Enterprise Asset Management Analytics applications, which the company said are designed to run on the Exalytics In-Memory Machine.

The manufacturing software helps operations managers, manufacturing and supply chain executives, and production cost accountants analyze data about manufacturing processes, inventory and product quality. The enterprise asset application is designed to help plant and facilities managers and maintenance engineers better manage assets such as plant and equipment and control related costs.

Also unveiled were new analytical applications that work with operational software from rival SAP: Oracle Procurement and Spend Analytics for SAP and Oracle Supply Chain and Order Management Analytics for SAP. Oracle also debuted an enhanced version of the previously released Oracle Financial Analytics for SAP.

And Oracle announced the general availability of the Oracle Endeca Information Discovery system for finding and analyzing structured, semi-structured and unstructured data from a wide array of sources. The product is based on the technology Oracle acquired when it bought Endeca Technologies in October for an undisclosed sum.

Beyond business intelligence, Oracle also unveiled Oracle Enterprise Manager OpsCenter 12c, the company's toolset for managing data center infrastructure such as servers, storage systems, networks and operating systems. New capabilities in Release 12c accelerate the deployment of cloud computing workloads and simplify the management of Oracle's engineered systems, according to the company. It also takes advantage of functionality in the new Solaris 11 operating system.