
Oracle and the Java Ecosystem
Oracle is making huge efforts to engage with the wider Java ecosystem, but challenges still remain.

Oracle is making huge efforts to engage with the wider Java ecosystem, but challenges still remain.
At the beginning of December, Oracle released WebLogic Server 12c. The new version of WebLogic is the first release of the application server to fully support the Java EE 6 standard, originally approved in December 2009. In addition, WebLogic Server 12c is a key part of Oracle's entire cloud strategy. InfoQ spoke to Vice President of Development at Oracle, Cameron Purdy to find out more.
Oracle has recently released Oracle Data Access Components (ODAC) 11.2 Rel 4 with support for Entity Framework 4.1 and 4.2. This will allow .NET developers working with Oracle database to work with a popular ORM and use LINQ to Entities for data access operations instead of hand-coding the SQL statements. However Code First and DBContext API are not supported in this release.
PushToTest released the results of their 2011 analysis of SOA development and deployment solutions from IBM, Oracle and TIBCO which declared TIBCO the winner on multiple facets of productivity. PushToTest has published all the details including developer journals as an open source SOA Knowledge Kit. InfoQ spoke to Frank Cohen to unravel the details.

Yevhen Shchyholyev discusses some of the problems that the user may face in the process of developing an application with Entity Framework that interacts with Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL or SQLite as well as SQL Server. It is intended to be useful to both developers using one of these databases for the first time as well as for those who regularly interaction with multiple databases.
Jürgen Kress discusses the current status and the future of cloud computing, and the role of SOA in creating a cloud computing infrastructure, plus some of the cloud offerings existing today.

Dave Chappell introduces cloud computing to an SOA audience discussing how to make good use of grid computing and cloud computing to implement the next generation of SOA initiatives and presenting two case studies: Credit Suisse building Java PaaS on WebLogic and showing how to build an Oracle virtual appliance on Rackspace.
In this interview, Ryan discusses the components of the Salesforce.com architecture and how they achieve scale. They discuss the different cloud service models and the viewpoint of Salesforce as well as the history of their APIs including Force.com and their decision to move from SOAP API to a Rest-based API.

Rod Johnson discusses the Spring Portfolio, the Oracle/BEA and Sun/MySQL acquisitions, Java EE 6, Tomcat and Spring, Spring Dynamic Modules, the future of enterprise Java, the benefits of OSGi for application developers, the Covalent acquisition and Spring 3.0. Johnson also alludes to the SpringSource Application Platform, which was announced a month after this interview was filmed.