OREANDA-NEWS. Extending its support for the developer community, Oracle has unveiled the next generation of Cloud services and development tools at JavaOne 2016, as well as a range of developer-focused initiatives. By giving developers a choice of programming languages, databases, compute types, operating systems and virtual machines, integrated development environments (IDEs) and tools, Oracle provides developers with the choice and flexibility needed to quickly and easily build modern applications in the Cloud.

As Cloud deployment becomes the norm for enterprise workloads, developers need to build applications using microservices, APIs, containers, DevOps processes and platform capabilities that support analytics, integration, mobility and the Internet of Things (IoT). Oracle has enhanced its development tools and Cloud services, and introduced other new initiatives in order to give developers friction-free, instant and immersive access to the latest technologies in the Cloud.

Extended Commitment to the Java Platform

To help developers meet the demands of new cloud-based models, Oracle continues to work closely with key partners in the Java ecosystem to drive significant evolution of the Java platform.

Java Platform, Standard Edition (SE) 9 will include new capabilities as well as updates that support the latest development standards and specifications. Project Jigsaw will help developers make applications more scalable, more secure, faster and easier to maintain, while JShell will make it easier for developers to run and test snippets of code. Oracle continues to work closely with the OpenJDK Community to lay the groundwork for Java SE 9. More than 500 companies, organizations and individuals now contribute to the OpenJDK project and well over seven million lines of code have been developed.

Java Enterprise Edition (EE) future versions will support delivering an enhanced model for reactive programming that helps developers build large-scale distributed systems, which are built asynchronously, are loosely coupled and are event based. In addition, future releases will include multitenancy in Cloud environments and improved security, including support for new authentication models such as OAuth and OpenID Connect. Support for multitenancy in Cloud environments will also be part of the proposal, and a new configuration model supporting Docker and other container technologies will be introduced.

  • "We welcome the announcement of Java EE 8 for the Cloud and microservices," said Mitsuharu Nagayama, senior director of big data solutions and services of Hitachi. "Hitachi contributes to society through the Social Innovation Business. Cloud and microservices that activate IT assets are very useful to enable the realization of this. We are anticipating the continuous evolution of Java EE to provide these benefits."

  • "The move to Cloud has become a powerful trend among Fujitsu's customers," said Hideki Nozaki, vice president of application management middleware division at Fujitsu Limited. "With this major update to Java EE 8 focused on cloud and microservices, Fujitsu looks forward to providing its customers an update to its Java EE compatible Interstage application server, thereby simplifying their shift to the Cloud. We continue to work with the Java community to develop technologies that benefit society."

  • "We welcome Oracle's effort to leverage enhancements for cloud computing to Java EE 8,” said Nobuhiko Kishinoue, general manager of the cloud platform division at NEC Corporation. "NEC has successfully provided a Java EE compatible application server, WebOTX, providing mission critical web application infrastructure to Japan and other markets for more than 18 years. Recent movement to cloud computing including container and microservice technologies has a strong impact on enterprise systems. Oracle's new proposal enables us to help our customers transition to the cloud seamlessly, while preserving their existing investments in Java EE."

New Data Management Capabilities in the Cloud

Helping developers innovate and carry out digital transformation initiatives, Oracle launched Oracle MySQL Cloud Service. Built on the proven MySQL Enterprise Edition and powered by the Oracle Cloud, Oracle MySQL Cloud Service provides a simple, automated, integrated and enterprise-ready cloud service that enables organizations to securely and cost-effectively develop and deploy MySQL-based applications globally at scale.

The launch of Oracle MySQL Cloud Service brings the world’s most popular open source database to the Oracle Cloud Platform and extends the complete suite of cloud services that Oracle provides to help organizations rapidly build and deploy rich applications. Developers and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) can rely on the most comprehensive MySQL offering in the cloud, with advanced features, tools and support to accelerate the time to market of their new modern applications.

In addition, Oracle is introducing Oracle NoSQL Database Cloud Service and Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service. Oracle NoSQL Cloud Service provides a high performance, key-value database supporting JSON, Java, Node.js and Python developers for transactional and Big Data applications. Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service provides low cost, fully managed access to Oracle Exadata.

New Cloud Platform Capabilities for Developers

Extending its commitment to helping developers build and deploy rich applications in the Cloud, Oracle has extended Oracle Cloud Platform with new Oracle Cloud Platform Services and major new enhancements to Oracle Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS). New and enhanced Cloud services to support developers include:

  • Oracle Application Container Cloud Service: Now includes PHP native runtime support to help developers quickly deploy, run and scale PHP web applications in the Cloud.

  • Oracle API Platform Cloud Service: Enables developers to create, secure and manage APIs (for API first applications such as those built using microservices) with zero code and end-to-end transaction insight. The innovative new service will enable developers to run an API gateway either on-premises, within the Oracle Cloud, or on third-party cloud platforms.

  • Oracle Mobile Cloud Service: Now includes support for chatbots that deliver intelligent and contextual conversations across multiple messaging channels, enabling developers to enhance the user experience on mobile apps.

  • Oracle Container Cloud Service: Expands Oracle’s support for Docker containers by enabling developers to easily run, orchestrate and manage containers in the Cloud. Oracle now offers pre-built containerized images for its products to help developers adopt Oracle technologies inside containers for development, testing and production environments.

  • Oracle Solaris: As a member of the Open Container Initiative, Oracle highlighted how it will be bringing native Docker support within Oracle Solaris. Containers will leverage Solaris key features such as security, efficient virtualization, ZFS cloning, smart file system and multi-platform compatibility for both SPARC and x86 systems.