Yesterday Tim - oracle-base.com - Hall had the ODC Appreciation Day initiative.

I gladly join in, however yesterday I hadn't had the change to write something. I did a tweet to remember it:
But today, on the day-after I do like to write something.

SOA Suite 11g/12c

Just yesterday I mentioned a coworker that I indeed still like SOA Suite.
I worked at Oracle Consulting when Oracle acquired Collaxa in 2004, and some other companies whose technologies were at the base of Oracle SOASuite. Since then I work with SOASuite and BPEL, and I still like it.

When in 2008 BEA was acquired, SOASuite 11g was released in 2009 based on Weblogic. It was actually delayed because of making Weblogic as a strategic platform.

The thing with SOA Suite11g and 12c, based on Weblogic, is that it has become a quite draconic system, as I used to call it. The footprint is quite large, both on disk as well as in memory.

I understand the MicroServices up coming for two reasons:

• Especially when it comes together with containerization, MicroService applications startup quite fast. SOA Suite startups can last 10 minutes to about a quarter of an hour.
• We must admit that we messed up SOA projects. Yes, we made them quite complex and we did not manage to do proper Service Governance, not even Service Registration, Service Reuse, etc. Driven by project-funding, time-pressures, lack of enforcing proper scrum project procedures, etc., we deliver mostly one-purpose services, not following the proper SOA principles. Also yesterday, at my current customer, my co-worker and I concluded that there are mostly point-to-point integrations. Back in 2008 I invented the term POPOTOPI for it.

Are MicroServices the answer then? I'm not really sure, I must admit:

• It seems to me that with MicroServices initiatives we're going to build services in Java again. Indeed with frameworks like SpringBoot and JPA. But still we seem to program the logic in Java again. And when we're able to mess up BPEL with lacking standards (no use of Scopes and local variables for instance), Java allows us for even bigger messes. Are we really going to program services in Java frameworks with 50+ possible elements?
  Where end user Application development earlier transformed from for instance Oracle Forms to Java/ADF, now transforms to Low Code (VBCS, OutSystems, Oracle Forms 😉?, etc.) I expect a same transformation in MicroServices.
• With containerization we apparently create CI/CD initiatives delivering the complete Service Application with an app server (often Tomcat) complete in a container. So a new bug-release deliveres a container with a complete installation. Which add to a large library of the different versions of the containers.
• MicroServices have good thoughts underneath it, as said it is an answer to problems encountered in SOA projects. But why not build MicroServices in SOA Suite or OSB? SOA Suite and OSB are the current LowCode environments in Services. 

I don't see that the technology is the problem here. I've seen several times with failing projects that the problem is not the SOA Technologies, but more the project politics and governance.

So, I still like working with SOA Suite. However, I would like some improvements:

• JDeveloper could be made more stable. Although on the same IDE platform, SQLDeveloper is as stable as a castle. JDeveloper, however, is stuffed with loads of designers, addons, build by numerous teams. But, please, prevent us from all those Null-pointer exceptions, and exception dialogs asking me to save my work and quite or continue.
• In a SOA Suite installation I encounter loads of jars of different version for the same library at different location. It seems to me that we could get rid of a significant amount of those.
  The main differentiator between Oracle 9i database and Oracle 10g was the foot print. I think with FMW (SOA Suite, but also OSB and other products), could take advantage of a great "spring cleaning". 
• One of the new features of Java 9, is the modularisation. In SOA Suite we have loads of adapters installed (some of them not activated), and other functionality that aren't used. So a modularisation of Weblogic and FMW products on top of it would be a great idea. Only install what I need and provide a package manager that allows me to install let's say an SAP Adapter or SAML (either 1 or 2.0) support when I need it later on.

 How about Cloud?

Yes, cloud. Of course cloud is important, and I completely understand why Oracle has a near 100% focus on Cloud. But, I seem to be one of the few people that has difficulty with believing that in let's say 5 years 100% of all our customers are for 100% of their business 'in the cloud'. Let alone, the Oracle Cloud. And to straighten my statements: I don't see IaaS as actual Cloud. To me, IaaS is the same as 'On Premise', but in another Data Center. Of course Oracle might have different License policies if you want to run SOA Suite on Amazon or Azure or a local IaaS provider, with regards to  running on Oracle Cloud. But I don't encounter any customers that won't run their software on Virtual Machines (VMWare ESX or alike). So even in their own DataCenters, software is run virtualized. When not on an external IaaS provider, they are essentially their own IaaS provider.

And although Oracle Integration Cloud is promising, there is much I'd rather do on SOA Suite. And I expect that there are several good reasons for current customers to stay on a On Premise or local IaaS serviced SOA Suite installation.

Also, Oracle Integration Cloud, and other Oracle PaaS-es, are based on the exact same platforms and engines (BPEL/BPM Process Engine, Business Rules, WSM, Service Bus, etc., etc.). So, my above suggested improvements would improve the PaaS-es as well.

So, Oracle Please add SOA Suite and OSB to the Fusion Middleware 19c category in the Supported Systems and Configurations:
And as has been asked on the community.oracle.com forums this week a few times: please add support for Java 9/10/11 on the upcoming Weblogic and FMW releases.

community.oracle.com

Since a few years I try to keep up and be active on the community.oracle.com forums for SOA, Weblogic, etc. It's great to be of any help, answering questions and collect points (to me it's a bit of playing something like Forge of Empires). I sometimes get questions via email. But it's better to go over there. You could go to Stack Overflow, but why not form a community at Oracle's own community page? Come over and join us. Meet me there. But when you do, please:

• Edit your profile and enter a proper name: I do like to know how you want to becalled, instead of user 12345656 of alike,
• Ask a question together with your error-message, in stead of just posting your error message. It happens that some one just posts the error message and I often must refrain my self from answering "Congratulations!".
• I'm putting in my time answering questions. The only rewards I get for it are points. Please, give me my points by marking my answers as help-full (50 points) or 'Answered' (even 100 points and I can register them for my ACE review).

I'm looking forward for another year of Oracle Fusion Middleware and other infrastructure technologies in the Oracle Developer Community.