PRODUCT NEWS

Oracle Gives ILOG JRules Seal of Approval
Business rule engine OK'd for use with Oracle9iAS

Oracle has approved the use of ILOG JRules, a pure-Java business rule engine, with Oracle9i Application Server (Oracle9iAS). The pairing gives high-performance, mission-critical Internet application developers a solution for quickly building and deploying personalized Java applications. ILOG is among several industry-leading vendors of Java development tools so far named by Oracle.

Oracle9iAS solves the IT challenge of integrating fragmented middleware by providing one product to replace more than 10 from other vendors. It features full J2EE and XML support, built-in enterprise portal software, high-speed caching, business intelligence, rapid application development and integration, Web services and more in one package. It enables companies to save on infrastructure by scaling with software, instead of hardware.

"Oracle9i Application Server's developer-friendly environment coupled with the high-performing ILOG JRules engine will give enterprise customers flexible, rule-based personalization capabilities," says René Bonvanie, vice president of Oracle9i marketing at Oracle. "With this integration, customers can quickly and easily add new business rules that are needed for order management, event management, billing and other critical functions of existing applications."

The selection of ILOG JRules for Oracle9iAS extends the relationship between the two companies. Oracle chose ILOG optimization components for embedment in Oracle Advanced Planning and Scheduling and Oracle Advanced Manufacturing Planning in 1999. "Oracle9iAS and ILOG JRules complement each other," says Eric Brisson, a vice president at ILOG. "They are fast, lightweight and 100% J2EE compliant. With ILOG JRules running on Oracle9iAS, enterprises have the flexibility to quickly create and deploy new business rules to reflect customers' rapidly changing needs."

ILOG JRules has much to offer the Oracle9iAS user:

• Direct reference to Enterprise JavaBean objects: The ILOG JRules rule engine itself can be flexibly integrated into an Enterprise JavaBean.
• Access to any JDBC-compliant database: Graphically select and map from database entities to Java classes. Database mapping can be defined with XML or by using the graphical interface.
• Maximum performance and scalability: ILOG JRules supports compiled rules, which execute 4 to 10 times faster than interpreted rules, boosting the performance of any application with hundreds of objects and complex rules.
• The first truly XML-centric rule engine: Directly access XML objects, define rules on XML data, share rules between ILOG JRules applications, and more with ILOG JRules and XML.
• Ultra lightweight code: The ILOG JRules business rule engine weighs in at 300 kilobytes.
• Unmatched speed: Recent benchmark have shown that the ILOG JRules engine can fire up to 18,000 rules per second.

Other ILOG Java products are expected to be approved for use with Oracle9iAS. Among them is ILOG JConfigurator, the first product to fully customize the online configuration and selection of products and services for each customer.