Oracle OpenWorld 2009 Special Report

Oracle OpenWorld, the largest premier event for all users of Oracle Corp. technology, will be held from October 11-15 in San Francisco. This year's conference will feature more than 1,800 sessions, 400 exhibits and numerous keynotes and special events. To help you prepare for Oracle OpenWorld 2009, SearchOracle.com has compiled some of our own Oracle resources to get you on track before the show even starts.

Read our news and resources on the OpenWorld conference streams, including Oracle applications, databases and middleware. SearchOracle.com will also be reporting live from the conference, so be sure to bookmark this page and stay tuned for breaking news and frequent updates during and after the show.

Oracle unwraps Fusion Applications, new user support portal: Oracle closed out OpenWorld with chairman Larry Ellison debuting its long-awaited Fusion Applications Suite along with a new portal anchored by its Enterprise Manager.

Oracle opens up the product floodgates at OpenWorld: Oracle launched over a dozen products at OpenWorld including its long-rumored Fusion Applications suite.

Dell pledges to reduce IT costs by $200 billion: Speaking at Oracle's OpenWorld, Dell chairman Michael Dell says Intel chips, virtualization and cloud computing can bring IT significant savings

Oracle executives continue integration theme at OpenWorld: Oracle co-presidents both promised tighter integration across the company's widening portfolio of products IT's job easier.

Ellison and McNealy stage OpenWorld lovefest: Kicking off OpenWorld 2009, Larry Ellison and Scott McNealy said Oracle-Sun will emerge as stronger competitors to IBM, Microsoft.

The real Top 10 from the Ellison-McNealy keynote: Here's our own top 10 list of the most memorable moments, quotes and quips from Scott and Larry's keynote.

Ellison: Oracle will buck services-buying trend: Oracle will not follow HP and Dell's lead to buy IT services, said CEO Larry Ellison.

Oracle's CRM roadmap includes running Siebel in Outlook, social CRM: Oracle executives outlined the company's plans for CRM in the coming year, including a REST API, running Siebel in Outlook out of the box and social data mining.

Benioff plays nice with Oracle at OpenWorld: Marc Benioff, who invested heavily in a booth and an appearance at Oracle's OpenWorld, claimed companies can deploy Oracle and Salesforce.com together.

Oracle CRM veterans offer a few innovative deployment tips: Read some interesting tidbits from some successful CRM deployments at a customer panel at the show.

'Father of Java' outlines what you may not know about Sun Software at OpenWorld: As Gosling went through his presentation, 'The Top 10 Things You May Not Know About Software at Sun,' it quickly became clear that there were easily more than ten.

Oracle hardware may be a hard sell: Sun partners see challenges ahead in selling and supporting Oracle hardware. And they're not sure Oracle will get the hardware supply chain.

Oracle Partner Network changes stress VAR specializations: New Oracle VAR specializations being offered through the Oracle Partner Network are valuable but pricey. Will higher margins make up for the expensive entry costs?

Top five questions for Oracle OpenWorld 2009: As Oracle keeps trying to close its Sun MIcrosystems acquisition, the top Oracle OpenWorld queries are locked up this year. But partners and solution providers still have other nagging issues they want addressed at the show.

Oracle to bestow metals on its partners: Oracle Partner Network designations will transform to pricey Platinum, Gold and Silver as Oracle tries to bring Sun and BEA partners into the fold.

Benioff to take stage at Oracle OpenWorld: Salesforce.com CEO (and former Oracle guy) Marc Benioff will speak at Oracle OpenWorld next Tuesday alongside Michael Dell.

Oracle OpenWorld 2009: Here's what to expect: IOUG President Ian Abramson discusses what to expect at Oracle OpenWorld 2009, including information on hot topics like Oracle 11g R2, Oracle Middleware 11g and the Sun acquisition.

Mark Smith, CEO of Ventana Research, compares Oracle's business intelligence software products with that of SAP and IBM.

Mark Smith, CEO of Ventana Research, shares his thoughts on the integration of Hyperion to date and Oracle's business intelligence and performance management products, particularly how Oracle is bringing Essbase and middleware into BI.

Paul Greenberg, president of the 56 Group LLC and author of CRM at the Speed of Light, compares Oracle's social CRM offerings with those of Microsoft, SAP and Salesforce.com at OpenWorld and gives his thoughts on Marc Benioff's surprise appearance.

Paul Greenberg, president of the 56 Group LLC and author of CRM at the Speed of Light, discussed Oracle's plans for its CRM roadmap while at the OpenWorld conference.

Sun Microsystems Chairman and Co-Founder Scott McNealy talks about handing his company over to Oracle and Larry Ellison.

The Oracle applications track will provide the latest product news and information on all Oracle applications, including Primavera, Hyperion, E-Business Suite and Oracle CRM On Demand. The conference will also feature a special Primavera Program on Oct 14 and 15. Learn about Primavera and get up to speed on other Oracle applications with these resources:

Oracle's Primavera PPM software plans to be showcased at OpenWorld: Oracle plans to throw a coming-out party of sorts for its Primavera Project Portfolio Management (PPM) software at OpenWorld.

Oracle to buy Primavera for project portfolio management: Learn more about Oracle's acquisition of Primavera.

Oracle's Fusion Applications: Way behind or right on track?: In part one of our look at Oracle's Fusion Applications, we look back at vague promises and timelines execs have provided since Oracle first embarked on "Project Fusion."

SMART weighs Oracle vs. SAP, picks E-Business Suite 12 for IFRS compliance: Looking to retire its aging business software, SMART Technologies selected Oracle's E-business Suite 12.

Has Oracle's BI strategy become smarter with Hyperion? Listen to this podcast to learn whether Oracle's BI strategy been bolstered by the Hyperion CPM software acquisition.

The Oracle databases track, which includes coverage of the latest release of Oracle 11g, will focus on key areas such as performance, storage, and security. These resources from SearchOracle.com will get you up to date on the recently released Oracle database 11g R2 and other Oracle database trends:

Oracle releases new 11g upgrade, will cut costs: Oracle released its new 11g R2 database in September. But will users embark on an Oracle 11g upgrade? And why should they?

Comparing servers for Oracle database 11g upgrades: Find out how to compare Oracle 11g servers for database upgrades and which servers will speed performance.

Forrester outlines database security trends in 2009: Listen to this podcast with Noel Yuhanna of Forrester Research about recent trends in database security.

Upgrading to Oracle Database 11g: Learn about your options for upgrading to Oracle 11g in this book chapter excerpt.

The Oracle Middleware track will offer sessions and labs on Oracle Fusion Middleware, application servers, service-oriented architecture (SOA), content management, business intelligence (BI) and more. Browse through these SearchOracle.com resources to get up to speed on these topics before heading to the show:

Q&A: Oracle's Lenley Hensarling on integrating Value Chain apps with EnterpriseOne: SearchOracle.com talks with Oracle's Lenley Hensarling about the new software that integrates EnterpriseOne with Value Chain Planning applications, as well as the acceptance of AIA.

Oracle's Fusion Middleware 11g heads for the clouds: With Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g, the company hopes to improve its fortunes in the SaaS era.

Oracle brings Fusion Middleware into the modern age: Learn how Oracle's Fusion Middleware 11g will serve as convergence layer for integrating future Fusion applications and services.

Collect America chooses Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g over open source: Read about how Collect America decided to cash in early on Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g and chose it over open source middleware when replacing its legacy systems.

Oracle's pending acquisition of Sun Microsystems is sure to be a hot topic at Oracle Openworld. Oracle is even advertising that on Oct 14 at the show, Oracle will offer proof, including benchmark numbers, that the speed and performance of an Oracle Database running on Sun Servers is superior to IBM's fastest hardware. Learn all you can about the Oracle-Sun deal beforehand with these resources from SearchOracle.com:

The Oracle/Sun deal: Browse through this collection of all our stories related to Oracle's acquisition of Sun Microsystems.

Oracle-Sun deal could trigger Oracle license agreement inspections: Learn why the Oracle-Sun deal may trigger Oracle license agreement inspections, and get tips on Oracle contract management strategies from users and analysts.

Q&A: IOUG president sounds off on Oracle-Sun deal: SearchOracle.com talks with IOUG president Ian Abramson about Oracle's Sun Microsystems acquisition. Learn about the IOUG's take on the deal and how it will affect the Oracle user community.

The DOJ approves Oracle's Sun acquisition: Now what?: Check out this quick timeline of our Oracle-Sun coverage from the last four months.

Read all the news from last year's Oracle OpenWorld in our Oracle OpenWorld 2008 special report.