Oracle releases Java CAPS 6.3 on April 7, 2011

Proof that Oracle is committed to enhancing Java CAPS, its exciting to see this release go GA!  The Java CAPS 6.3 release provides support for newer operating systems and external systems, varieties of enhancements for both Repository-Based components and JBI-Based components, interoperability with Oracle SOA Suite including Oracle Weblogic JMS and Oracle AQ messaging.  Other  highlights on what’s included in this release:

• Design-Time now supports Netbeans IDE 6.9 GUI.
• Glassfish Enterprise Server 2.1.1 patch 9 is now supported.
• Supported JDK versions are 1.6.0_20 or later.  Specific platforms supported
• Java CAPS 6.3 has several new Operating Systems Supported
• Browser updates include added support for Firefox 3.5.2 and Internet Explorer 8.0
• A new “Replicate Repository Utility” is a handy way to create a Disaster  Recovery version for example.
• Another new utility is the “Listing Repository Objects”.
• Oracle has added several ways to interoperate with Oracle’s SOA Suite/Fusion including via Oracle’s JMS
• Several new JBI binding components added to this release including the HL7 Binding Component.
• Java CAPS 6.3 no longer provides default administrator and master passwords.  This means that the password file that was previously created during installation for the master password is no longer created.

Make sure you read the changes to the installing and upgrading Oracle’s Java CAPS 6.3.

Finally, a full list of what’s new in Oracle Java CAPS 6.3 can be found here

You can download Oracle Java CAPS 6.3 via Oracle’s eDelivery

Healthcare eGate/JCAPS User Group Event

The event was a well received by those who attended in spite of the pending record breaking snow storm that ultimately dropped 18″ on New York.  Customers that attended were pleased to hear from LCN that other healthcare customers are successfully leveraging both Oracle Sun Java CAPS 6.x and Oracle SOA Suite/Fusion in a transition fashion where they continue to use TRE, SRE or JCAPS 5/6 while interoperating with either JCAPS and/or SOA Suite/Fusion, or at least having a forward looking view of going to JCAPS 6 as a positioning step that is based on open standards and Java like SOA Suite/Fusion.

Download LCN’s presentation on eGate-JCAPS_Migration Best Practices. that shows through current ongoing implementations that Customers are transitioning and evolving from SRE to CAPS6.2 to get out from what one customer said was “10-year old technology”.  LCN described to the group that customers are realizing they can succeed with their requirements for Meaningful Use with CAPS6.x and Oracle’s SOA Suite/Fusion.

It was also mentioned by Regis Kuzel, VP of Business Development, LCN Technology that nearly every customer he speaks to these days are looking for how to achieve true 5-9′s high availability with their integration strategies.  Regis showed them through the customer use-cases he presented that LCN is assisting healthcare customers with architecture and hardware/software that they can and are realizing a cluster/high-available (HA) platform for integration with CAPS 6 or even better with Oracle’s Weblogic Application Server (WLS) that is the runtime for Oracle’s SOA Suite 11g.  He went on to further talk about how Oracle’s Enterprise Edition RDBMS with the Real Time Application Cluster (RAC) feature can deliver HA in the area of message queue persistence which is often overlooked and is a weak spot in a integration strategy attempting to achieve the highest level of near-zero uptime.

Regis also discussed that healthcare customers are seeing a way to lower costs and get a higher level of availability by considering Intel based computer chips and using Oracle’s Enterprise “Unbreakable” Linux (OEL) along with Oracle’s Grid Infrastructure and managing the entire enterprise with Oracle’s Enterprise Manager with the Oracle Grid Control plug-in.  In fact Oracle is planning to go further by offering customer the capability to monitor/administrate SRE/JCAPS with Oracle’s Enterprise Monitor, much like (and even better) than what Sun/SeeBeyond did with their ICAN/CAPS Enterprise Monitor.

Other key announcements made by Oracle where:

1) Oracle are not going to “force” customers to migrate to SOA Suite but rather continue to support TRE, SRE and JCAPS 5/6 indefinitely!

2) Oracle mentioned that a new version of SRE (u2) was released back in November, 2010 and has many enhancements including support for newer versions of HL7 including HL7 2.5.1 and v2.6, HIPAA X12 5010 too.  SRE u2 also has interoperability to SOA Suite via message queues (Oracle AQ, Oracle WLS JMS).

3) Suresh Sharma, Senior Principle Product Manager for Oracle integration products, detailed the Roadmap for JCAPS (and other legacy versions of Sun/Seebeyond) that JCAPS 6.3 is still tracking for an Oracle’s FY2011 release which should be available in the May/June 2011 timeframe.  Many enhancements will be available to customers with this release including by not limited by such as support for new operating systems.  With Netbeans 6.9 IDE (also new in this release) you can run it on Windows XP SP3, Windows 2008, and Windows 2007 along with the other OS’s from previous releases.  For the Glassfish 2.1.1 runtime (Also new for this release) CAPS6.3 will support AIX 6.1, Windows 2007, Windows 2008 and SUSE11 along once again all the previous OS’s.

Suresh went further to mention that their will be a “patch” to CAPS6.3 soon after release to allow customers to choose either Glassfish 2.1.1 for their deployment of projects or Oracle’s Weblogic Application Server (WLS) which is a leader in the industry for it’s end-to-end HA/Clustered application server runtime for JEE deployments.  Evidence again that Oracle is committed to JCAPS while providing ways for customers to both transition and leverage Oracle technology without being forced to migrate to SOA Suite.

Finally, one of the most interesting things mentioned by Suresh is that customers that have invested in migrating their legacy MONK based collaborations (transformations) to Java JCD’s in CAPS5/6 can literally physically lift them from where they are stored in the CAPS’s repository and redeploy them in Oracle’s SOA Suite via the JDeveloper IDE and graphically reconnect the endpoints to Oracle’s adapters and have them run in Oracle’s environment (WLS) without “any” changes!  Now that proves that customers that invest in “open standards” and Java can continue to evolve to other vendors’ JEE platform without spending lots of time and money, lowering their Total-Cost-Ownership (TCO) and getting the maximum Return-on-Investment(ROI).

The future looks bright for existing Sun/SeeBeyond customers with Oracle’s stated strategies which are based on open standards and driven to deliver a complete and robust unified and integrated infrastructure stack.  We put it this way, “Java CAPS infused with Fusion”…

Healthcare eGate/JCAPS User Group Event

LCN Technology has been invited and scheduled to present at an Oracle sponsored event in New York City on January 26, 2011.  Please click here to register.  Come and learn best practices on how to migrate from DataGate, eGate or JCAPS to Oracle’s SOA Suite from our experience in both product offerings.  Full agenda can be viewed when registering for event.

You are invited to join Oracle’s senior management and product marketing leadership in New York City on January 26, 2011 to learn about Oracle’s Healthcare integration solution strategy, road map, and offerings.  With the acquisition of Sun Microsystems, Oracle’s Healthcare organization as been very active in listening, building, and communicating its intentions for eGate and JCAPS product families.  With careful consideration of customer needs and the future of healthcare integration.

We invite you to participate in this event by registering and coming prepared to actively dialog with our senior leadership.  Space is limited to 30 attendees so please register early to guarantee your seat at the table.  We suggest no more than 2 people per healthcare institution to help ensure there is enough space for all interested registrants.  We are expecting strong interest in this meeting so please register early.

]]> http://www.lcntechnology.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=69 0 http://www.lcntechnology.com/blog/?p=45 http://www.lcntechnology.com/blog/?p=45#comments Thu, 09 Dec 2010 20:44:27 +0000 regis http://www.lcntechnology.com/blog/?p=45 Oracle is on the move with regards to making sure their strategic product direction is in-line with healthcare and their requirements.  At Oracle Open World 2010 (OOW) for example, there where live demonstrations of what Oracle is calling “FastPath”, which is an abstraction of GUI tools that makes designing, developing, deploying and monitor/control of healthcare interfaces for HL7 and HIPAA a real “breeze” .  This is all slated to release coinciding with Oracle’s SOA Suite 12c in 2011.

While at OOW I had the occasion to bring a few customers that LCN has a trusted advisory position with to see and comment on the upcoming Healthcare “FastPath” tooling for SOA Suite and the feedback was real positive.  In fact all the customers had this comment… “…what is more important then how Oracle is developing the new tooling is the fact that Oracle is committed to healthcare”.

Another key area of improvement slated for the next release of Oracle’s SOA Suite and part of the “Fastpath” component is what can be best stated as the return to the way STC/SeeBeyond’s DataGate handled monitoring!  Yes, you will not only be able to monitor and manage to the state of the external connection and see things like how many messages have been processed, but also be able to drill into each message processed in detail and be able to “search” for messages based on content (e.g. patient-ID, name, sending application, etc.).

The Oracle “Roadmap” for integration also includes their continued support for DataGate(TRE), eGate(SRE) and of course Java CAPS6.  In fact on November 1, 2010 Oracle announced the release of SRE 5.0.5 u2 which has support for AIX 6.x, Windows 7 and interoperability to not only Java CAPS6 but also certified out-of-box support for Oracle’s SOA Suite with regards to being able to share messages between SRE’s JMS Queues to Oracle’s AQ/WLS JMS queuing mechanisms.

A new release, Java CAPS6.3 is also on track for release in early 2011 which has many enhancements including interoperability to Oracle’s SOA Suite.

It’s safe to say that contrary to popular belief, Sun/SeeBeyond’s integration solutions are alive and well and still being supported by Oracle for the foreseeable future, but the path to a better more capable solution for healthcare with regards to integration is secure with Oracle’s SOA Suite strategy.

Assisting a large healthcare IDN with a proof-of-concept to certify Java CAPS 6.2 as their go forward platform. The customer is seeking what they term “Near-zero” downtime and hence will be implementing Sun/Oracle’s JMQ with Oracle’s Enterprise Edition Database leveraging Oracle’s Real Active Clusters (RAC) to ensure 5 9′s