Highlights from Oracle OpenWorld

Oracle OpenWorld 2008 is wrapping up today after a week chock-full of news.

The conference, which brought some 43,000 people to downtown San Francisco, included several announcements around Oracle’s application and database products. Here are some of the highlights:

Oracle Beehive Collaboration Platform

Oracle announced the launch of the Oracle Beehive collaboration platform with much fanfare. Initially introduced in May, Beehive is aimed at integrating enterprise communications, and can tie together e-mail, calendars, instant messaging and conferencing applications on one platform.

No News on Oracle Database 11g

Oracle remained mum on the details of Oracle Database 11g Release 2, despite speculation the company would make an announcement about the product. Instead, company officials revealed only they were establishing a beta program, and more details about actual features would come later.

HP Oracle Database Machine

Oracle and HP teamed to release the HP Oracle Database Machine, a hardware product aimed at disrupting the data warehousing market. At the center of the product is the Exadata Storage Server, which supports up to 12 terabytes of raw storage and includes querying technology Oracle officials say enhances performance. The hardware will be manufactured exclusively by HP.

Oracle’s Head in the Amazon Cloud

Oracle announced a number of initiatives around cloud computing. First, it agreed to license Oracle Database 11g, Fusion Middleware and Oracle Enterprise Manager products for Amazon Web Services’ Elastic Compute Cloud. Oracle also announced a partnership with Intel to push for the expansion of standards such as the Open Virtual Machine Format to speed enterprise adoption of cloud computing.

Oracle WebCenter Suite

The company launched the Oracle WebCenter Suite. The product suite combines technology from Oracle Fusion Middleware and BEA Systems, which Oracle acquired earlier this year. It includes the Oracle WebCenter Framework, a range of content and communications services, such as wikis or blogs that can be embedded directly into existing portals and applications, and Oracle WebCenter Interaction (formerly BEA AquaLogic User Interaction). The suite also features Oracle WebCenter Anywhere and the Oracle WebLogic Portal.

Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle VM and the Oracle Insurance Vertical

Other announcements included new versions of Oracle E-Business Suite and Oracle VM and the creation of a new business unit focused on the insurance market. A complete listing of all the announcements Oracle made is available on its Web site, as are videos of the keynote presentations.