Oracle, HP Get Agile

Oracle and HP are combining their philosophies for modern business computing, unveiling a joint “Optimize for Agility” initiative to help enterprises improve IT service levels and lower IT costs.

In a deal that typifies on-demand computing, the companies will work to ensure Oracle’s 10g grid platform and Enterprise Manager work with products from HP’s OpenView management software line, and that Oracle’s software runs on HP’s servers.

To do this, the vendors will exchange events and operational information, allowing for a richer root-cause analysis and problem solving across a computing grid.

This integration will be triggered by the exchange of models using Web services, giving users the ability to detect and obviate computer performance degradations before they impact users.

Through the alliance, companies will be able to find and allocate computing, such as servers and storage to network capacity, shifting workload changes on-the-fly. These types of characteristics fall under the on-demand computing banner, where resources are automatically provisioned so administrators can focus on other tasks.

The companies said in a statement that service and support offerings are being delivered by more than 950 HP Services specialists trained in keeping Oracle software running.

They will offer Grid Accelerator Services, called HP Express Services, to help deploy Oracle 10g database on HP servers. Oracle and HP will also develop reference architectures to test the best way to run an Oracle grid.

The deal, for which financial terms were not disclosed, symbolizes how two major corporations view the evolution of computing, sharing the philosophy that farms of servers running on a grid as one machine can solve complex, enterprise computing tasks.

The companies are expected to showcase the deal at Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco this morning, where HP CEO Mark Hurd is detail the venture during his morning keynote session.

Oracle made other significant announcements, one day after unleashing the latest version of its Application Server 10g and pledging to interoperate with rival IBM.

The Redwood Shores, Calif., company, which made a splash last week by announcing its intent to buy applications power Siebel Systems, agreed to buy G-Log, a maker of logistics and transportation management software.

Oracle cited globalization, high fuel costs, outsourcing, security and regulations as reasons for acquiring the logistics and transportation applications that G-Log offers.

The match makes sense: More than half of G-Log’s customers, including DuPont, Exel, Family Dollar Stores, Halliburton and Volvo, use Oracle software.

Oracle also announced the company’s new lifetime support policy, which aims to provide customers access to technical support experts and future upgrades to major releases for all product lines for the duration of the product license.

The idea is to make it easier for customers to license software from Oracle’s multiple software lines, including Oracle Database and Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle E-Business Suite, J.D. Edwards EnterpriseOne, J.D. Edwards World and PeopleSoft Enterprise.