Before their annual Open World event this year, Oracle released an overview of Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2.6, which focused on improvements and enhancements based on feedback from the user base. In the R12.2.6 highlights video, Cliff Godwin, SVP of Application Development, said that Oracle continues to invest in 3 main areas of focus throughout 12.2: functional innovation, user experience, and operational efficiency.
The newest 12.2.6 release answers customer enhancement requests that Oracle has received through various client touch points, from social media networks to user advisory boards. The release also continues to develop the system with user experience, modernity, mobility, and relevance at the forefront of innovation. Online patching, a feature that was introduced in the 12.2 set of releases that minimizes system down time, has been improved in this release, with a shorter patching cycle and other feature improvements. Further details can be found in Oracle’s R12.2.6 press release.
Apart from several enhancements and new functional capabilities in the newest release, Oracle has also announced where the future of E-Business Suite is heading. So, what’s on the horizon for E-Business Suite?
A few months ago, Oracle announced that they have extended premiere support on version 12.1 and early releases of 12.2. The support for release 12.1 is now set to expire on 2021, while the support for release 12.2 ends in 2023.
The extended premiere support timeline gives customers more time to prepare for their upgrade and plan the direction of their organization’s ERP system. Selecting a partner to help strategize the future of your technological path ensures that you make the best decision.
A brief overview of E-Business Suite’s roadmap shows that Oracle is still committed to continuing on the R12 series of releases. A projected timeline shows release 12.2.7 is coming at an indefinite date, with release 12.3 most likely following directly after and possibly predicating the 12.2 line of releases.
According to Godwin, release 12.3 will be, “a consumption and uptake of underlying latest database and middleware Java technologies, so we can leverage those while keeping the stack under E-Business Suite modern.” E-Business suite will continue to evolve along with new technology, leveraging and adopting the latest features and capabilities of these tools to empower end users.
The biggest theme across Open World 2016 and every conversation in the Oracle ecosystem is cloud. The cloud model offers a better solution to modern business needs. Oracle’s CEO Mark Hurd has predicted that development and testing of systems will move entirely to the cloud by 2025. Oracle’s continuous investment in Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) makes it easier and more ideal for customers to take advantage of Oracle services to move their on-premise EBS to Oracle Cloud.
Currently, there are three primary offerings:
- E-Business Suite in IaaS (infrastructure)
- E-Business Suite in IaaS and PaaS (Database as a Service)
- E-Business Suite in IaaS, PaaS and Application Management.
More details can be found in What is Oracle E-Business Suite on Oracle Cloud? These three existing offerings encompass deployment, migration, development and management.
Oracle seems to be set on inviting EBS customers to go into the Oracle cloud, but it’s not exactly transpiring as previously thought. Previously, we've published a blog about the likely course that cloud is taking EBS users, based on insights from last year's OOW. The trend is looking like Oracle will move their customers into the cloud, but with a more hybrid approach of having E-Business Suite connectable to the latest database release, which is database on the Cloud. They are also continuously adding and developing capabilities to product applications, as well as improving automation and use, easing clients into the cloud.
With global experts offering a 24 x 7 x 365 managed services, IT Convergence has started providing to its customers the benefits of moving into Oracle Cloud. This is supported by almost 20 years of expertise in E-Business Suite administration, as well as proficiency in private, public and hybrid cloud management.
As expressed over the last few years, Oracle is releasing for every product in their portfolio as well as new products, new releases first in the cloud. A good example is the availability of Oracle Database 12c Release 2 first in the cloud.
If we consider that most of the new releases will be cloud first, except those that will remain on-premise (such as E-Business Suite, JD Edwards, Peoplesoft), we suggest having to rely on a trusted advisor that can help to translate Oracle’s path both worlds (Cloud & non-Cloud) for your organization.
For more information, questions, or comments, please feel free to reach us at release12@itconvergence.com.
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