- The integration with various products
- Seamless integration
Manager Development at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The initial setup was complex without proper documentation. However, it has seamless integration.
Pros and Cons
- "The integration with various products."
- "The web services need to be more robust."
What is most valuable?
How has it helped my organization?
It helped in the transfer of data from one system to another.
What needs improvement?
The web services need to be more robust. Also, the error handling should be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
More than four years.
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Oracle SOA Suite
October 2024
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What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
We had several issues.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Most of the time.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Yes.
How are customer service and support?
Customer Service:
A four out of 10.
Technical Support:A four out of 10.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
No.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was complex without proper documentation.
What about the implementation team?
A vendor team did the installation.
What was our ROI?
Not applicable.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
No.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) Senior Developer & SOA Architect at a hospitality company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I value the flexibility of using the JDeveloper development tool for web service.
Valuable Features:
The features of this product that are most valuable to me are the dashboard creation ability of BAM (Business Activity Monitoring) product. Also the flexibility of using the JDeveloper development tool for web service and Oracle Service Bus development.
Improvements to My Organization:
One example of how this product has improved my organization functions is in the shortening of the development time to market in delivering custom solutions. Another example is in the technical agility and flexibility to adapt to business process change that happens at a very fast pace in companies daily.
Room for Improvement:
One area for improvement that I would like to see change in the next release is in the JDeveloper toolset. Occasionally, when you have open to many windows the tool acts erratic and has memory leaks.
Use of Solution:
I have used this solution since 2010-2011 for various companies. Also across different industries I have been successful to develop and implement solutions using this toolset.
Deployment Issues:
One of the main issues is figuring out how to do what you want in the toolset.
The documentation occasionally misses steps. OSB development can get tricky
Stability Issues:
I have encountered the occasional JDeveloper memory leak.
Scalability Issues:
It's been able to scale for our needs.
Customer Service:
Oracle customer service is very helpful. The website is full of on demand tutorials and documentation.
Initial Setup:
The Initial setup of the product is straightforward as long as you do your pre-planning and follow the prerequisites. Also, occasionally you encounter an issue that requires that a ticket be created with support or independent research must be done to resolve the issue (i.e. search the web or read blogs for missing steps.)
Implementation Team:
I have implemented the solution as a mixed implementation between vendor resources and in house. This model has been used at all my implementations across industries. My advice would be to identify your pre-requisites and also hold pre-planning meetings to identify business and technical requirements.
Other Solutions Considered:
I have previously investigated other products in the quadrant and I choose to align myself with the Oracle SOA Suite. This is due to the robust features available and the scalability of the product suite.
Other Advice:
My advice for people looking to implement this product is that training is a must.
You have to make that investment in your in-house resources to be successful in supporting the product. If they fix the memory leak issues with JDeveloper toolset and make the training needed less intensive I would give it a 10/10.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Oracle SOA Suite
October 2024
Learn what your peers think about Oracle SOA Suite. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2024.
814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Enterprise Architect with 1,001-5,000 employees
UI is too complex, needs to be less technical; but integrates essential enterprise processes
Pros and Cons
- "Conceptually, how it integrates a lot of essential enterprise process components. That's the most valuable."
- "The interface is too complicated. Making modifications still requires too much technical knowledge."
What is most valuable?
Conceptually, how it integrates a lot of essential enterprise process components. That's the most valuable.
How has it helped my organization?
It consolidates various other software applications into the one solution.
What needs improvement?
The interface is too complicated. Making modifications still requires too much technical knowledge. The user interface needs to be less technical so that business analysts can utilize or develop their process, design their process more easily, without technical knowledge of how SOA Suite works.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We're using it for a minimum of it's capabilities, so no stability problems. But we have talked to various other people who said that when they deploy more components in SOA Suite, they run into more performance issues and the like. We're afraid to do that, so we're staying with the minimal.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is very scalable.
How are customer service and technical support?
We have been happy with the response we get. We have a huge license that we own, so Oracle does try to keep us happy.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used to use SMT, which then became obsolete, so we changed to SOA Suite.
We had high hopes of deploying SOA architecture, which didn't go anywhere because it's a lot of money and effort, so things are on hold. It is too big of solution for us at this point.
What other advice do I have?
We bought what we bought because of what we thought we were going to use it for. Hindsight, we would have never purchased it. So I would say be very clear and have a good understanding of your roadmap and your business strategy. See where you're going because you could be spending a lot of money for something you don't even utilize.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Retired at a educational organization with 11-50 employees
New tools like Managed File Transfer (MFT) and Enterprise Scheduler Service released with the latest version made things easier.
Valuable Features
- OSB Administration Console
- Error/Exception Management Framework
Improvements to My Organization
SOA Suite greatly improved application to application integration when it was implemented.
New tools like Managed File Transfer (MFT) and Enterprise Scheduler Service released with the latest version made things easier.
Use of Solution
4 years
Customer Service and Technical Support
8
Initial Setup
SOA Suite setup and deployment is very user friendly and easy to implement.
Implementation Team
I have always worked with Oracle partners and we usually implement for clients. Implementation is relatively easy.
ROI
SOA Suite initial cost (acquisition and implementation) is relatively expensive but I believe it's worth its price and the long-term benefits are enormous.
Other Advice
I'll advise potential customers, especially large enterprises, to go for this product.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: I have always worked with Oracle partners.
Principal Consultant at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
It enables us to adhere to corporate standard for developing integrations.
What is most valuable?
Oracle SOA 12c comes with many new features mostly for developers to deliver integrations rapidly.
Saving the BPEL. The activities as templates is the most common use case I have used whilst in development. This enables us to adhere to corporate standard for developing integrations. Unlike SOA 11g where we used to copy paste code, SOA12c templates makes it easy for developers.
The Managed File Transfer (MFT) is a great addition to the product set managing all our file transfer capability, encryption, decryption, monitoring, visibility and resubmission of transfer. It integrates with SOA Suite seamlessly.
For Oracle Service Bus, there is no more Eclipse and only a single JDeveloper for all development and EM consoles for monitoring.
REST support for both SOA and OSB greatly enhance the product capability for mobile and cloud integration. Inbuilt continuous integration capability through JDeveloper. It has more adapter support for cloud integration than before.
How has it helped my organization?
For one of the customer where an on-premise application needed to be integrated with cloud, the integration is done using SOA Suite, reducing the development time due to the use of templates. Also, MFT handles all kinds of secure file exchange reducing the cost for having and managing multiple FTP servers. The same templates are used for other customers too reducing further our development time and delivering quality product.
What needs improvement?
For REST support, the product internally converts to a SOAP WSDL format, and I would like to see the product only work to REST standards. It would be nice if we could rename a SOA composite feature and have pre-built templates with best practises implemented.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using it for the last seven years, and 12c for the last 10 months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have encountered no issues with its stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It’s a scalable application.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have never used any other product.
How was the initial setup?
For trying out a developer edition, the installation was easy unlike previous versions. The automatic upgrade from 11g to 12c was not painful.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented it on our own.
What other advice do I have?
You should use the new MFT, templates, REST features, and cloud adapters to get the best out of it.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Project and IT Architecture Manager at a security firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Using OSB, we can have now a single point of access for all our systems, including legacy solutions. BAM's level of maturity is far below the rest of the product.
Valuable Features
It's a good suite of products designed to implement an SOA architecture. In this sense, OSB is for us the best product in the suite, providing us a tool to integrate our components with a high level of stability that's easy to use.
Improvements to My Organization
Using OSB, we can have now a single point of access for all our systems, including legacy solutions. Using Event Processing, we can manage a high amount of data in real-time, detecting patterns.
Room for Improvement
Indeed BAM needs improvement. Its level of maturity is far below the rest of the product. In version 12c, it's unusable. It doesn't do what it's suppose to do (collect and show KPIs).
Use of Solution
We have been using OSB for three years, BPEL and other products for only one year.
Deployment Issues
There have been no issues deploying it.
Stability Issues
We had issues with BAM. We couldn't get it to work. Right now, we are looking for other solutions, as it's clear for us that in 12c BAM is not usable at all.
Scalability Issues
We've had no issues scaling it for our needs except with BAM.
Customer Service and Technical Support
As with other big software companies, if you don't escalate and put pressure, you are not attended to in time.
Initial Setup
It was medium. The initial setup is not very complex, but you need specific skills to do it right.
Implementation Team
We implemented it using a third-party team of integrators.
Other Solutions Considered
We evaluated Open Source solutions and chose Oracle SOA Suite because it has a lot of products inside and due to the experience of other known companies.
Other Advice
Some products like OSB and BPEL engine can be rated 9/10, but some others like BAM are indeed below 3 or 4/10 due to their immaturity.
My best advice is to be careful with reporting using BAM. If you need real-time reporting, you will have to use other solutions.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Developer at a aerospace/defense firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
JMS integration for reliable messaging is probably the most valuable feature. There's no proper documentation or tutorial for embedding JavaScript.
What is most valuable?
Service orchestration using BPEL and OSB is the feature most used. JMS integration for reliable messaging is probably the most valuable feature.
Pub/Sub is an integration pattern very commonly used. SOA/WebLogic provides easy-to-use JMS services that can be used in BPEL or OSB. This is the only way to guarantee the delivery of messages. Any message that needs guaranteed delivery has to go over JMS.
How has it helped my organization?
The product allows loose coupling between applications. We no longer use point-to-point integration or tightly coupled integration. This provides reusability of services and ease of integration.
What needs improvement?
In the previous 11g release, there wasn't any straightforward support for calling or exposing REST services with JSON payloads. REST support was released with version 12c (12.1.3 to be specific). With this version, a REST adapter was introduced, which can be used for calling REST services or exposing OSB or BPEL as a REST service. Embedded JavaScript inside BPEL was another new feature to help work with REST/JSON services. It was all good, but using them is not very straightforward. There's no proper documentation or tutorial for embedding JavaScript.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this solution for about seven years now. We started with version 11.1.1.4.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
A new deployment or proper deployment takes a lot of time, planning and researching. Once you get your topology right, then scaling the infrastructure is not a big issue. Again, the documentation needs to be more specific about the things you need to keep in mind when starting with a new deployment.
How are customer service and technical support?
I would rate it no more than 2.5/5. This is where they need to really improve the turnaround time. Issues usually take a bit of time to resolve. It's not an ideal scenario if you have a production issue.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have used some parts of TIBCO BusinessWorks before. We did evaluate some other products and looked at Gartner, etc. Based on our experience and customer relations with Oracle, we decided to go with it.
How was the initial setup?
Initial setup in the previous version was quite complex. It has improved a lot in the 12c version. Still, you need to configure quite a few things before you get it right. Some of the things are not easy to configure. Also, there are number of places where configuration is required and that makes it a bit tricky.
What was our ROI?
I will skip ROI. About pricing, if you have a good relationship with Oracle, it helps.
What other advice do I have?
We are happy with the product. If someone is looking to implement it, they should really look to get their infrastructure right before you start implementing services.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Programmer/Analyst at Lidestri Foods
It provides us with an out-of-box EDI solution that allows us to work and trade with all our partners and other companies. There are some performance and reliability issues.
Improvements to My Organization
We primarily use SOA Suite for our B2B and EDI. It's the framework for our B2B activities. It provides us with an out-of-box EDI solution that allows us to work and trade with all our partners and other companies across the world.
Room for Improvement
Granted, we're not on the newest and latest version, but there are some performance and reliability issues with the SOA Suite. We're constantly having issues. We have some scheduled scripts to run and they bounce around SOA Suite weekly, so there's definitely room for improvement there.
Deployment Issues
It's deployed without issue for us.
Stability Issues
We've had issues surrounding our B2B and BAM process. There's quite a few issues, but that's speaking from a developer's standpoint and not a DBA's or Technical Lead's.
Scalability Issues
We don't have that many functional users using it, so scaling has not been a true issue for us.
Customer Service and Technical Support
We use a third-party hosting solution. A lot of the setup in technical maintenance is all handled through them. I know we've logged several SR's for issues with SOA Suite.
Initial Setup
The initial setup was done by our third-party implementer. The main solution we used it for was obviously for EDI. Going forward, it may change.
Implementation Team
We used a third-party implementer.
Other Advice
Just make sure you work with your technical team and know what current version is and all the patch notes that tie to that.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Updated: October 2024
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