Dell Computer will resell the Oracle9i Application Server on both the Windows and Linux platforms, Oracle has announced.
The application server will be pre-certified, tested, and preconfigured to run on Dell's Intel servers, said Oracle's Thomas Kurian, senior vice president of server development and strategy.
"From Oracle's point of view, this validates the continued momentum of our application server technology with the endorsement of a key hardware vendor," Kurian said.
There has been a lot of interest in developing on the Intel platform and using Intel systems in data centres, he said. Oracle's application server is based on J2EE 1.3 technology.
The announcement builds on the relationship established between Dell, Oracle, and Red Hat in May pertaining to the vendors' "Unbreakable Linux" plan, which provides for the three vendors' offerings to serve as an application platform featuring clustering. Dell has already been reselling the Oracle database.
An analyst said the announcement leverages Linux as an easier platform for deploying Oracle products, similar to running them on Unix. Oracle has been geared toward the Unix usage model rather than Windows, said the analyst, Carl Olofson, of IDC.
"Linux represents potentially a simpler way to deploy Oracle software because you don't have the multiple layers of vendors to deal with," as would be required in deploying Microsoft software, Olofson said.
