What is our primary use case?
We use Oracle Fusion Middleware particularly within the telco domain, where it is in extensive use integrating all the order management, number management, publishing, and much more.
How has it helped my organization?
During the time that we were setting up our application server and various apps, we found that the implementation was becoming more and more complex, especially regarding flexibility. Our web services were providing so many different products for different scenarios, and so we decided, "Let's go with the one product which gathers all our needs together."
When we analyzed Oracle Fusion Middleware from that perspective, we found that it would be very useful, because in one product we could have access to all the needed solutions, solving all the problems in one go. That was our main driving criteria.
The other important criteria we had was the ability to deal with the reality of technical knots and difficulties in future, so knowing that we have the support of a brand like Oracle has helped us deal with various challenges. In terms of skill levels, we have quite a lot of guys in the market, and one requirement was that we did not want to become vendor-locked into a support system that would not look after us properly. In this way, Oracle's support system became one of the driving factors that kept us with their product.
What is most valuable?
Fusion Middleware's main feature for me is that it is quite flexible, and, as middleware, it provides us with all sorts of technology and application adapters, which makes it very handy to use.
What needs improvement?
An improvement for Oracle's Fusion Middleware could definitely be found in the SOA component. It's a heavyweight container and, if you ask me, if a product is available as a docker image where we can easily port it in to another Kubernetes platform, that would be perfect. But as for the current situation in the market, nobody is really willing to deploy this on premises.
With traditional software, everyone is looking for something which is portable and works well on a platform like Kubernetes. If Oracle can come with that feature for their SOA, it would be quite useful.
Beyond that, I would expect that the monitoring of various components be more flexible and more detailed. Right now, if you want to do the monitoring of your infrastructure and the services running inside, you will often need to hook up third-party apps and plugins. If Oracle can also achieve cloud-native versions of these kinds of plugins, that would certainly give it more points in my eyes, and it would have a fair share of the market once again.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Oracle Fusion Middleware for close to 12 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable in my experience.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is fantastic.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were originally going to use Red Hat Fuse, but we were not able to implement it for certain reasons at a higher level of requirements.
How was the initial setup?
The setup was easy; we did it ourselves.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The licensing costs are reasonable.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before we went with Oracle, we were looking into Red Hat Fuse — in particular, the Kubernetes version — mainly because of its open source nature. We actually went ahead with it to a certain extent and we found it quite useful, but customers didn't give us any room for it.
Earlier they had said they would also go ahead with it, but there were certain conditions that couldn't be met at a higher level and so we couldn't use Red Hat Fuse. Otherwise, I think it is also a good product.
What other advice do I have?
When deciding whether to use Oracle Fusion Middleware or another solution such as MuleSoft, there are many different factors to consider. However, the main thing I would suggest to look at is where the product fits in with all the scenarios where you will use it. MuleSoft, for example, comes with an API management layer and more all in one, whereas Red Hat Fuse is quite a different product and seems to be lagging behind in this sense.
On the whole, if you are looking for one product that is flexible, easy to use, and versatile for many different scenarios, then I would definitely recommend Oracle Fusion Middleware.
I would rate Oracle Fusion Middleware an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
*Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
