[Oct. 27, 2008 Update:  The latest version of this popular presentation from OpenWorld 2008 is now available for download.  The latest presentation covers Oracle’s upgrade from Release 11i to Release 12. For links to the latest version, see this
article.]


I’m always skeptical of companies that don’t use their own products. 

It’s instructive, then, to look at how Oracle itself uses the E-Business Suite Release 11i.  Our internal Global Single Instance deployment of Oracle Apps isn’t the largest in the world, but it’s definitely in the top 10% in terms of transactional volumes and scale of deployment. 

Oracle Apps GSI Architecture:


Once Exotic Architectures Now Commonplace

Our own deployment incorporates nearly all of the architectural options once considered advanced, such as load-balancing, demilitarized zones, Real Application Clusters, and OracleAS 10g integration.  Cliff Godwin, the Applications Technology Group’s senior vice president and overall architect for the E-Business Suite’s technology stack, has observed that these so-called advanced deployments are now so commonplace that they should be considered mandatory for all enterprise-class Apps architectures.

Consolidating Over 70 Instances into One

The scale of what our internal Apps IT group accomplished is staggering, even to insiders familiar with the details.  Over 70 separate Applications 11i instances were consolidated into a Global Single Instance in roughly four years.  As a result, business functions were pulled into shared service centers for Purchasing, Payables, Order Administration, and so on.  It’s estimated that our cost savings are somewhere between $1 to $2 billion dollars, a figure I personally find mind-boggling.

Quick Statistics

Here are some slightly-outdated statistics from a few years ago about our internal Global Single Instance:
  • 6 TB of data
  • 8 billion rows of data
  • 120 organizations
  • 431 sets of books
  • 340 million GL lines
  • 1.1 million customers
  • 300,000 vendors
  • 40 million AR invoice lines
  • 193,000 projects
System Architecture View

Here are some of the most interesting technical highlights of this deployment:
  • Database Servers:  4 Real Application Cluster (RAC) Sun Fire E25K 36 x 1.2 GHz
  • EMC DMX 300 Disk Array
  • Application Servers:  50+ Linux-based Dell PowerEdge 2650 2 x 3.0 GHz with 6 GB RAM
  • Shared application & techstack filesystem on NetApp Filer 960C
  • F5 BigIP load-balancing and demilitarized zones separating internal and external users
  • OracleAS 10g, Single Sign-On, Oracle Internet Directory, Portal, Discoverer integration
  • Highly-available configuration with full disaster recovery between multiple data centers
For More Information

Bret Fuller’s OpenWorld sessions on lessons learned throughout this project are always standing-room only.  If you can’t make it to this year’s conference, here are some useful links:
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