[June 8, 2007 Update:  Clarified background on the second set of benchmarks]

A few questions have been raised in our new Release 12 Upgrade Forum about the differences in network bandwidth requirements between Release 11i and 12.


The usual disclaimers apply:  benchmark tests are conducted by the Applications Performance Group on reference E-Business Suite environments.  These environments and the selected transactions will not necessarily match up with your own transaction mix, so your mileage will vary.  If you’re in need of precise benchmarks, it’s always best if you perform your own tests with your own mix of transactional data.

Differences Between JInitiator and the native Sun JRE Plug-in

Release 11i currently requires Jinitiator to display Oracle Forms-based content.  Release 12 requires the native Sun Java Runtime Engine (JRE) to display Forms-based content. 

Our Applications Performance Group has published a full whitepaper comparing bandwidth requirements between these two configurations:
Differences in Page Sizes

As for our web-based applications, many of the products changed their pages and flows in Release 12.  There are actually two comparison points: 
  1. 11.5.10.CU2 vs. 11.5.10.CU2 with on the Release 12 ATG Rollup
  2. 11.5.10.CU2 vs. Release 12
Here’s the first comparison of page loads:

Comparison of page load sizes - Part 1: Comparison of page load sizes between Release 11i 11.5.10.CU2 vs. 11.5.10.CU2 with the Release 12 ATG Rollup applied


[June 8, 2007 Update:  The section above is generating a lot of similar questions, perhaps understandably.  Here’s the scoop:  the comparison above shows the additional overhead associated with the new R12 technology stack running the same Applications code.  This

would be the equivalent of running the 11i versions of these screens in Release 12.  Our Applications Performance team is very meticulous about comparing equivalent things.  No “apples to oranges” comparisons for them.

They deemed it important to distinguish between added network bandwidth overhead in Release 12 due to new code at the Apps layer vs. new R12 technology stack requirements.

So, their baseline for network bandwidth was the Release 11i.5.10.CU2 environment.  They then ran benchmark tests with the same Applications code and the new Release 12 ATG components.  Important note:  this configuration isn’t documented, supported, or recommended — it was strictly a Development-only configuration used for benchmarking purposes.  You cannot apply the Release 12 techstack to an E-Business Suite Release 11i environment, and we don’t provide any patches to do so.]

Here’s a thumbnail of the second comparison (click on it to see the full-size version, which is admittedly low resolution):

Thumbnail - Full page load comparison: Thumbnail of table comparing Release 11i and 12 page load sizes


The table above compares a Release 11i environment with a full E-Business Suite Release 12 environment.  The Release 12 environment includes not only the ATG changes but also all of the Apps code changes.  You’ll see that the page sizes did increase, but these increases were mainly due to Apps code changes and user interface changes.  The new OA Framework (Swan) changes accounted for less than 4%.

New Functionality Trumps All

As Apps technologists, it’s tempting for us to get caught up in these types of discussions.  “Look — the login page is X bytes larger!” 

It’s always worth remembering that your end-users don’t really care much about such things, however.  They’re more likely to remark on the fact that the login page now has two new capabilities:  reminding them of their password, and reminding them of their userid, too. 

It’s been my experience that new functionality trumps all, at least in the eyes of your users.  My recommendation:  go ahead and consider these benchmarks as part of your Release 12 evaluations, but more meaningful comparisons will come from spending some quality time with your end-users in assessing and prioritizing the new functional benefits in R12.

Related