Oracle Joins the Service Availability Forum™

Portland, Oregon - April 14, 2003 -  The Service Availability Forum™ today announced the addition of Oracle to the list of industry leading communications and computing companies participating in the SAForum. The world’s largest enterprise software company has joined the Forum as a contributing member.

“The support of Oracle and its communications industry expertise is a crucial to the success of the Forum’s efforts,” said Timo Jokiaho, president of the Service Availability Forum. “As the largest enterprise software company in the world, Oracle will be a significant contributor to our continued efforts to deliver specifications that facilitate the faster delivery of cost-effective, carrier-grade communications infrastructure equipment and applications.”

“By joining the Service Availability Forum™, Oracle reinforces its commitment to standardizing the complex integration process inherent in today’s advanced communications systems,” said Lars Wahlstrom, vice president, Communications Industry, Oracle Corporation. “Oracle is proud to join with the Service Availability Forum™ to make the content, communication, and transaction services delivered over today’s evolving packet-based communications network as dependable as the services delivered over the legacy circuit-switched-phone system.”

“Today’s communications systems are cutting edge, but their high development costs and increased time-to-market are cutting too deeply into the budgets of telecom companies,” said Andy Goreing, Senior Director, Development, Oracle Corporation. “Oracle’s dedication to the advancement of open standards in the telecommunications equipment and service industries through its work with the Service Availability Forum™ will result in lower cost, open, standard programming interface specifications between the physical hardware, middleware and applications layer.”

In the past, proprietary technologies were seen as a means of competitive differentiation that help to protect sales margins. But today, the software and telecom industries are beginning to move from a closed proprietary to a more open development environment in order to lower cost and development time. Focus on such issues as enabling on-demand services, eliminating lost connections, and accelerating development of the design and manufacture of equipment can enable communications equipment vendors to focus on innovation and product differentiation.

“The revenue potential for advanced voice and data service has been stunted by difficult implementations and sporadic, incomplete or delayed rollouts,” Timo Jokiaho, president of the Service Availability Forum. “While the future of communications continues to promise excellent opportunities for telecommunications equipment manufacturers, service providers and software vendors to the industry, the recovery from the industry’s significant economic challenges will surely be aided by the development of a standards ecosystem that will help decrease overall development and implementation costs and increase the rate at which new services and capabilities are deployed.”

The Service Availability Forum Platform Interface, now broadly available to OEMs, TEMs and Independent Software Vendors, will facilitate faster and more cost-effective development and deployment of carrier-grade infrastructure equipment and applications. In addition, this open, standards-based interface will enable greater focus of design resources on innovation and product differentiating efforts. The Application Interface Specification, due out in the second quarter of 2003, is aimed at making it easier for application developers and manufacturers to more rapidly develop innovative solutions and integrate them into the global network seamlessly, quickly and cost-efficiently.

About the Service Availability Forum
The Service Availability Forum is the industry body dedicated to developing specifications that facilitate the faster delivery of cost-effective, carrier-grade infrastructure equipment and applications. Created by industry leading communications and computing companies, the Forum’s specifications represent a crucial, missing piece of the COTS ecosystem model – open, carrier-grade platform and middleware interfaces that tie together all standards-based network equipment elements quickly and easily. Service Availability Forum membership offers the opportunity to take part in building the availability specifications for the future. For more information about the Service Availability Forum, visit www.saforum.org.