The suite packages Oracle Fusion Middleware products for use in deploying SOA. Already available in a beta version, the developer offering is deemed fully functional by Oracle and serves as a preview of the general release due this fall. It will be accessible for download on the Oracle Technology Network Web site (http://www.oracle.com/technology/index.html).

The Oracle SOA Suite features Oracle's BPEL Process Manager, Web Services Manager, Business Activity Monitoring, Enterprise Service Bus and Business Rules. An abbreviated version, for use with Oracle's own application server, lacks the ESB and Business Rules products because they are already in the application server.

Oracle officials meeting with InfoWorld editors at the company's Redwood Shores, Calif. headquarters this week hailed the single-install capability.

"We have customers using [the components of the suite] together, but you didn't get a single-click install experience," that the new suite features, said David Shaffer, vice president of Oracle Fusion Middleware.

Analysts described Oracle's SOA suite as a way for the company to link different technologies it has acquired with its own software. Web Services Manager, for example, features technology from Oblix whereas BPEL Process Manager has Collaxa code in it.